It’s a little bit strange. I know I celebrated Canada Day in Canada. I can remember fireworks. And it’s a holiday weekend, which promotes celebration. But I don’t think I really celebrated Canada Day until I left Canada.

In 2006, I heard that there were Canada Day celebrations in Trafalgar Square every year. So I attempted to go, only to find that it was Euro Pride. I had an entirely different (but still awesome and memorable) experience, but still felt more than a little cheated to have missed the Canada Day celebrations that had occurred the day before.

Every year since then, I have descended on Trafalgar Square on Canada Day. I have enjoyed the Tim Hortons donuts, the Sleeman Cream Ale, and a variety of musical acts.

I have met strangers who I hang out with once a year.

No, seriously. I hang out with these people on Canada Day every year. I’ve never met them outside the event, but we’ll greet each other like old friends in a couple of hours:

Your nation’s birthday seems somehow more important when you’re not there. It becomes a chance to connect with your heritage, while enjoying a slightly warm beer and the sounds of a washed up Canadian rock band. Or presumably washed up these days. The last couple of years have started to hit close to home.

So … happy birthday, Canada. And thanks for sending some musicians over here to celebrate it with me.

I’m currently in Canada, which is causing the desire to post Canada-related photos to the blog (and Flickr, and everywhere else). Unfortunately, the only Canada-related photos that currently sit on my hard drive are those that I took on Canada Day in Trafalgar Square back in July.

So here’s one of my favourites from that day:

I call it The Accidental Beer Ad — I was taking a photo of the “hockey player” (aka, man-on-stilts wearing a Habs jersey) who is the focus of the shot, and didn’t realise that there was a beer advertisement in the background until editing later.

Still, it works wonderfully well. Here’s to happy accidents.

Photo is available in higher resolution on Flickr.
By Mr. Topp.
Published under a Creative Commons license for non-commercial use.

Happy Canada Day to all the Canadians (and wanna-be-Canadians, and people-living-in-Canada-who-get-a-day-off) out there.

Here in the UK, we do not get time off for Canada Day – perhaps not unexpectedly – but your intrepid blogger has taken the day off, anyways. Though never one to be overly celebratory regarding the birth of the nation when living in Canada, since arriving in London I have gone out of my way to make sure I celebrate my Canadian-ness every year on July 1st.

Every year, the location is the same — Trafalgar Square, where we celebrate with a mix of odd Canadian music (this year: Canadian throat singing), musical acts waning in popularity (this year: Blue Rodeo), and things that don’t quite fit the Canadian theme (this year: Yoga).

Throw in some low-quality poutine and Sleeman beer, and we have ourselves a party.

We are on a four year run of good Canada Day weather, so fingers crossed that the unpredictable British weather behaves itself once more today. We will be there, rain or shine.

We now leave you with photos from last year’s festivities:

All photo by Mr. Topp, taken on July 1, 2010, at Trafalgar Square, London. Published under a Creative Commons license.