Attending the Order of Canada Ceremonies in Vancouver
It's a little bit shocking to attend a ceremony for the highest honour in the country and not see the recipients get them. The reason I didn't see them receive their medals was because they were wrapped up and put in gift bags - huh? As I said, quite a surprise.
Does this say something about Canadians? We know how to party - bunch of yahoos any Saturday night down on Granville and we certainly know how to sing the anthem - ANYBODY miss the Olympics? But do we know how to congratulate ourselves or at least those of us who don't carry a stick (as in hockey)?
While I'm not much on tradition, as in following someone else's, I really do want to see and hear about others' achievements. Today, I wanted to hear what all these fabulous, talented, hard-working Canadians have dedicated their lives to such that it garnered them the top award in the country. It's the equivalent of a knighthood for heaven's sake - let me hear what they did. - not a word from any of the recipients. That part was a shame.
I was the very lucky recipient of a ticket from a benefactor who paid for the whole table (must thank him) so don't get me wrong, it's not like I didn't want to be there or that I want to slag the organizers - no way! The Canadian Club of Vancouver put this on and I really appreciated it.
The only thing I'm saying is that many of us do know who Michael J. Fox is (sadly not in attendance) but do we know who Earl Muldon is? A First Nations master carver of northwest coastal art and an extraordinary leader of the Gitxsan Nation. Shouldn't we ? By all accounts, his efforts and those of the other 19 BC recipients are also tremendous and noteworthy and I really, really would have liked to hear about those achievements.
So what does this say about Canadians ? Jeez, it must take a lot for us to get up and make a speech.
