On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Canadians are asked to pause and remember the thousands of men and women who sacrificed their lives fighting for freedom and democracy during the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Afghanistan conflict and
My friend Julie works for the company that helped build http://ddaytovictory.ca. I quite like it, and wanted to share it before 11/11/11. On the website, users follow the Allies, tracing their path from Normandy to Berlin on an interactive map interface, and exploring the key events
Happy Thankgiving!.
Eight years ago this month, I wrote about drug addition and Vancouver's Insite clinic. Let's revisit that entry... September 15, 2003 @ 21:38 Today marked the official opening of North America's first legal safe-injection site at 139 East Hastings St. in Vancouver, B.C. It will be staffed by 16
[via Reddit]
We lost Jack Layton this morning. He wrote this letter to us when he knew the end was near. Dear Friends, Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful,
24/7 Wall St. has named "The Happiest Countries in the World". Canada finished in second place. Canada scores extremely well in the majority of metrics used to calculate “well-being.” The country has the tenth greatest life expectancy of all OECD countries. Furthermore, 88% of people in Canada report being
I should play more tennis. I really like playing tennis and I almost never play. Does anyone want to play this summer? Speaking of tennis, in July of 2009 I wrote about Canada's male singles tennis failure. Here's a snippet. Canada's inability to produce a single excellent men's singles tennis
Late last night, Arcade Fire upset Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga, Eminem and Katy Perry to win the most prestigious Grammy Award, for album of the year. Most people, it seems, hadn't heard of Arcade Fire. In fact, a website is collecting America's response to Arcade Fire's big win. You've got
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved,
I'm watching a bit of the Bills game. It's here in Toronto, so the broadcasters just went through the obligatory "Canadians in the NFL" segment. That got me wondering, how many Canadians are playing in the NFL today? Surprisingly few, it seems... Cory Greenwood, KC, Kingston, ON Vaughn Martin, SD,
On Canada Day, 2007, I listed what I believed to be the top 100 Canadian songs of all time. It was a 1.5 month endeavour to assemble that list, and I was pretty proud of it. A new book by Bob Mersereau has reignited this great debate. Bob lists
Most of us in Canada have the day off today. It's a Civic Holiday, or as I like to call it, Contrived Summer Holiday. Essentially, with a whole summer between Canada Day and Labour Day, we needed a summer holiday. The first Monday of August sounded good, and most provinces
Happy Birthday, Canada, you're 143 years young today. Over the past 7.5 years I've written quite a bit about you. All of those posts can be found at http://www.torontomike.com/o_canada/. But here are a few of my favourites, in the order I wrote them. Vimy
American musicians re-recorded We Are The World to raise money for Haiti and now we have a Canadian response. The collective is called Young Artists for Haiti and they've recorded K'naan's Wavin' Flag. Here are the soloists: K'naanNelly FurtadoSam RobertsAvril LavignePierre BouvierTyler ConnollyKardinal OffishallJully BlackLIGHTSDeryck WhibleySerena RyderJacob HoggardEmily HainesHawksley WorkmanDrakeChin
It's hard to believe it was less than a week ago that I wrote Own The Podium Should Have Under Promised and Over Delivered. It had become apparent that our total medal count was going to be much lower than the United States' and we were going to fall short
I'm willing to bet the vast majority of people reading this entry will be watching Canada face the United States tonight in Olympic hockey action. The puck drops at 7:35pm ET and I can't wait. In this clip from NBC, Tom Brokaw explains the relationship between Canada and the
John Babcock, Canada’s last known First World War veteran, has died. John Babcock was 109 years old. John Babcock was ready to fight in the Great War so we can live in a country where the great national stress is a shootout victory over Switzerland in Olympic men's hockey.
On Friday night at 7pm, CBC, CTV and Global Television will air "Canada for Haiti", a fundraiser to support earthquake relief for Haiti. The one-hour, commercial-free event will also be streamed online at the networks' websites and broadcast on CBC Radio Two. Joining hosts Cheryl Hickey, Ben Mulroney and George
What was Pepsi thinking? That's what I want to know. I work in marketing. I'm shocked Pepsi's "Cheer Nation" campaign got off the drawing board. I totally understand why Pepsi would want to associate their beverage with our national game, that's just smart business sense, but asking us to abandon
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Canadians are asked to pause and remember the thousands of men and women who sacrificed their lives fighting for freedom and democracy during the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Afghanistan conflict and
For the life of me, I can't remember who sent me the "Buy Canadian" email this morning. I think it was Mike from Lowville, please correct me if I'm wrong... I got the instant message while balancing four burning issues. I thought it was a valid point and worthy of
As a teen, I played a lot of tennis. I used to follow tennis pretty closely, rooting for John McEnroe then Boris Becker. I always held out hope Canada could develop a top notch mens singles player. We never did. Canada's inability to produce a single excellent men's singles tennis
In 2000, a certain beer company launched an ad entitled "The Rant". You may have seen it. It starred Jeff Douglas as Joe, a proud Canadian with something to say. Here's the ad. On July 1, 2000, I was at Molson Park for an Edgefest when Jeff Douglas actually delivered
Happy Birthday, Canada, you're 142 years young today. Over the past 6.5 years I've written quite a bit about you. All of those posts can be found at http://www.torontomike.com/o_canada/. But here are a few of my favourites, in the order I wrote them. Vimy
