With the passing of Canada Day, it's a good time to reflect on what this country means to us. Lately, it seems the only way that Canadians can make them feel better about themselves is how they can easily bash American values and culture. While some of these observations may be accurate and others unfair, I don't think we, as Canadians, should even worry about the Americans. True, we live right next door to them and much of our economic and social development is heavily influenced by the Americans; but we are our own country and our own people. 'Maitres chez nous' said former Montreal major Jean Lesage

One thing we must do is not to look towards American heroes as role-models for our people. George Washington did nothing for Canada except draw plans for invading it. John F. Kennedy may have prevented a third world war, but his assassination didn't warrant the necessity to have a street named after him in Montreal. There are some American heroes that are greater than international boundaries and are heroes of the world such as Martin Luther King Jr. but those are far and few between.

Canadians have their own heroes that they could look up to. Canadians have their own heroes that they could look up to. I know it's contradictary to what I said in my first paragraph, but some could argue that our heroes are better than the Americans. But that's not the issue. Canadians have many heroes they can look up to that should be very proud of...but they aren't. Ok, I shouldn't say that, we are proud of those who have paved the way for our country to be great, but some are forgotten. Sure, when I talk names like Terry Fox, Wayne Gretzky, Maurice Richard, Lester B. Pearson, and Neil Young, people recognize them instantly. However others (such as Frederick Banting, Charles Best, Billy Bishop, Bat Masterson, Norman Bethune, and Wilder Penfield), are people that Canadians should know, but when the names are dropped, they're met with a very confused face.

Canada is a great country. Maybe not the best, but does that really matter? Does it matter if we're better than the Americans or the Australians, English, French, Spanish, Russians, Japanese, etc? We should take pride in our values, our symbols, and our beliefs and not concern ourselves with what others think. True, we are all citizens of the world and I we shouldn't be closing ourselves off to new ideas, theories, or thoughts; but we should remember what made us one of the great nations in the world. We should be proud to be Canadian all the time, not just when one of our hockey team is in the Stanley Cup Finals.