sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½

We are the land and so we come to each other from far away. The eastern slope has maple leaves, the crash of wave on new found land.

I returned to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, arriving in Halifax from England on Feb. 15, 1960. In those days, one had to wait five years before becoming a Canadian. On Feb.

A year or two ago, something came up about Bobby Gimby’s Ca-na-da song and I asked my children (I have five) if they knew it and only one remembers. She was seven years old at the time and she said we sang it at school and all the kids loved it.

I am a fifth-generation descendant of John and Jane Weir, who settled on the Nation River, about two miles west of Spencerville, Ont., in 1840, and whose family in time became renowned as farmers and skilled stonemasons.

The Centennial Era — what a watershed era for my family.

In 2016, a new connecter Coombs-Parksville rail trail was created in celebration of the 130th anniversary of the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway, which was originally a business venture of Robert Dunsmuir.

Last year, I took the position of CEO at the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce. At the time I thought this was an out-of-the-box move, but after discovering the following connection, I’m thinking it may be in my genes.

Growing up I always thought, when I thought about it all, that my ancestry was Canadian/English/Scottish. Those were the relatives I knew, my parents and grandparents.

Cougar Annie was my great-grandmother. Ada Annie Jordan was born on June 19, 1888, in Colfax, California to an English military parents.

Of my six great grandparents I know of, five were born in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ before 1867 and the sixth was born in Scotland but moved to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ when he was five years old in 1845, so I have deep roots in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ that sprouted well before Confederation.