Queen's Park ploto: Dennis Hurd

Our family unit and other Tenth to the Fraser crew are heading out to Queen’s Park today, like so many other Royal City citizens. I have been attending Canada Day in this park almost my whole life. For a long time, I thought of it as a big town party just for me – and a thousand of my closest friends.

The boys and girls from town would stampede from one end of the park to the other (unsupervised – this was the 1980s) looking for flag pins, balloons, cookies, cake and what ever else was on offer. I think that it was in these years that I learned to appreciate the social function of the bagpipes. I am still called to lawful assembly every time I hear them.

In the ‘Our Views’ section on page A6 of the Record for July 1st, 2009, the newspaper staff exhort us to Fly the Maple Leaf with Pride .

It’s far too easy to become cynical and pessimistic about the fate of our nation.

Pick up any newspaper or turn on any TV set, and there’s a headline or a broadcast reminding you about all the things that are going wrong in Canada.

and later

A nation in which we could have chosen to headline this editorial “Why Canada sucks” – and no one would have come after us for it.

Is our country perfect? Far from it. But, flawed as it may be, it’s still the best place to live on the planet.

So wear the red and white with pride today, and fly your flag high.

I think this applies in spades, and particularly with New Westminster. Too much of our airwaves and public forums are dedicated to bad news, hard luck cases and private agendas that feed on the demonization of all that we have here in Canada and this city. How many times have I heard, “Oh, another Downtown Revitalization Project. That will never work.” And now that the actual signs of commercial and civic vitality are bursting forth, where are the naysayers?

One of the founding principles of this website is that our city has much to celebrate and is positioned for an active and positive future. While raising the digital profile of New Westminster, we feel we can provide a positive voice for the Royal City that is badly needed. This is a great town to live in and we are off to celebrate that with our neighbours today in Queen’s Park. Maybe we will see you there.

How will you be celebrating Canada Day?

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