Canada still has room to grow

Watching Canada celebrated and her soldiers mourned at the 100th anniversary of The Battle of Vimy Ridge, a thought occurred to me. In that fateful action, Canada became a country in the eyes of the world. A diverse group of soldiers banded together to win a battle no other country could manage.

Welsh, Irish, English and French soldiers marched alongside Métis and First Nations veterans. Chinese and Japanese men served, too. They fought for Canada, no matter their race or nationalities.

The lesson of that day was largely lost in the intervening years as Japanese veterans were interned in the Second World War and the sons and daughters of aboriginal veterans were hauled to residential schools. The nation building, it appears, is not finished.

It fits a narrative to say Canada stormed Vimy Ridge a fractured collection of nations but came down a country. It isn’t true, but the adversity — real adversity — overcome that day carries a perspective we should all borrow.

When Canada and the independent nations, races, religions and people within it work to the same goal, the world takes notice. Almost anything is possible, when First Nations snipers and British sloggers and French gunners come together.

Those soldiers climbed a hill which saw thousands of men slaughtered. They knew knowing that the options were not win or lose, but live or die. They went anyway.

Take a moment to teach your children or your parents or your friends or your coach about Vimy Ridge and what we should have learned that day, when Canada did what no one else could.

Together.

• • • Congratulations to Brad Karren, who has won every coaching award you can this season. The Lethbridge College Kodiaks women’s basketball coach helped his team to an undefeated season and a national championship. He did this out of little old Lethbridge College, with its shoestring budget and two-year diplomas.

The playing field isn’t level in Canadian college sports but by hook and by crook, Karren keeps winning. He does it without humility but also without due credit. ✦wanted Believe me, nobody

to give Karren provincial and national coach-of-the-year honours, he can be insufferable and is only begrudgingly respected by his college basketball peers.

I love it. I love the chip perched solidly on Karren’s shoulder and the sideways smile he gives when downplaying his team’s chances. I love his pride in taking the Kodiaks all the way, festooned with local players.

Karren pushes every boundary, never apologizing, just winning and winning and winning.

Send your hate mail to The Herald because I’m a fan of Brad Karren. Great job, Coach.