i don't think this is the canada i ordered.

I love being Canadian, but more than simply being Canadian I love the idea of Canada.

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for Canadiana - you know, mounties and lumberjacks and canoes and maple syrup. Farley Mowat and Pierre Burton both have important places on bookshelves in our house. When I was a kid I used to throw on the mocassins and go snowshoeing all afternoon. I grew up soaked in the traditional image of Canada and I loved every minute of it.

As I grew up I realized, of course, that there was more to Canada than the old birchbark sterotypes, but what I learned I loved too. I loved the freedoms we enjoyed, the more-or-less accepting character of our society, the reputation that we held in the world.

It's hard for me to admit that a lot of what I love about Canada is being systematically destroyed - it's harder to believe that my Canada is being dismantled with the tacit consent of the people around me.

Just today I read that the CBC is being forced to make massive cuts because the government refuses to help. Our reputation as international peace keepers has been tarnished by our participation in the invasion of Afghanistan. The natural world that, in my mind at least, makes up such an important part of the Canadian psyche is being sold off piece by piece.

Of course, here in Conservative Alberta to argue such things is treasonous - here, the doctrine of neo-conservatism rules all: all other opinions, values, and beliefs must bow before it.

Like your Canadian Wheat Board? Too bad; ideologically it doesn't fit.

Enjoy your clean drinking water? That's nice; we feel like building a nuclear power plant on top of the aquifer, so you should stock up on Aquafina.

My greatest fear is that the Canada I love will disappear under an avalanche of ideology.

I am no blind patriot - I am quite happy to admit that my country has many faults; that inequality is growing; that the abuse of authority runs rampant; that ecologically we are irresponsible. Canada is not perfect: it never was and probably never will be.

I think that it's time we took back our country - let's take back hockey from the rich and powerful; let's take back our politics from the ideologues; let's take back our farms from the corporations; let's take back our forests from the clear-cutters.

Let's hand opportunity back to our immigrant population; dignity to our first nations; hope for the future to the masses.

"But Stu," you say, "this seems suspicious. What's with all the flag-waving?"

Dear reader, fear not: I have not lost my mind. Yours truly remains as cynical and jaded as ever, but sometimes a guy needs to stand on a soap-box and talk about his country.

I tell you my Canadian brothers and sisters, a line has been drawn in the sand. Will you stand up for the Canada that should be - the Canada of Mowat and Fox and Douglas and Suzuki, or the Canada that is - the Canada of Harper and his minions?

I , for one, will stand with the should-bes.

And when we meet the enemy face to face (as surely we shall) with their tragic lack of personality and neo-con sentiments I will be proud to stand up, look them in their dull, beady eyes and proclaim as Bob and Doug Mackenze did of old,

"Good day, eh?"