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SIMPSON: We celebrate Canada’s natural beauty by trashing it. Seems legit.

It’s OK that once a year, we dig around in the clearance bin for a Tragically Hip CD and crank it up in our truck. But let’s put the wrapper in the garbage bin, shall we?
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It’s a summer ritual like no other.

Around the country, millions of people wrapped in flags cram together on July 1st.

We paint our faces.. We listen to music. We eat. We drink. We ride carnival rides. And quite often, we puke (especially if done in that order).

Where do we hold these annual celebrations? Well, in a nod to our nation’s natural beauty, we hold these patriotic parties in our parks, on our beaches and in and around our places of government.

And we leave them all trashed.

I might be going out on a limb here, but I’m pretty sure there’s a better way to celebrate the fact that we live in the most beautiful country on Earth than by trashing the place.

Yet, there are those across Canada who either disagree with that statement, or simply just don’t care.

In Toronto, a Canada Day waterfront festival was overshadowed by garbage, as workers just could not keep up with garbage piling in cans or strewn on the ground. A massive clean up of Lake Ontario’s shoreline was expected to begin Monday.

In Regina, Canada 150 brought in over 30,000 people. They, of course left lots of trash for volunteers and staff, who worked for days to get Wascana Park back in prime condition.

In Ottawa, it took days to clean up garbage bins that were left overflowing by those who were able to get food before lining up to enter Parliament Hill.

And it wasn’t any better here in Surrey.

Before I go on, let me say that the City of Surrey always ensures that our local venues are returned to pristine condition after events.

Many people – including volunteers – work countless hours to put on fantastic events and it’s amazing to see how quickly celebrations like Canada Day are set up and torn down.

But did you drive by Cloverdale’s Bill Reid Millennium Amphitheatre on Sunday? If you did, you might have noticed it looked like someone threw a hand grenade into a landfill.

It was bad – and not just on the grounds. Garbage was spread all along 64th Avenue, blocks away. Despite the hard working people who were out there for days picking it up, trash was still everywhere on Monday morning.

I wasn’t the only one who picked up on the irony of celebrating your nation’s natural beauty by leaving it trashed.

Cloverdale’s Kathie Lee told the Now-Leader the amount of garbage left behind after Saturday’s Canada Day celebration was mind boggling.

“We take our country, city and community for granted,” she said, adding that a newcomer was the one who truly drove the point home.

She was walking early Monday morning and saw a neighbour picking up garbage from the weekend’s festivities.

When passing, she commented to him how people don’t care and just throw their garbage anywhere.

She thanked him for what he was doing. His reply?

“It is my privilege,” Lee said the man told her.

From the man’s appearance and speech, it was clear he wasn’t from Canada, she added.

“We should learn from him,” Lee said. “Here is a man thinking it was his privilege to pick up after others who are lazy and who disregard public property.”

It’s wonderful that we are all so proud to live in Canada.

And maybe it’s not such a bad thing that once a year, we dig around in the Wal-Mart clearance bin for a Tragically Hip CD and crank it up in our truck to let our neighbours know just how proud we are.

But next year, let’s put the wrapper in the garbage bin, shall we?

Beau Simpson is editor of the Now-Leader. He can be reached at beau.simpson@surreynowleader.com.