Happy Canada Day! Great moments from our national birthday, some dark, some funny

Happy Canada Day, everyone!

Our country doesn't look too bad for having done 147 laps around the sun. There's a little wear and tear, to be sure, things that need attention and repair. But Canadians have reason to be proud.

Across Canada, there have been big celebrations. On Parliament Hill, as usual, it was rock stars, folk dancers, First Nations and fireworks. That's what we'll see on the TV news.

And the media will remind us of how lucky we are to live in Canada, as former cabinet minister Barbara McDougall did in the July 1 edition of the Globe and Mail.

"This year on Canada Day, between the picnic and the fireworks and the rock concert and the ice cream cone and walking the dog, I intend to get down on my knees and thank God I live in this country," McDougall writes.

"Yes, I am aware that Canada is no Utopia. I know about poverty and racism and workplace safety and the environment and all the other problems people wrestle with – including, sometimes, even me. On July 2 I will get back on to doing something about those issues where I can.

"But on Canada Day, although I will laugh and celebrate, more important, I will utter a fervent thank you." Many news outlets, including the Globe and CityTV, conjured with the number 147, asking people their favourite things about being Canadian. Multiculturalism, universal health care, hockey, the flag (officially 50 years old next February), Canadian football, maple syrup and five-per-cent beer were toppers.

Official hoopla aside, Canadians are marking the day in thousands of different ways, including exercising their constitutional right to ignore it completely or even dump on it.

It's the personal moments, as much as anything, that mark Canada Day, what former senator Hugh Segal calls Canada's gentle patriotism.

Canada Day as a fashion statement.

We also got some birthday greetings from our American friends.

Not everyone was firing up the barbie and cracking a cold one on Canada Day. In many Prairie communities they were sandbagging and pumping out flood waters.

Politicians were all over social media but the reaction wasn't always positive.

Poor Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, freshly back from rehab, found himself heckled as he and re-election campaign supporters marched in a Canada Day parade.

And no Canada Day would be complete without some gentle ribbing of our American neighbours for their knowledge vacuum on what lurks north of the 49th Parallel. I suspect, though, some of the responses from Buzzfeed's U.S. staff on this map shouldn't be taken too seriously.