I LOVE Canada. I will not hold it in anymore. I have Canadian pride. You guys are awesome. Great politics, you take care of the least of yours, you elect aboriginal peoples & immigrants into leadership, you have an incredible landscape far more epic than ours, and you still have territories and forts.

So imagine my delight when I saw Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Vancouver parked near the studio, in the brown waters of the Willamette! My family and I took a tour this morning. Awesome. I love that there were an equal amount of female officers to males, I didn’t see ANY ladies on the U.S. ships parked behind HMCS Vancouver.

To express my love, here are the lyrics to Canada’s unofficial national anthem, The Maple Leaf Forever:

O, land of blue unending skies,
Mountains strong and sparkling snow,
A scent of freedom in the wind,
O’er the emerald fields below.

To thee we brought our hopes, our dreams,
For thee we stand together,
Our land of peace, where proudly flies,
The Maple Leaf forever.

Chorus:
Long may it wave, and grace our own,
Blue skies and stormy weather,
Within my heart, above my home,
The Maple Leaf forever!

From East and West, our heroes came,
Through icy fields and frozen bays,
Who conquered fear, and cold, and hate,
And their ancient wisdom says:

Protect the weak, defend your rights,
And build this land together,
Above which shine the Northern Lights,
And the Maple Leaf forever!

Alright that’s my spiel. I’ve got lots more love for you where that came from, Canada. We may have a future together in your incredible Vancouver.

On weekends perhaps I’ll spin up to NWT in a twin otter: