Dwight Wilson passed away today. He was 106 years old and he was a veteran of the Great War. That leaves us with one World War 1 veteran, John Babcock. The First World War ended in 1918. That was 89 years ago. That means Dwight Wilson was 17 when the
Thanks to Bob and Doug McKenzie, we Canadians have always been associated with the expression "eh?". Truth be told, I never say "eh" unless I'm intentionally saying it to fulfil the expectations of the stereotype. We're supposed to say it, so I'll say it for effect. I never say it
In the past, I've written twice about Vimy Ridge. Today, on the 90th anniversary of this victory, I'd like to re-post both entries. On December 14, 2002, I wrote the following. If Vimy Ridge was an American success story, Hollywood would be churning out big budget epics on the subject
Yesterday I wrote about songs that reference Canada. I promised I'd share my ten favourite musical references to my home and native land. Here are my top ten with apologies to Stompin' Tom Connors. "Bobcaygeon" by The Tragically Hip - I'm starting this list with Bobcaygeon because it's a village
"Canadian Idiot" is the third song off of Straight Outta Lynwood, Weird Al Yankovic's latest parody album. It is, of course, to the tune of Green Day's "American Idiot" and chock full of the typical Canadian stereotypes, eh. There's no official video, but search for Canadian Idiot on YouTube and
There's some fierce competition for the Lou Marsh Award this year. Usually there is one or maybe two potential winners, but this year there are four. Justin Morneau is the American League MVP, Joe Thornton in the NHL MVP and Steve Nash is the NBA MVP. In any other year,
I like today's editorial cartoon by Patrick Corrigan that appeared in the Toronto Star.
When I had to write my final essay for Michael Bliss' Canadian History course at U of T, choosing a topic was easy. There isn't a figure more intriguing in all of Canadian history than Louis Riel. To steal a line from Wikipedia, "he led two resistance movements against the
As I mentioned earlier in the week, so many brave Canadians have sacrificed everything to preserve our freedoms. If you stop and think about what we asked (and ask) these young soldiers to do, it blows your mind. Back in 2003 I took a closer look at the participation and
Let's talk design for a moment, if that's okay. Did you know there's a Canadian Design Resource? Neither did I until I learned about it earlier today. It's a neat collection of Canadian designs and definitely worth a visit. Here are a few of my favourites. The CSA logo we
The weekend was such a blur, I'm only getting to Saturday's paper now. In honour of Canada Day, the Star listed ten essential Canadian songs. I did something similar last September, listing what I thought were ten essential Canadian tracks. Here's the Toronto Star's list: Huron Carol - Jean de
On March 29, 1867, Queen Victoria signed the British North America Act. This beauty came into effect on July 1 of that year, creating "one dominion under the name of Canada". That was 139 years ago today. Initially there was just Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The Red
To protest our seal murdering policies, Morrissey is taking a stand by refusing to take his tour to Canada. He's also asking all his fans to boycott Canadian goods. In his statement, he compares the act to the Nazi's construction of gas chambers and pins us alongside China as "the
Check out The Prejudice Map. It displays what, according to Google, people in the world are known for. The map tells you Canadians are known for cultural diversity, humility and kindness, liking their beer and being tolerant. Throw in an obsession with hockey and they've pretty much nailed us.
Norfolk Island is an island in the Pacific Ocean between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. Take a peek at their official flag. Does it remind you of anything?
I'm so damn proud of the new music I hear coming from this country. This week I've been heavily spinning the tracks from The New Pornographers' Twin Cinema, Metric's Live It Out and Broken Social Scene's Broken Social Scene. All three albums are fantastic. They're a joy to listen to
When Americans travel in Europe, do they really stitch a Canadian flag into their back pack and pose as Canucks? I've often heard about this and yesterday on "The Simpsons" Lisa did just that before their trip to Italy. Is this practice merely an urban legend or does it actually
Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia. We've got all this space but only 30 million or so people. There's a lot of room to spare. Have you ever wondered what a map of the world would look like if all countries were sized by population?
Few veterans of the First and Second World War are around to share stories about the horrors of war and remind us why so many fought for freedoms we now take for granted. We must never forget these brave souls and we have an obligation to share with our children
On Saturday, BBC Radio2 is is airing part two of their documentary "The Maple Music Revolution". Here's their description of the feature: "A major two-part series where Bob Harris looks beneath the surface to discover the reasons for the emergence of a unique, creative and dynamic government-funded Canadian music scene.
I believe in the DART. The Disaster Assistance Response Team is something Canada can contribute to countries devastated by disaster, such as the Boxing Day Tsunami or the recent earthquake in Pakistan. I wanted to throw the damn DART back in December and we discussed it quite a bit. The
Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" is our other national anthem. It's both musically and lyrically worthy of this honour, and two events over the past few months have cemented its status as the song that unites. On July 2nd of this year, Canada's Live 8 concert took place
I love Reuters articles like this. A Canadian search-and-rescue team reached a flooded New Orleans suburb to help save trapped residents five days before the U.S. military, a Louisiana state senator said on Wednesday.The Canadians beat both the Army and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S.
Admittedly, I tend to gravitate towards a Canadian artist simply because they are Canadian. I seek out Canadian artists, give their material additional spins if I don't instantly like it and promote good Canadian artists more heavily than artists from other nations. Now that's I've fully disclosed the above, I
The passing of Peter Jennings got me thinking about The Canadian Conspiracy. The Canadian Conspiracy was a mockumentary from the mid 80s I caught on CityTV a couple of times. In a nutshell, we Canadians are infiltrating the United States of America, assuming control from within. The main players were.
