Happy Canada Day Eve!

I have developed a tradition every summer: missing Canada Day.  It has not been deliberate, but I have often had commitments elsewhere.  Last year, I was in Budapest for a workshop.  This year, I am headed to Ithaca for my daughter's orientation/registration.  It is for three days, and then we are back for the rest of the summer before she leaves us for good.  I will be back in Canada and out of the US for American Independence Day, but I will be celebrating it at the Ambassador's Residence.  Which means I guess I will be in the US for the Fourth of July.

I actually am sorry that I am not around for Canada Day.  Whether we partake of the festivities or not, it is a good day to celebrate all that is is good about Canada.  Sure, I whine here from time to time about various flaws (Canada's parliament seems irrelevant to me, bags of milk, etc.), but we have had a great twelve years in this very friendly, very vibrant, often very cold place.  Indeed, this year, I saw more of Canada than in another other with my ski trips book talks in Waterloo, Sunshine Village Calgary and Whistler Vancouver along with the ISA in Toronto.  I got to testify in front of that very irrelevant Parliament, something that I never did in the US (a much bigger pond of IR experts).  To paraphrase the great Chico Escuela: Canada has been very, very good to me.

Have a very fun, maple-filled Canada Day!