Canada is my home. I live in Central Canada, by the shores of the easternmost Great Lake. There are five of them in North America, dotted with large cities. Some are on the American side, but the most important one is Greater Toronto, and I live in the south of that in Hamilton (for now).

There’s always complaints about how things are going, but we’re living in an excellent life. If you can retain your focus and work hard, there is hope for you in the “Golden Horseshoe” (the other name for Greater Toronto). For the skilled and the educated, Toronto is a paradise. Six-figure salaries are easily possible, and everything in the world is for sale in Downtown Toronto, from Porsches to Gucci purses. You truly can have it all.

Beautiful people live in Toronto. An internet commentator once admitted that Toronto’s women were more beautiful than Washington, D.C.’s, where he was from. Even in a slumhole like Hamilton, there’s the occasional looker who hasn’t managed to escape to the more prosperous parts of the greater city.

Canada has a vibrant, rich culture. It punches above its weight on the world scene. Merger with the American colossus would do nothing to help us. Look at the American South: it has no voices on television or in the movies, only songs emanating from Nashville. It is a cultural colony of California and the Greater North.

Canada writes its own stories, but has full access to the American panoply. The combination is irresistible. The CBC network plays an important part in this. CTV and Global are largely replayers of American-born fare, getting it on the cheap and reaping the advertising dollars. But the CBC invests in original shows based from coast to coast.

Although there is a slight tendency for the government to be a bit domineering against the Canadian people, there is lots of freedom in the country still. You can do your own thing and fulfill your own destiny. There is applause if you succeed. From the music group Rush to the fiction writer Linwood Barclay, every Canadian who succeeds is celebrated for his impact on the world scene.

And there’s health care. You can be a poor, struggling writer and still get your heart transplant operation performed. You can work minimum wage and still get top-of-the-line cancer treatments. America doesn’t have this and may never have it, despite the rattling of the cages by the political Left. In America, money talks and the poor walk. In Canada there is elite care for everyone.

Canadians cherish their nation. Very few were tempted by Donald Trump’s offers to become “the 51st State.” They know Americans would just loot our waters and poison our landscape. They’d be like the carpetbaggers in the South after the Civil War. Although America has a large influence in the Canadian economy, there is still significant independence and strength and resilience left in the Dominion (what Winston Churchill called “the Great Dominion.”)

Much of the banking and technological and cultural heart of the country is located in Toronto. There is a bit of a jealousy and hatred toward big T.O. on behalf of the other regions of the country. But only Toronto is an alpha-class World City. Only Toronto has the heft to compete on the international scene against the Japanese and the Americans. Mississauga may be a heavily occupied landscape of U.S. corporate subsidiaries, but Downtown Toronto remains free of the grip.

I’m proud to be a Canadian. This is a country that does everything right. We fought against the Nazis way before the Americans ever roused themselves, and we were right there in the thick of things during the Cold War. (We skipped Vietnam, but not everybody believed the Domino Theory of nations falling to the Communist menace.)

Canada has two main cultures: English and French. Other than Switzerland and Belgium, there’s not many countries which can claim a continuing biculturalism. The French portion spices up the nation. Montreal and Quebec City form an important part of the Canadian federation. In Parliament, in Ottawa, questions are often addressed in French and leading politicians, even Anglos, usually know how to speak the language.

Canada is worth a visit. Some of the most livable places on the globe are right here. Disputes are settled amicably in Canada. If you contrast this to the American experience during their Civil War, things never got that heated between French and English.

There are 40 million Canadians and they are an important part of the world. Let’s hope Canada can always remember itself and not forget what’s good about the country. It could be a hell of a lot worse than it is, let me assure you of that.