On Canada Day, a chance to reflect on the future of the country and also the past
Canada’s National Day gives its 40 million people a chance to celebrate and also to reflect on the country’s past and future.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says a glimpse of the Canadian flag is a reminder of what the country stands for, its aspirations, its progress and also the expectations of its people.
“Wherever our flag flies, it is recognized as a symbol of democracy, freedom and hope,” Trudeau said in a special statement released for Canada Day.
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The Prime Minister said Canada offers a promise of living in an open and welcoming society, but also one “where we recognize historical wrongs and learn from the past to build a better future for all”.
On Canada Day, CBC News has heard reflections from Canadians about what Canada means to them.
‘The country is Canada’
For Claudette Commanda, an Algonquin elder, educator and activist, the land of her ancestors and the many ways in which the people who live on it are at the heart of what Canada is.
“It speaks of our relationship with the land. It speaks of our relationship with our ancestors, our relationship with the Great Spirit. It speaks of our relationship with all that Mother Earth offers,” Commanda said, sharing her thoughts on what Canada means to her.
“It speaks to our relationship with nation, family, friends and it also speaks to the relationship First Nations people have with Canadians.”
For Commanda, “The country is Canada, and Canada is the country – and this is what Canada means to me.”
A safe place
For Hanna Trofimova, Canada has proven to be a safe place.
Watch some of the best moments from a Canada Day celebration at Ottawa’s LeBreton Flats, scored by Cherylyn Toca’s rendition of O Canada.
She and her children ended up here after fleeing the conflict in Ukraine last year. Her husband is still there.
Trofimova is one of them more than 160,000 Ukrainians to arrive here since the start of the war.
This Canada Day, the chance to be with her children away from conflict is something to celebrate.
“It means health, friendship, security, seeing my kids smile and going to school,” Trofimova told CBC News Network from Hamilton, Ontario, where she helps other Ukrainians who have arrived here.
“To me it means, ‘Thank you, Canada.'”
Hope for sunny days ahead
Amid clear and sunny weather in Vancouver on Saturday, several Canada Day revelers expressed their hopes for good fortune for the country.
Abdel Mohamed, 16, immigrated to Canada from Egypt more than a decade ago.
Feeling a lot of division in Canada lately, Mohamed said he thought Canada Day was an opportunity for people to come together and express “how much we love this country”.
His cheerful demeanor was matched by a smiling Barry Harkin, who spent time with visitors from Ireland on Saturday.
“My hope for Canada is to have a good time,” said 27-year-old Harkin, who came to Canada in 2021.
Waiting for family to join
Angelica Revina, 36, and her 37-year-old husband, Victor, have been in Canada for five years now. They came here from the Philippines.
On Saturday, they both became citizens at a ceremony in Winnipeg.
A growing number of family members have made the journey, Angelica Revina explains. Her uncle was the first to make the move and her aunt joined him. Next came her brother, before she and her husband did the same.
“Canada is a very beautiful country,” Revina said.
She hopes that her parents will be able to come and live with them here in the near future.
A new step in a new life
In Ottawa, Rana Salama would become a Canadian citizen on Saturday along with her five children.
“I was waiting for this moment,” says Salama, whose family moved here from Kuwait four years ago and have felt welcome in their new home ever since.
“Welcome to our Canadian family,” said Suzanne Carrière, Canada’s first Indigenous citizenship judge, after presiding over the oath of citizenship for 17 new Canadians at a Canada Day celebration at LeBreton Flats in Ottawa.
On a Canadian day when they were about to take an oath of citizenship, Salama thought about the future her children will have.
“They’re Canadian now, they can do whatever they want, they can fulfill their dreams,” Salama told CBC News Network.
A changing feeling
Sergio Luna’s 15 years in Canada have been eventful since she came here from Colombia. He is now a citizen.
But as he learned more about the country’s history and relationship with the indigenous people, his feelings about Canada Day have changed.
“The first couple [Canada Days]I was excited, but now I don’t know what to think,” Luna, 29, told CBC News.
“It’s a painful day. You want to see where we’re going…I don’t really see the idea of things being fixed.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shares his Canada Day message ahead of celebrations across the country.
