����We were part of a belated birthday party last night. See, technically Canada celebrated its 134th birthday on July 1 (and can I just say here it's a remarkably well preserved country and doesn't look a day over 125?).

����Major thunderstorms rolled through here that night so Sherman changed the Canada Day potluck party and fireworks display in his meadow to last night instead.

����My contribution to the meal was that well known Canadian dish, nachos.

����Oh, be quiet.

����I KNOW nachos aren't Canadian, eh.

����And as I surveyed the potluck table, laden with everything from potato salad right through to chocolate brownies, I started joking with people about how Canadian all this food was--NOT.

����So then we all tried to figure out a dish that was uniquely Canadian

����The best we could come up with was Poutine and Beaver Tails.

����See, that's the thing about being Canadian. We can't point to a unique cuisine, as the French can. Our two official languages are French and English -- we don't have an unusual language such as say, Swahili--matter of fact, most of us speak English with a North American accent.

����Do we have a distinctive national costume such as those warmongerers, the Dutch? You know, something such as wooden shoes? Um, no, not really.

����So, uh, just who are we?

����Well, as my unindicted co-conspirator and fellow Canuckian CF188 pointed out, a beer company is running a very nationalist series of ads on and off that try to tap into what Canadians feel about being Canadian.

����According to their current ad, Canadians are a railroad buildin', hockey lovin', extremely tolerant and fun loving multicultural tapestry.

����Oh, and according to the ad, we love our beer, eh.

����The first nationalist ad this same company ran was even more interesting, because it defined Canadians mostly as being NOT Americans.

����Oh, and according to the ad we love our beer, eh.

����Me, I'm not sure exactly what it means to be Canadian. I have to agree with the earlier ad that in many ways we define ourselves by who we aren't, which is rather odd when you think about it. I think the more recent ad taps into our icons, our mythical selves, but I don't believe it's a true reflection of who we are.

����All of which goes to say I really don't know what it means to be Canadian, the part that goes beyond being born in a country.

����Last night as the sun was setting and Richard and Mordecai began playing "O Canada", I felt my eyes well up. It caught me by surprise.

����I am Canadian. I'm not sure exactly what that means, and yet it means the world to me.