What we're celebrating on Canada Day

There's little doubt that the tenor of Canada Day has changed in recent years.

People celebrate last year in Ottawa. Canada Day is a reminder not only of how divided we are, but also of what can be achieved when we find the collective will to strive to be better.

Sure, for some, the holiday remains an easygoing summer celebration accompanied by concerts in the park, barbecues, community gatherings, fireworks and a little maple leaf swagger.

But for a growing group of others, expressions of national pride and satisfaction are more subdued, tempered by acknowledgements of this country's historic failures and contemporary shortcomings.

For others still, any celebration of Canada is entirely unthinkable, so shameful and broken a place our country has seemed to become.

To be sure, realistic self-appraisal is healthy. Seeking to atone and do better is laudable. There is always - in nation-building as in personal development-the imperative to strive for better.

Still, as more than 40 million of us observe the 157th anniversary of Confederation, in a world troubled by wars and inequity, a planet threatened by climate change, established orders challenged by mass migration, Canada has much for which to be grateful.