“As Canada turns 150, what does being Canadian mean to me? ”   When I asked myself this question a phrase immediately came to me: A mari usque ad mare:  From sea to sea…….De l’océan à l’océan…… the motto of Canada. I had learned this motto early in my school days and was impressed by it, and it has stayed with me over my 70 years plus when I first heard it. And it has even more meaning for me than ever. It is said, we need to say now: “A mari usque ad maria” – from sea to seas – to include the Arctic ocean.  And rightly so.

     Since 1967 we have had a new lyric version of this motto – “This land is my land -This land is your land –  From Bonavista to Vancouver Island!”  and there are probably other takes on the same theme around.

I am a descendant of the Acadian people who crossed the Atlantic ocean to come and find their future in this new land – Canada or la nouvelle France – which Voltaire later quipped sarcastically as “Quelques arpents de neige” – a few acres of snow! My French ancestors (on my mother’s side, we date back to 1651; on my father’s side to 1740) named the fertile land in the west coast of Nova Scotia and further to include New Brunswick and Île S. Jean (PEI)  as  “L’Acadie”,

There they related and worked with the Indigenous tribes -such as the  Mi’kmaq and Maliseet who inhabited this region of Nouvelle France. Thus, the name les Acadiens,  and later after the Deportation tragedy of 1755 when many found their way to Louisiana, there were called “Cajuns”.

So, being born and raised on the Atlantic coast is part of my DNA.  Both of my parents were born in villages  near the Atlantic.  I, with my 8 siblings, were brought up in Halifax, with its important harbor looking eastward to the wide open ocean.

I knew only notionally from my geography lessons that there was another ocean – the Pacific – that was the western boundary of this great land, and that another ocean – the Arctic – to the north was part of the richness of the vast territory of Canada. 

Never did I think when I was younger that I would ever see these other oceans. But the song about “les Acadiens errants” (the wandering Acadians- because of the Expulsion in the 1750’s) had a resonance in my Acadian soul. I wanted to see more of this country.  And it so happened, that I met the Jesuits at St. Mary’s University and felt called to be part of this community who even had men in India!   

I didn’t know this phrase in 1959 when I joined the Jesuits –  “join the Jesuits and see the world”! – but this is what happened to this young and naive Acadien from the Maritimes.  It was a new adventure for me, to leave my family and familiar maritime landscape and head west. Family friends said to my parents that “they were sorry to hear that I was leaving the church and joining the Jesuits”! But off I went to Ontario in central Canada with three other Nova Scotians. And that was the beginning of my journey, of this “Acadien errant”,  throughout this country and in many parts of our world. 

It would take me more than this short article to recount all the experiences across Canada and in all the countries that I have been blessed to visit, live and work in for shorter and longer periods.  I have at least visited and even lived for a time in all the provinces of Canada – a mari usque ad mare- except our northwest territories and the Arctic. I have been able to experience the lush landscapes and varied cultures of North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia…. Always to come back to this country and nation of ours with even more gratitude for this vast multi-cultural, multi-lingual mosaic that we call Canada.

 I share this personal travel history (which is part of my “graced history) deliberately to highlight my “home and native land” – “ma patrie”  – this amazing country and nation we call Canada. I have tried in all my travel history not to compare countries and cultures, but to appreciate and drink in the richness, the abundance that I found in all the countries I visited.  But for all the countries that form the tapestry of my history, I would not, for one instance, exchange one of these countries for Canada.

Our nation is far from perfect. We have to admit our failures of the past in our treatment of our own indigenous peoples, in how we treated the Japanese after World War II, our refusal of Jewish refugees during this same war, our conduct toward the black community in Nova Scotia….and on we could go.   But there is still the prevailing sense that we have become a land, a nation, a people that is open, generous and welcoming, where the freedom and rights of each and all, where the deepest human and spiritual values are still held in high esteem.

This is  my / our  Canada – our home and native land – terre de nos aïeux!  If you want reasons to celebrate these 150 years, watch this delightful video:

 Happy 150th  Canada –  Bonne Fête Mon cher Canada