True North, Strong and Free: A Canada Day Reflection
A personal Canada Day reflection on the land, people, and freedoms that continue to shape our nation.
Happy Canada Day!
By: Deacon Mike Walsh ©
“O Canada”
On July 1st, Canada celebrates the 159th anniversary of Confederation, and we have much to be thankful for.
When Canadians sing our national anthem, one of the most familiar lines is: “The True North strong and free.” Those words have become part of our national identity. They speak not only of geography, but of character, history, and gratitude.
I am old enough to remember when our anthem was “God Save the Queen”.
It turns out that O Canada was first performed in 1880 and became our official national anthem in 1980. Over time, its words have helped express something many Canadians feel deeply: that this country is a gift, and that living here is a blessing we should never take for granted.
The True North
Canada: From Sea to Sea to Sea
Canada stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward to the Arctic Ocean. We often describe this as a country that reaches from sea to sea to sea.
Across that vast landscape, each region contributes something beautiful to the Canadian story:
Atlantic Canada offers rugged coastlines, fishing villages, East Coast music, and a gift of hospitality that makes visitors feel like family.
Quebec reminds us of our French foundations, with its rich language, faith, culture, architecture, and history.
Ontario, where I have spent most of my life, is where we find industry, education, and commerce, but also a place of extraordinary beauty—from Niagara Falls to the colours of autumn.
The Prairie Provinces have long been one of Canada’s great engines of prosperity. Saskatchewan and Manitoba help feed the country and much of the world through their rich agricultural lands.
Alberta was where I lived for about six years with my new wife in Calgary. Two twenty-somethings welcoming our son into the world—a true native Albertan—and it was simply a great place to live. Alberta is known as the energy hub of Canada and has helped power homes, businesses, and industries across the nation for generations.
Further west, British Columbia brings us to the Pacific Ocean, where mountains, forests, and coastline meet in breathtaking beauty.
And then there is the North: vast, demanding, beautiful, and unlike anywhere else. Life there requires resilience, respect for nature, and a deep awareness of the elements. The North reminds us that Canada is not only a country of cities and highways, but of silence, wilderness, and wonder.
Canada is defined by these differences. Like any family, we sometimes disagree.
Yet somehow, across regions, languages, cultures, and histories, we continue to belong to one another.
Canada: Strong and Free
Royal Canadian Navy Bangor-class minesweeper on D-Day, June 1944
When I think of Canada as a strong country, I think of my parents’ generation and, in a special way, my dad.
When World War II broke out he was too young to join the Navy, but he did anyway. As a young man, he found himself serving on a small Canadian minesweeper on D-Day, helping clear the way for Canadians and other Allied forces to land on the beaches of Normandy.
Canada was a much smaller country then, especially in population, but when the moment came, Canadians answered the call.
That has been true throughout our history. Canadians have served in war, peacekeeping, public service, hospitals, schools, churches, farms, factories, and neighbourhoods. The strength of Canada has never been only in its institutions or resources. It has been in the quiet courage of ordinary people willing to serve something larger than themselves.
Strength is not always loud. Sometimes it looks like sacrifice. Sometimes it looks like duty. Sometimes it looks like showing up when others need you.
Family, Faith, and Community remain Canada's greatest gifts.
But of these words—True North, strong, and free—the one we may take most for granted may be free.
Because of people like my father, and countless others who served, supported them, and sacrificed, we are privileged to live in a country where we can worship God, pursue our dreams, raise our families, speak our minds, and live without fear.
Most of history tells us that freedom is not the normal condition of human life. Even today, many people around the world do not enjoy the freedoms we often assume will always be there.
That is why freedom may be the gift for which we should be most grateful—and the one we must be most careful to protect.
Freedom is not simply the ability to do whatever we want.
True freedom carries responsibility: to care for our neighbours, to respect the dignity of others, to defend the vulnerable, and to build a country worthy of the gifts we have received.
Happy Birthday Canada!
So as we celebrate Canada’s birthday, may we give thanks for this beautiful country: for its land, its people, its history, and its promise.
May we never forget the blessing of living in the True North, strong and free.
Go in Peace —and Glorify the Lord by your Life.
Deacon Mike Walsh serves the Archdiocese of Toronto, leads the Daily TV Mass ministry, and writes about faith, service, hope, and discipleship.
Canada strong and free
So grateful to live in Northern Ontario
In 2000, I was privileged to go with my parents to Holland and Belgium as my dad served in WW11. The Dutch people hold the Canadians in such high esteem because they liberated them from the Germans. It was humbling and I so wish our youth could go there and be part of that celebration. The school children maintain the gravesites and the graveyards are just beautiful! The dead are just boys and it was heartbreaking to read the messages on the graves from family at home. I thank God for all who have fought for our country and those early settlers who worked so hard to prosper and be free. Above all, I thank God that I was born here!!