All my life, however, I�ve traveled to and had extended stays in all parts of this country. From the time I left home to go to college, I�ve had a deep sense of wanderlust. For the longest time, I have felt that I didn�t belong anywhere, that I really didn�t have a home. Even home didn�t feel like home. Then, while in Italy four years ago, I realized that my country was my home. As romantic as Italy was, I always felt like a foreigner. Even though I�m always received extremely well by my sponsors in such places as The Philippines and South America I�m always extremely conscious of being a Canadian and I probably brag about it way too much.

My home is my country.

I�d like to show my home to Girlofmydreams. I�d like to take her from coast to coast and show her my Canada. I�d like her to meet the people I�ve met and to see the places I�ve seen � from top to bottom.

I�d like to show her the place I came from. We�d walk through the forest that used to be my backyard, where I got lost with Danny Primeau when I was seven years old. I�d show her the tree that my father planted in 1969 in front of the house that he built with his bare hands and that now provides cover for the whole yard. We�d go down to the river, that river that�s lined with miles of beaches and watch the boats the way I used to as a boy.

I�d love to take her into Algonquin Park and we could live out of a tent for a week and she could see the wild flowers along the Nippissing River. We could float on Catfish Lake after a rain in our canoe and we could listen to the loons and watch the bears and their cubs swim across the lake and we�d feel suspended in mid air because the lake is like a mirror reflecting the violet sunset.

Then I�d take her to Ottawa and in winter we�d skate down the Rideau Canal, like I used to when I was studying there, all the way to the Chateau Laurier. We�d go to the Byward Market that�s changed so much since I left that town. And we�d spend a warm sweet night at the Lord Elgin (assuming it hasn�t turned into a dump.)

I�d take her to meet my wacky French Canadian family along the St. Lawrence River, north of Quebec City, where she�d, quite rightly, be treated like a queen. I�d take her through the puddles near St. Helene and she could meet my sweet Mimi. We�d drive through the �cantons� and stop in the auberges and shop at the antiquitaires along the fleuve. We�d party at the lac and make love in the tall sweet smelling hay in the meadow.

Then I�d take her to Saskatchewan where I started my career. We�d sit in Wascana Park and feed the geese and we�d rent a canoe and paddle along the lake. I�d take her to meet my best friend in his glass blowing studio. Then we�d go to Winnipeg where I spent eighteen years of my life freezing my ass off. And we�d take the river walk from Osborne Village to the Forks Market where the two major rivers of the region meet. And I�d proudly introduce her to all my friends there.

And then I�d take her to Alberta, where the flat, flat prairie buts up to that wall called the Rockies. And we�d go pick wild flowers in the foothills. And we�d drive into Calgary from the north at night and as we�d come over the ridge at the bend in the Bow River the entire city would explode in front of us like a million fireworks.

There are so many places I�d like to show her including Niagara, Toronto, the Maritimes but especially, I�d like to take Girlifmydreams to my favorite place in the world�Montreal. I�d like her to bask in the FEEL of that place. I want to walk with her through the streets of Le Vieux Quartier, La rue St. Paul, the galleries. We could sit on the steps of Notre Dame or to hear a symphony concert there. We�d walk along La Rue St. Catherine to Peel St. where we�d sit at a sidewalk caf� and sip on Pernod. Then we�d go up to the top of Mont Royal and gaze out at the city below us.

I�d show her my home and then I�d happily leave it all to be with her in the place she loves so much.

It�s a sublime fantasy and it�ll probably stay that way�

Arc