O Canada (revisited)

O, Canada,
(my best friend's native land)
your beauty beckons,
your nature calms
your Whistler's haunting melodies
hypnotically inspire.

O, Canada, I salute you.
Your royal history
(do-right proud)
is saddled on a mount.
Your provinces
(quite rightly)
bow and curtsy to the Queen.

O, Canada, I thank you.
You gave me my wife
and her uncle gave a grateful nation
a heritage of Haida art
unhidden and unsurpassed.

You gave me my favorite fish and chippery,
a cuppa tea at four,
a game of sticks and puck on ice
There's all that and much more.

You gave us Tim Horton
(his donuts and joe).
My northernmost neighbor,
I'm hoping you know
how much I value the shared border
that unites our two nations in peace.

O, Canada, from coast to coast
you give your people cause to boast.
You're a country that won't quit.

From Lake Louise to the St. Lawrence Seaway
from a port called Prince Rupert
to an island called Prince Edward.
From New Westminster to New Brunswick,
from Spanish Banks to Hudson's Bay.

From the Rockies to the prairies
to the Great Lakes to the sea,
you're really quite amazing, eh?
I love how you say "Z."

* My wife Wendy was born in and (though raised by missionary parents in Mexico City) graduated from John Oliver High School in Vancouver. Her mum's oldest sister was married to the legendary Haida carver and sculptor Bill Reid. Bill's The Spirit of Haida Gwaii sculpture is prominently displayed at the Vancouver Airport and at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. (Oh, and by the way, the best fish and chips anywhere is a little hole-in-the-wall mom-and-pop place. It's called Barb's near the Inner Harbor in Victoria!)