CHEECH AND CHONG, JUST SAY SO LONG

It's not an exhaustive list, but here are some things Canada needs,
followed by something that this country does not need.

Canada needs to return to its budding glory as a world leader in
aerospace technology. When the Avro Arrow was cancelled in the 1950s,
many of our best aerospace engineers and technicians followed the jobs
to the U.S. It has not significantly turned around yet.

In spite of that, Canada remains more influential than its meagre
population would suggest; we just haven't yet fully committed to it.

Canada also needs shipbuilding enterprise on both coasts. Halifax or
Lunenberg or St. John's and Esquimalt or North Vancouver - whichever,
wherever, we should be building our own icebreakers, freighters,
ferries and military vessels. We have the venues, the expertise to
start, the need (longest coastline in the world) and the opportunity
to not only use our own products, but to sell them to the world.

Canada also needs a continued sense of self-worth. It has been growing
of late, for which we can thank the 2010 Olympics, international
success of our athletes, comedians, actors and musicians, financial
stability in the midst of a global economic crisis, and worldwide
humanitarian aid - again, well out of proportion to our population.
There's more, but here's something we do not need: Americans offering
us unsolicited advice.

We don't need Hilary Clinton telling us what our military obligations
are in Afghanistan. We made our commitment, we've lived up to it, we
stated our case and we're leaving next year.

We don't need any of the Kennedys cruising through Canada telling us
how to run our environmental affairs. We can manage our own forests
and our own waterways and our own air, our own policies, procedures
and priorities. If we're imperfect in that or anything else, it's for
us to correct.

But thanks for dropping by. Bye.

And we don't need a couple of stoners (Tommy Chong, who is originally
from Edmonton, and American Cheech Marin), addicts or not, holding
what can only be described as a "bitchfest" to gripe about Canada's
rules regarding marijuana.

That anyone would come here and insult our national leader shows a
gross lack of respect for a sovereign nation of which he is not a
part. Marin was a guest for a comedy show in Montreal but he used the
opportunity to insult the entire country. Whether we took offence or
not (and many wouldn't) doesn't change the fact that it was crass and
disrespectful.

Canadians have long been criticized of having low self-esteem.

Accepting such rudeness indicates the criticism is
just.

What gives them the right?

It's a secondary matter whether or not you like Prime Minister Stephen
Harper. The office itself demands a certain amount of respect and if
Canadians want to breach that standard, that's our right because we're
citizens and we vote and we live here.

But for anyone else to insult our leaders, our politics, our laws, our
culture, well, that we don't need.

Here's a map. Go home.