HAPPY CANADA DAY FROM COUGARS CORNER

              

                             

                      HAPPY  CANADA DAY

                               

SAM:               Well, Felina.  Happy Canada Day, Lass.

 

FELINA:          Thank you, Dear. 

 

SAM:               And how old is the nation of your birth?

 

FELINA:          She’s 141, Sam.

 

SAM:               I’ve got to hand it to her.  She sure holds her age well.

 

FELINA:          Thank you, Dear.

 

SAM:               And she’s a big country.

 

FELINA:          At 3,800,000 square miles, the second largest in the world

 

SAM:               With a population density of about four humans per square mile, that also makes Canada the fourth most sparsely humanly settled nation on the planet, as well.

 

FELINA:          True enough, Dear.  But that’s not to mean we’re not of some consequence on the human world stage.

 

SAM:               Nope, Felina.  It certainly does not.  According to what I’ve read, of all of the world's producers of natural gas, copper, zinc, nickel, aluminum, and gold, Canada is in the top five.

 

FELINA:          Canada is also the world’s fifth largest energy producer, the eighth largest world trader and has the ninth largest economy.  And for all of that, it also has what is believed to be the world’s smallest jail, in Rodney, Ontario. It is only 24.3 square meters or about 270 square feet.

 

SAM:               Which suggests either an extremely low crime rate or lots of very small perpetrators, eh, Felina?

 

FELINA:          Thank you, Dear.  We are also rated on the United Nations Human Development Index as the best nation in the world in which to live.

 

SAM:               Jeez Louise, Felina.  Who’d have thought, eh?

 

FELINA:          Yes, Dear, and despite the recent controversy, we do NOT own the North Pole.  No nation does.  It is, however, believed that Santa Claus is Canadian. 

 

SAM:               So much to be proud of and yet for so long, you’ve lived in the shadow of your southern neighbor.

 

FELINA:          Only in American eyes, Sam.  During World War II and the Holocaust, the concentration camps had places where the possessions of gassed Jews were sorted out from their clothes by Jews not yet selected for extermination.  Some of this jewelry and gold was funneled back into the inmate population and to the resistance movement in camps like Treblinka.  Those sorting places were called Canada Houses.

 

SAM:               Happy Canada Day, Felina.

 

FELINA:         Thank you, Sam.  And on that note, gentle readers?  Until next time, take care, stay well and may the Creator bless and keep you.

 

To learn more about my country, please start here.  Felina