My Canada Day Story
I often take my home country for granted, that is quite true. I complain and gripe about excessive taxes, about how our city council is run in Vancouver, lament “no-fun Vancouver” issues, and at times ponder how things could be better.
Then I get the occasional reality check. The most recent one came in a parking lot of a super market here in Vancouver just a few days ago. I was about to go into the store to buy celery, club soda, and hot dog buns for some picnic style dining (hey, I like to put cheez whiz on celery sticks) when a young woman stopped me in the parking lot. She was seeking donations for something.
And again, in my very “developed world” way, I was wary as there’s been stories of people, in parking lots, soliciting fakey donations. Initially I brushed her off, but she was young (seemed around 16), appeared Filipino, and was so darned polite. I struck up a conversation with her, and found out a bit more.
She had emigrated to Canada just over a year ago. I asked the usual local-to-immigrant questions, how do you like it here, what’s your favourite food here, are you going to school, and more. Then at one point, I said “what’s your favourite thing about Canada and Vancouver?” As she struggled with English, her answer caught me by surprise.
“My favourite thing is all your people in, you know… uniforms?”
“Do you mean the army — armed forces? Police?” I asked.
“Well, sure the police and army people but I mean the other people in uniforms who help you!” She said enthusiastically.
I wasn't quite sure what she meant, then I figured it out. “Do you mean people like fire fighters, ambulance drivers and the like?”
“Yes! They are fantastic! They are always around to help you so quickly! And so nicely! So fast. So fast…”
In my head, I wasn't quite sure what to think — did she have some kind of tragedy in Canada where she had to see firefighters and ambulance drivers? I asked her more questions about it, and it became quite clear: her favourite thing was how well our society takes care of people who need help. How fast we do it. How many we have to do it. For her, it was something completely new and apparently not something she grew up with.
It is definitely something we Canadians take completely for granted.
As we continued to talk, I got something out her that she was reluctant to share (my guess is she didn’t want personal sympathy): her family was victims of Typhoon Haiyan. She reluctantly told me her family had lost nearly everything in the destruction, and extended family over her in Canada helped her and some of her family to emigrate to Canada for good.
She again said that in her old home country, when people need help — medical, with fire, with crime, it’s very hard to get it in many circumstances, or at least get it in time to actually be “help”. Here in Canada, she was constantly amazed at how much our society as a whole takes care of each other.
And you know what? She’s exactly right. Very few (if any at all!) countries on this planet take care of their citizens better, or in a more timely manner. We're truly blessed in this regard. Especially when you consider how wide and vast Canada really is, with cities and towns few and far between.
When my Dad had a heart attack (and died) a year and a half ago, he was living in a very remote location of mid-Ontario by the Ottawa River. The nearest village was at least 20 minutes away normal driving, and the nearest town about 35 minutes away. Though no amount of emergency response could have saved his life (save, perhaps it happening while he was in a hospital or ambulance), it took emergency services less than 15 minutes to reach him after the 911 call was made.
And before that horrible day in my own life, I still got many extra years to have my Dad around, thanks to the other times his life was saved by emergency care (he had a stroke in his late 40s, and had other emergency health conditions in his 60s); My Dad lived until he was 70 because we have such fantastic health care services (and emergency services) in Canada, I truly believe that.
This, among many things, is a reason why Canada is a fantastic place to be born, to be a citizen of, and to live in.
The charity the young woman was asking for donations to? I am ashamed to say on my way home, I lost the scrap of paper I wrote the website address on; she was down to her last two brochures, and asked if I really didn’t need one, could she keep it to give to someone else. She showed me her registered Govt of Canada charity official forms and wrote down both the charity number and the charity website, and asked me to check it before I donated (so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a scam — I sure hope not!). I spent last evening trying to find it online but its name is not coming back to me.
In the meantime, I found a fantastic micro-charity doing great work in Central America and the Philippines for medical work: The Ascenta Foundation. We'll be making a small donation.
If you're Canadian, on Canada Day, I encourage you to think about just how fantastic we have it, and consider making a donation to a charitable group that helps people who have it a lot less fortunate than we do.
