A wonderful Canada Day yesterday! We took my Mum in the afternoon to the celebrations in Victoria to hear my brother band play for part of the festivities. When their set ended, he announced from the bandstand that not only was it Canada's Birthday, it was also Mum's, and that although she wasn't quite as old as Canada, at 81, she was pushing it. The band and the crowd sang Happy Birthday to her as her tears rolled. Happy Birthday Mum! Happy Birthday Canada!

Times have changed since I was young. I have no recollection of celebrating the 1st of July in Canada with flag waving and fireworks prior to the seventies; that was what the Americans did for their Fourth of July holiday. Prior to Trudeau, Dominion Day, as it was called then, was just a welcome day off from work.

On the westcoast of Canada, at least, the flags and fireworks always came out for Victoria Day, the 24th of May, and when we were small, we would line the street for the Victoria Day Parade, donned in our sailor suits and best dresses, waving Red Ensigns and Union Jacks. It seems weird to think of it now.

I do recall that my cousin, when we about 14 or 15, created quite a stir locally one 24th of May. He'd found a large Russian Flag and flew the "Hammer and Sickle" beside the Red Ensign and the Union Jack, from the second story balcony of my grandmother's house, which was on the May Day (24th) parade route. This was sometime during the early sixties at the height of the cold war. We thought it was a hoot, but my grandmother and others were not amused.