Dear editor,
Last week, for the first time in a long time, I felt proud to be a Canadian. I was actually a little teary-eyed as I watched Justin Trudeau and his cabinet walk to Rideau Hall to be sworn in to lead our nation towards what certainly promises to be a better future.
I am not politically minded. Not in the least. In fact, if I had to have a political debate with anyone, I would likely be laughed out of the room. I would never argue that Justin Trudeau is the answer to all that ails our country. But I do know that whatever happens from here, he has already succeeded in bringing this country together in a way that the previous government failed miserably to do.
My family and I lived “away” for many years. Not just in another town, or another province, but in another country. In that time, all we longed for was to come home, and of course that meant Cape Breton. But the truth is, the farther you are from home, the bigger “home” becomes. We longed not just for Cape Breton, but for Canada. We taught our children about Canada, and what a great nation it was; how lucky we were to be from such a place! We often talked about how we wished everyone could live out of the country for a time. Doing so brought, to us, a new appreciation for the many things that made Canada special; an appreciation for things often taken for granted, like health care, freedom of speech and trust in our government to represent our true nature to the world. People loved Canadians abroad; we were unfailingly proud to tell people where we were from.
All of that, however, had subtly and slowly changed over the last number of years. So much of that sense of pride was lost; so much of that “specialness” quietly faded away. But for the first time in a long time, as I watched our new prime minister joyfully greet the everyday people who gave him the power to make us whole again, I felt hope. As I watched him walk with cabinet ministers who were not only diverse but seemingly wholly qualified to do the jobs to which they were assigned, I felt pride. Hope and pride...two truly Canadian emotions that have been absent for many Canadians for a very long time.
Only time will tell if Prime Minister Trudeau will live up to the hype. But for now, I feel like I live in Canada once again.
Diane Stewart
Strathlorne
