Readers share their most Canadian possessions ahead of Canada Day | Canada Voices

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[“Penny Headrick, Oakville, Ont.“],
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[“It eventually spent time in my brother’s student house in Toronto, then in my parents’ lake house in Grand Bend, and now it illuminates the new porch of our family cottage in the Ottawa Valley.”],
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[“Roxanne Davies, Squamish, B.C.“],
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[“It was a magical summer that put Canada on the map. I smile every time I hear the catchy theme song. That summer Canadians were very proud of our beautiful country and what we can offer to the world.”],
[“Let us hold onto that emotional energy as we forge a new relationship with the neighbour in our basement!”]
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[“Tony Wegscheidler, Hammonds Plains, N.S.“],
[“Once on a fishing trip when I was a kid, I mentioned that I’d love to be able to buy a Canadian flag – not a readily available item in Pentiction circa 1970-ish. It just so happened my dad’s best fishing buddy was a recently retired custodian and had a flag he’d sell me for $25, a lot of money for a kid in that day.”]
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[“I understood even at that age that it was a serious historical memento, and something entirely different from just another Canadian maple leaf flag. I hung it on the walls of my university residences, and I still have it after more than half a century.”],
[“It’s a reminder of my youth and youthful optimism, and the (to me) much more simple and innocent world I lived in. It’s also a reminder of what was a very different and seemingly less-fractious and more optimistic, looking-to-the-future Canada.”]
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[“Catherine Gignac, Whitney, Ont.“],
[“This craft was created by accomplished carver and Algonquin traditional fire-keeper Dan Bowers. Canoeing has always been a part of our family’s lives since my husband, Wayne, and I met while studying geology in university.”]
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[“Our two children grew up camping and canoeing on flatwater and whitewater across Canada, including the Snake River in Yukon. We have land and a cottage near Whitney, which is where we met Bowers, who sourced all his materials for the canoe locally – birchbark, pine tar, pine slats.”]
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[“Thaidra Sloane, Whitehorse“],
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[“We have an active lifestyle here in Whitehorse, and Barker and my first dog, Annie, both enjoy mountain biking, hiking, trail running and camping, all easy to access from the wilderness near our home.”],
[“Sled dogs were critical to transportation in Canada’s north, used by First Nations people, and later settlers, postal workers, gold rush miners and recreational racers.”]
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[“Richard Williams, Toronto“],
[“I got my Canadian passport in October last year after my 10-year anniversary of being in Canada. I moved here from Dubai as a student at 18 and attended university for four years, followed by working here and finding my future partner.”]
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[“The passport isn’t just a symbol of where I live but who I have become, and I am very grateful for this country.”]
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[“Susan Saunders, Fredericton“],
[“Snowshoes are inextricably tied with my childhood in rural New Brunswick, and I have vivid memories of donning an old pair to go out into the fields or get to the road. I could feel the presence of my ancestors who had built a life in an unforgiving land in the early 1700s.”]
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[“I got my own snowshoes a few years ago and I opted for the same beavertail design as I had grown up with – wooden frames and leather straps. Nostalgia runs deep, I guess.”],
[“When I am snowshoeing, I feel like I am reaching back to a time long gone when people didn’t snowshoe for enjoyment but as a necessity. I feel privileged to have grown up in a place where I could strap on my snowshoes and head out into a place of beauty and peace.”]
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[“Mark Sakai, Richmond, B.C.“],
[“My collection of Blue Rodeo concert ticket stubs from 1997 to 2016, before tickets went digital. I’ve seen them many times in the past nine years, but the ‘tickets’ are on my phone. They are the quintessential Canadian band, and nothing makes me smile as a proud Canadian like attending one of their shows.”]
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[“Monica Poisson, Windsor, Ont.“],
[“This clock was a wedding gift to my paternal grandparents in 1926. My grandmother was a first generation Italian immigrant and my grandfather came to Canada in his teens, according to the family history we know.”],
[“When I inherited it after my mother died, it had not worked for over 20 years. But now the Big Ben clock gallery in Windsor has restored it beautifully, and I can once again hear its comforting sound.”]
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[“Ted Yao, Toronto“],
[“In 2012, I drew a maple leaf and turtle shell on the logo for Toronto Public Library’s Centennial branch and walked around the city with a Sharpie and asked anyone I met who seemed bi- or multilingual to write “Happy Birthday, Canada” in another tongue. I got the responses you see.”]
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[“My goal was to get a sample of every language for which the public library system offers books in foreign languages and if you give it a thought, Toronto is the best place in the world for such a project. This is a work in progress and I hope to get Amharic, Somali and Tigrigna, as well as Indigenous languages spoken in Canada.”]
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“title”: “A flag from Camp Julien”,
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[“Brodie Doyle, Ottawa“],
[“My most Canadian possession is a Canadian flag that was flown at Camp Julien in Kabul, Afghanistan, during my second tour there in 2005 as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces.”]
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[“I found the flag, as well as two others near the end of our tour that were destined to be destroyed, and gave the other two flags to close friends I worked with during our rotation.”],
[“I don’t have a place to fly it yet, but plan to have a flag pole specifically to raise it during the week of Remembrance in November at my home when I retire.”]
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[“Sandra Shores, Edmonton“],
[“One of my most treasured Canadian possessions is a rather heavy and still very beautiful silver-plated vase used in dining cars on the Canadian Pacific Railway until sometime in the 1970s. It was a wedding present from a cherished friend of my mother’s, who came from a historically prominent Edmonton family.”]
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[“The vase reflects the graciousness of rail travel and its historic importance to the establishment and development of the country, and my husband and I have always delighted in it.”]
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[“Margaret St. John Boekhoff, Alexandria, Ont.“],
[“My late uncle took this chunk of rock that had to be removed to make way for new steel supports. It brings to mind my grandmother, who first taught me about Canada’s history and made politics and law subjects to be studied and considered important in our lives.”]
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[“This stone played a small part in traditions that are central to our democracy, like free and fair elections, accountability to citizens and open debate, which all happen in the very building this stone helped uphold. It reminds me that our government buildings have not been destroyed by bombs, nor overrun by coups.”],
[“I am unbelievably lucky to live here. It’s solid, but you can see its different elements and colours combine to make it so. Like Canada. I think it’s beautiful.”]
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[“Nadya Lukey, Nepean, Ont.“],
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[“This item is special to me as it has been a constant in my life and was acquired during a significant event in Canadian history. I also feel it was meant to be, since I was born the following year on the 26th of February, which makes me a Pisces.”]
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[“Eva Taylor, Oakville, Ont.“],
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[“The colours are still as vivid, and the weaving so well crafted, not a thread has loosened in all that time. The shawl is representative of proud French and Acadian cultural traditions of hand weaving, which produced Canadian goods of exceptional quality and durability, traditions that persist in New Brunswick to this day.”],
[“The shawl is a lovely memento of my parents’ long lasting marriage. Perhaps it’s also emblematic of Canada – tightly interwoven, rich in tradition and made to last.”]
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