Six Ottawans tackle the question: What makes us Canadian?
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HELEN SOUTER, McKellar Park
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I'm a daughter of two immigrants, Italian and Ukrainian. They left their country to find a better life, and they did. They found each other. They found each other here at the Y (YMCA). My dad was playing a guitar with a few of his paisani, and she said, 'I like you. Let's dance.'
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Being Canadian is all I know, because I have the influence of them and why they left. Mom was Ukrainian, in a detention camp in Germany. And my dad, there was nothing there for him.
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I married military. We went all over the place in Canada, and we went to Washington, D.C. for a four-year diplomatic posting, before 9/11. They made me an honorary American. I was proud to be a Canadian, representing Canada.
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When my son married a Chinese girl, we went to China for their second wedding ceremony. Her father said to us, 'When Jill told us she was going to marry Andrew, we were worried that he was going to be a loud American.' But they were very happy to see that he was a kind, gentle person.
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It's a scary time with the threat of being part of (the U.S.) and losing what we have — our identity, our health care. But this recent phenomenon, with everyone sort of elbows up, I think it's going to stay.
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I've always talked to my family, saying 'Be proud of where you're from. If you're not, then obviously that's a problem.'
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I've met different people in different cultures all over, and most of them are pretty happy where they're from. Obviously, at the end of the day, we have to make sure that we take care of ourselves, but taking care of our people, too, is important to me. I think sometimes that's where we stray from the big picture of making sure that everyone is doing well where you are, and not adding extra things in to make life more difficult for people.
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I've learned a lot from my concussion patients that have nothing. They've lost their jobs, they've lost what they can do, and yet I have one girl who continues to donate to special causes. I think it's incredible that she goes out and still gives money that she doesn't really even have to support herself, to help someone else's life. Those people are really inspirational to me.
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