Maple soup

[rich]

There is a Ewan McColl version - he co-wrote it but you know I prefer U2!!!!
This is a surprising and rare version from Dublin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBGgv...eature=related

[rich]

The place I have always been happiest in Canada is Montreal.
People are cool with a certain je ne sais quoi. Restaurants and fashion are the tops. And the night life is wonderful. The music scene has always been special. So it could be time for some Leonard Cohen - it could be closing time....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVt6v...eature=channel

[rich]

But still time to include these fabulous Montrealers...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB6-s...eature=related

[weedonald]

And when you wake in the morning here in BC, and look out the window you could see this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgOpINNR3yg
In front garden of my son's house in Comox on Vancouver Island

[Sporran]

Donald Sutherland is one of my favourite Canadian actors. I know he was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, and I believe he was brought up in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. But does anybody know whereabouts in Sutherland his ancestors came from? And could he possibly have any Caithness connections?

[canuck]

I found this site by accident. It might bring back a few memories, although it doesn't speak to any Caithness connections.

http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/Savi...-proud-of.aspx

[Tristan]

I found this site by accident. It might bring back a few memories, although it doesn't speak to any Caithness connections.

http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/Savi...-proud-of.aspx

Fantastic site...will have to look for one about some of our Canadian heros like Terry Fox who ran a marathon a day for 143 days in his Marathon of hope and he did it all with one leg too.

[Tristan]

Found this at http://www.c4vct.com/kym/humor/yacan.htm and how true it is.

You Know You're a Canadian When...

You stand in "line-ups" at the movie, not lines.

You're not offended by the term "Homo Milk".

You understand the sentence, "Could you please pass me a serviette, I just spilled my poutine."

You eat chocolate bars instead of candy bars.

You drink pop, not soda.

You know what it means to be on pogey.

You know that a mickey and 2-4's mean "Party at the camp, eh!"

You can drink legally while still a teen.

You talk about the weather with strangers and friends alike.

You don't know or care about the fuss with Cuba, it's just a cheap place to travel with good cigars and no Americans.

When there is a social problem, you turn to your government to fix it instead of telling them to stay out of it.

You're not sure if the leader of your nation has EVER had sex and you really don't want to know if he has!

You get milk in bags as well as cartons and plastic jugs.

Pike is a type of fish, not some part of a highway.

You drive on a highway, not a freeway.

You know what a Robertson screwdriver is.

You have Canadian Tire money in your kitchen drawers.

You know that Thrills are something to chew and "taste like soap."

You know that Mounties "don't always look like that."

You dismiss all beers under 6% as "for children and the elderly."

You know that the Friendly Giant isn't a vegetable product line.

You know that Casey and Finnegan are not a Celtic musical group.

You participated in "Participaction."

You have an Inuit carving by your bedside with the rationale, "What's good enough protection for the Prime Minister is good enough for me."

You wonder why there isn't a 5 dollar coin yet.

Unlike any international assasin/terrorist/spy in the world, you don't possess a Canadian passport.

You use a red pen on your non-Canadian textbooks and fill in the missing 'u's from labor, honor, and color.

You know the French equivalents of "free", "prize", and "no sugar added", thanks to your extensive education in bilingual cereal packaging.

You are excited whenever an American television show mentions Canada.

You make a mental note to talk about it at work the next day.

You can do all the hand actions to Sharon, Lois and Bram's "Skin-a-ma-rinky-dinky-doo" opus.

You can eat more than one maple sugar candy without feeling nauseous.

You were mad when "The Beachcombers" were taken off the air.

You know what a toque is.

You have some memento of Doug and Bob.

You know Toronto is not a province.

You never miss "Coaches Corner."

Back bacon and Kraft Dinner are two of your favorites food groups.

[Big Jean]

Excellent site canuck . Maple syrup and Tim Hortons ... mmm .

How about this one for Canadian heroes .

http://deena.ca/

There are many people listed here. Just scroll down, and select the category you want to view .

[Big Jean]

Good one from you also, Tristan, and definitely all true !!!

[Tristan]

An interesting link, thanks for that. Funny how it doesn't include the Canadian hero David Hornell who flew out of Wick on U-boat patrol. He posthumously earned the Victoria Cross. http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub...ations/hornell. Nor does it include Silken Laumann who rowed in the Olympics even though she broke her leg in a rowing accident, was told her Olympic career was over, yet rowed 3 weeks later.

[Tristan]

This thread started with a quote about what is a Canadian...I think this may be a better one.
Canadians have been so busy explaining to the Americans that we aren't British, and to the British that we aren't Americans that we haven't had time to become Canadians.
Helen Gordon McPherson

Quickly followed by any and all of these quotes...

http://www.indefual.net/canada/quotes.html here a number of interesting quotes about Canada from some notable people including Churchill
Canadian Quotes

Here is a collection of quotes about Canada that are amusing, entertaining, patriotic, or thought provoking. My hope is that you enjoy reading them, and they make you feel pride. We are going to start off nice and easy with quotes from celebrities.
Celebrities and Icons

Canadians . . . have no south of which they can speak warmly.
Priit J. Vesilind, National Geographic

When they said Canada, I thought it was up in the mountains somewhere.
Marilyn Monroe, actress

I had no idea Canada could be so much fun
Bruce Willis, actor

I wouldn't let someone take my Canadian citizenship from me for anything
Jim Kale of the Guess Who

They must be doing something right up there in Canada.
Hugh Hefner, Playboy Founder

Comedians

After all, we fought the Yanks in 1812 and kicked them the hell out of our country -- but not with blanks
Farley Mowat (1921-)

The US is our trading partner, our neighbour, our ally and our friend... and sometimes we'd like to give them such a smack!
Rick Mercer, "This Hour Has 22 Minutes"

Politicians and other criminals

Prime Ministers and Premires

For me, pepper, I put it on my plate.
Jean Chrétien

If I say I'll do something, I make sure I do it... There will not be a promise that I will make in the campaign that I will not keep!
Jean Chrétien

I'm not going to play politics on the floor of the House of Commons.
John Turner

I am so excited about Canadians ruling the world.
John Diefenbaker

I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.
John Diefenbaker (From the Canadian Bill of Rights, July 1, 1960.)

We shall be Canadians first, foremost, and always, and our policies will be decided in Canada and not dictated by any other country.
John G. Diefenbaker

Our hopes are high. Our faith in the people is great. Our courage is strong. And our dreams for this beautiful country will never die.
Pierre Trudeau

Americans should never underestimate the constant pressure on Canada which the mere presence of the United States has produced. We're different people from you and we're different people because of you. Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is effected by every twitch and grunt. It should not therefore be expected that this kind of nation, this Canada, should project itself as a mirror image of the United States.
Pierre Trudeau

Canada is a country whose main exports are hockey players and cold fronts. Our main imports are baseball players and acid rain.
Pierre Trudeau

I just think you Westerners should take over this country if you are so smart.
Pierre Trudeau

[Tristan]

I just think you Westerners should take over this country if you are so smart.
Pierre Trudeau

We peer so suspiciously at each other that we cannot see that we Canadians are standing on the mountaintop of human wealth, freedom and privilege.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau

Whether we live together in confidence and cohesion; with more faith and pride in ourselves and less self-doubt and hesitation; strong in the conviction that the destiny of Canada is to unite, not divide; sharing in cooperation, not in separation or in conflict; respecting our past and welcoming our future.
Lester Pearson

As we enter our centennial year we are still a young nation, very much in the formative stages. Our national condition is still flexible enough that we can make almost anything we wish of our nation. No other country is in a better position than Canada to go ahead with the evolution of a national purpose devoted to all that is good and noble and excellent in the human spirit.
Lester Pearson

We have it all. We have great diversity of people, we have a wonderful land, and we have great possibilities. So all those things combined there's no where else I'd rather be.
Bob Rae
MPs (Female)

'Yes, if I were dead.'
Agnes Macphail (when asked if they would say nice things about her if she were dead)

'I'm no lady. I'm an MP.'
Agnes Macphail

'Patriotism is not dying for one's country, it is living for one's contry. And for humanity. Perhaps that is not as romantic, but it's better.'
Agnes Macphail
Brits and Americans

Canada is the linchpin of the English-speaking world.
Sir Winston Churchill

There are no limits to the majestic future which lies before the mighty expanse of Canada with its virile, aspiring, cultured, and generous-hearted people.
Sir Winston Churchill

I don't even know what street Canada is on.
Al Capone, US ganster

In a world darkened by ethnic conflicts that tear nations apart, Canada stands as a model of how people of different cultures can live and work together in peace, prosperity, and mutual respect.
Bill Clinton

Writers

A Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe.
Pierre Burton, historian

The great themes of Canadian history are as follows: Keeping the Americans out, keeping the French in, and trying to get the Natives to somehow disappear.
Will Ferguson

Many Canadian nationalists harbour the bizarre fear that should we ever reject royalty, we would instantly mutate into Americans, as though the Canadian sense of self is so frail and delicate a bud, that the only thing stopping it from being swallowed whole by the US is an English lady in a funny hat.
Will Ferguson

With or without the Royals, we are not Americans. Nor are we British. Or French. Or Void. We are something else. And the sooner we define this, the better.
Will Ferguson

I read and learned and fretted more about Canada after I left than I ever did while I was home. I absorbed anything I could on topics that ranged from Folklore to history to political manifestos... I ranted and raved and seethed about things beyond my control. In short I acted like a Canadian.
Will Ferguson

Canada is one of the planet's most comfortable, and caring, societies. The United Nations Human Development Index cited the country as the most desirable place in the world to live. This year a World Bank study named Canada the globe's second wealthiest society after Australia.
Time magazine

Anonymous and Others

Give your head a shake. This is the greatest country in the world.
Curtis Sanderson (From the Rant & Roar Forums)

What is a Canadian? A Canadian is a fellow wearing English tweeds, a Hong Kong shirt and Spanish shoes, who sips Brazilian coffee sweetened with Philippine sugar from a Bavarian cup while nibbling Swiss cheese, sitting at a Danish desk over a Persian rug, after coming home in a German car from an Italian movie... and then writes his Member of Parliament with a Japanese ballpoint pen on French paper, demanding that he do something about foreigners taking away our Canadian jobs.
Anonymous

God Bless America, but God help Canada to put up with them!
Anonymous

He shall have dominion also from sea unto sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
Psalm 72

Unclassified

Canada is an interesting place - the rest of the world thinks so, even if Canadians don't.
Terence M. Green

Canadians are the people who learned to live without the bold accents of the natural ego-trippers of other lands.
Marshall McLuhan

Canadians have an abiding interest in surprising those Americans who have historically made little effort to learn about their neighbour to the North.
Peter Jennings

I think every Canadian should have a map of Canada in his or her house. It should be displayed in a place where one can sit and contemplate the wonderful vastness of this land. As Canadians we are continuously groping for an identity and a sense of love for our nation. We grapple with the concept, find it somewhat distasteful and leave it for another day. We find American flag waving, hand over heart while belting out Oh, say, can you see... too much and avoid doing the same. We admire their national spirit, but Canadians are, in contrast, understated. To understand the identity that exists in our hearts think of our sweepingly majestic home, its quiet, serene beauty. A beauty recognizable to us all. We are proud of this nation and of who we are. We just don't say it. It's like the map. It just sits there on the wall displaying the lines of our coasts, the bulk of our waterways, and the breadth of our northern territories. Surveying all of this leaves me in awe. It brings a tear to my eye...O Canada...
Debora O'Neil

It is the task of the rising generation of Canadians to create a new confidence and a new sense of cultural and civic duty in Canada. Unless we achieve some success on this front, and I believe we are beginning to do so, the very real attractions of the vigorous society to the South of us may attract too many of our able people. Then the human resources and skills required to shape and direct a complex industrial economy will simply not be available to us in Canada.
Mitchell Sharp

It is wonderful to feel the grandness of Canada in the raw, not because she is Canada but because she's something sublime that you were born into, some great rugged power that you are a part of.
Emily Carr

Canadians have been so busy explaining to the Americans that we aren't British, and to the British that we aren't Americans that we haven't had time to become Canadians.
Helen Gordon McPherson

Canadian nationalism is a subtle, easily misunderstood but powerful reality, expressed in a way that is not to state directed - something like a beer commercial or the death of a significant Canadian figure.
Paul Kopas

Vive la Canada. This country is not for sale.
Don Sweet

[Tristan]

Vive la Canada. This country is not for sale.
Don Sweet

We are lucky to live in a country as rich as ours. To break it apart would be asinine in the highest degree.
Barry Gerding

We'll explain the appeal of curling to you if you explain the appeal of the National Rifle Association to us.
Andy Barrie

In only a century and a quarter since Confederation, Canadians have shaped out of the North American wilderness one of the most privileged societies on the face of the earth. Ranking among the seven most prosperous nations in the world, Canada is rich not only in the abundance of our resources and the magnificence of our land, but also in the diversity and the character of our people. We have long been known as one of the most tolerant, progressive, innovative, caring and peaceful societies in existence.
The Will of a Nation: Awakening the Canadian Spirit by George Radwanski & Julia Luttrell

When I'm in Canada, I feel this is what the world should be like.
Jane Fonda

Canada is a place of infinite promise. We like the people, and if one ever had to emigrate, this would be the destination, not the U.S.A. The hills, lakes and forests make it a place of peace and repose of the mind, such as one never finds in the U.S.A.
John Maynard Keynes

You Canadians have given us such hope to carry on. We admire your bravery. You are the neighbour of such a rich, powerful country, and yet you don't mind clashing with them. Well, that gives us more confidence.
Pedro Gutierrez

I am deeply moved by the warmth and courage of the Canadian people which I felt so strongly during my recent visit to your country. Your support of the struggle against apartheid restored me in my journey home and reassured me that many just people around the world are with us.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Canada is probably the most free country in the world where a man still has room to breathe, to spread out, to move forward, to move out, an open country with an open frontier Canada has created harmony and cooperation among ethnic groups, and it must take this experience to the world because there is yet to be such an example of harmony and cooperation among ethnic groups.
Valentyn Moroz

The beaver, which has come to represent Canada as the eagle does the United States and the lion Britain, is a flat-tailed, slow-witted, toothy rodent known to bite off it's own testicles or to stand under its own falling trees.
June Callwood

You look at the history -- the aboriginal people welcomed the first settlers here with open arms, fed us and took care of us ... that continues today, we welcome people from all nations to come in and share.
Peter Stoffer

We are tremendously proud of our cultures, heritage and achievements and we will continue to break new ground. I am proud to be a Canadian and I hope you are too.
Philip K. Lee

I always thought of this as God's country.
Jack Granatstein

As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't want to go to any other country. It's good enough here.
Orviel Kruse

If you don't think that your country should come before yourself, you can better serve your country by livin' someplace else.
Stompin' Tom Connors

There are more left-handed Mormon streakers in the West than there are western separatists.
Mel Hurtig

The crisis of Canada today is the combination of economic problems facing us and the increasing impotency of governments that lack either the will or the resources to do much about it. The tragedy of Canada today is that just when we need a country that's pulling together in common cause, we have one that keeps finding new ways to pull itself apart.
Angus Reid

In any world menu, Canada must be considered the vichyssoise of nations, it's cold, half-French, and difficult to stir.
Stuart Keate

Canada has never been a melting-pot; more like a tossed salad.
Arnold Edinborough

It's going to be a great country when they finish unpacking it.
Andrew H. Malcom

For many years Canada has held an obscure place among the countries of the globe. Our borders have been pictured as the abode of perpetual snows, and our people as indifferent, easy-going, indolent. But change is taking place.
Charles R. Tuttle

Canadians, like their historians, have spent too much time remembering conflicts, crises, and failures. They forgot the great, quiet continuity of life in a vast and generous land. A cautious people learns from its past; a sensible people can face its future. Canadians, on the whole, are both.
Desmond Morton

The huge advantage of Canada is its backwardness.
Marshall McLuhan

Canadians don't have a very big political lever, we're nice guys.
Paul Henderson

The spineless pussy willows in Ottawa are actually helping to condition the Canadian public to accept the surrender of our country, which American forces were unable to accomplish in 1776 and 1812.
Paul Hellyer

And, of course, let's not forget the official slogan for Molson's Canadian: 'I Am Canadian'!

[rich]

This just in from the West Coast.

http://www.salon.com/

[Tristan]

An interesting article into the Canadian Political process.
It is encouraging to see one government not trying to spend itself out of a recession - very refreshing and sensible.



My dear American neighbours,

I see the political crisis in Canada has finally made it into the Washington Post's Foreign Briefs column.

So, anticipating a flood of interest from all of you at the dog run in the morning, let me try to give you some idea of what's happening up there.

A few weeks ago, we had an election in Canada, a couple of weeks before yours, actually. A political party known as the Conservatives won.

Well, sort of. They didn't win in the sense that most of you understand winning. I'll get to that in a second.

They also aren't what most of you would consider conservative.

They support what you call socialized medicine, they believe in protecting a Canadian-controlled banking system, they believe in government as a vehicle for transferring wealth between regions, and they've actually muzzled party members who tried to make abortion a campaign issue.

In fact, instead of making his Sunday trip to church a photo opportunity, our Conservative leader refuses to discuss his faith in public. (Like many Americans, he's an evangelical Christian).
Different kettle of fish

So our Conservatives are a bit different from yours. Down here, you'd probably call them Democrats. And fairly liberal ones at that.

But, as I said, they won our last election, which is a pretty low-key affair compared to yours. The campaign lasted a few weeks instead of two years.

What's more, they won with only 37 per cent of the vote. Now, you can do that in Canada because our Parliament has three other political parties: The Liberals (again, pay no attention to the name, they tend to adapt their worldview as needed), the Bloc Québécois (a Quebec party that says it wants to break up the country, but hasn't actually done much about it for many years), and the NDP.

I'm not quite sure how to explain the NDP. The other parties like to call them socialists.

Some of their more doctrinaire members would like the government to nationalize or take a large financial stake in things like banks and manipulate the national economy by spending huge amounts of public money. You know, the sort of thing President George W. Bush has been doing this year.

I know, I know, it's confusing.

Funny old world, isn't it?

So. The Conservatives won our election and formed something called a minority government.

That means the Conservatives can basically be tossed out of office by the opposition parties whenever they feel like it, which usually happens after a year or two. Then there's an election.

This time, though, the opposition parties decided to throw out the government before it really even started governing. But instead of forcing another election, the opposition parties made a deal: they formed a surprise coalition and now they want to take power without consulting voters again.

Americans might have a hard time understanding this sort of thing, but it happens all the time in places like Israel and Italy. Wait, though. Uh, wake up. We're getting to the really interesting part.
The CBC connection

To take over, the opposition parties have to convince our head of state that they can govern effectively. President Bush is your head of state, at least until Barack Obama moves in.

But our head of state isn't elected. It's the Queen. And she's represented up there by someone called a governor general, who is appointed. Voters don't have anything to do with it.

Except for not being elected, a governor general is a lot like your vice-president. Sort of ceremonial. Our governors general travel a lot, cut ribbons, declare holidays for school kids and try to set a good example.

The current office holder, Michaëlle Jean, used to be a CBC reporter. Like me.

Actually, the one before her was once a CBC reporter, too. So were two others in the recent past. In our country, any CBC reporter can dream of becoming head of state.
Letting a journalist decide

Like your vice-president, sometimes a governor general becomes unbelievably important. Right now, for example. Sooner or later, this former TV reporter is going to have to decide who runs Canada.

Now, the Conservatives aren't taking this state of affairs lying down.

They've been talking about shutting down Parliament for a while until they can think of some way to prevent the opposition parties from throwing them out. But they can't just do that. They'd have to convince the Governor General to let them.

It's all very dramatic, you have to admit. Right? Don't you? Hello?

I mean, we Canadians don't have all those big-mouthed cable anchors that you have, but you can imagine what they'd do with a situation like this.
It's the economy

Wait a second. I forgot to explain why all this is happening. Bear with me.

You see, Canada's economy is in trouble. Just like everybody else's.

So when the Conservatives won, most people expected them to turn on the spending taps, the way every other country in the developed world is doing.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper, for some reason, decided not to.

In fact, last week he had his finance minister announce that the government intends to run a surplus in its next budget. Meaning the government intends to take more in taxes from Canadians than it needs to run the country.

(I know President Bush has never run a surplus. But Canadian governments have, every year for more than a decade, even when the supposedly spendy Liberals were in charge.)

Anyway, in the middle of an economic crisis, Harper's plan didn't go over well with the three opposition parties and they saw their chance.

So that's what's happening.

Actually, if you think about it, our prime minister is doing exactly what President Bush keeps saying he'd like to be doing, instead of authorizing another trillion or so every week in new bailouts.

Maybe it's not such a funny old world after all.



from http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/...macdonald.html