BS: Get to know Canada...please

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 08:46 PM

Yeah, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: CarolC
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 08:36 PM

But eh's still a really great word, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Peace
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 08:26 PM

Where's Ontario?

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 08:17 PM

It's an Ontario thing. And in Ontario, it's sort of a lower class thing (to some extent). That is to say, the less articulate people tend to say it a lot at the end of their statements, while the more articulate use it only occasionally or not at all.

Thus, Doug and Bob McKenzie were a satire of the dumbest of dumb young, single, unemployed, layabout, drunken Ontario guys, and they used "eh" almost constantly, eh? Beauty, eh? Take off, eh!

Since more Canadians live in Ontario than in any other province, it sometimes almost seems like Ontario IS Canada, eh? (But don't say that outside Ontario!)

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: CarolC
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 08:13 PM

Mostly, if we're going to punctuate the end of our sentences with a sound that isn't quite a word, we say, "huh?", or something like that.

Example: "That tetanus shot wasn't so bad, huh?"

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: CarolC
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 08:07 PM

We don't really say it at all. Of the North American countries, it seems to be a pretty distinctly Canadian thing. That's why US Americans like to make such a big deal of it. They're (we're) not used to hearing it in every day speech.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 07:44 PM

Do (USA) Americans really not say "Eh", or is it just they don't say it quite as frequently as Canadians ?

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 06:32 PM

I forgot to mention Anne Murray because I only listen to her when I've got really bad insomnia...and it works great! Out like a light. Then I wake up 8 hours later and can't remember what it was that put me to sleep in the first place till the next time I get insomnia again. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Metchosin
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 06:11 PM

you brought tears to my eyes, brucie. Some pretty special place, eh.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Peace
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 04:41 PM

Metchosin,

I live in Hinton, just 90 km from Jasper. Banff and Jasper are there for the tourist dollars, and what you say about the tourist areas is true.

Canada is vast. Vaster than even Canadians can understand. We have still got places where no one has gone--I don't mean areas measured in square miles, I mean areas measured in hundreds of square miles. People who leave the 'beaten paths' can likely and literally be assured that they have gone where no one has gone before.

How to explain . . . . Near Tall Cree Reserve there is a pelican nesting ground--imagine, pelicans in north central Alberta. Our country touches three oceans. We have areas that reach 120 F, and others that reach -60 F. We have desert, tundra, mountains of such beauty there are no words. Trees: yeah, we got lots. Ice, snow, yeah, we got lots. This place is home to about 20% of the world's fresh water. Travel the Mackenzie with its silt and rapids on its seemingly-endless journey to the Arctic Ocean. Try the Fraser--but watch for its ability to swat humans. We know so little about that kind of power.

Every year Canadians watch geese--millions of them--forming their vees for their annual migrations. Occasionally, a swan will get into the vee and go along with them. And every year we look at their departure as the real sing that winter is coming. We have a sneaking suspicion that the weather bureau does that, too. We have lakes that have swallowed big boats and their crews. Tides in the Bay of Fundy are over 25 feet. The Bay is where one of the largest Great Whites was netted. We have Greenland sharks in the Saguenay River near LaBaie, Quebec.

I have been to lakes in many provinces that are home to Northern pike--what most of us call jackfish. Lotsa bones, but one will feed a family of six, no problem. Canada is home to some remarkable creatures: polar bears that think little of a two-hundred mile swim; cougars that have to kill often during winter because their dentition is such that they cannot eat food after is freezes--they have no way to tear it. Wolverines--one of God's neater creatures. Mean as your ex and twice as nasty, but beautiful to see.

The Arctic ptarmigan (don't pronounce the p) that makes a good meal, but really is too beautiful to kill for less than survival purposes. Grouse that do a 'chicken dance', a dance that is imitated skillfully by First Nations people at pow-wows and other special events. The 'horse' with horns--moose--is the largest member of the deer family. One will give you enough meat to live for a half year. Other than rutting season during which the bulls become very unpredictable--well, maybe that's the wrong term. If a bull moose falls 'in love' with your Volkswagen, you have major problems. Get away from you car and let him have his way with it. There was a moose in Newfoundland that had to be tranquilized and hauled away because he had his eye on a certain moo-moo cow in a fellow's field. The bull would not leave. Eventually the people in the area took pity on him--fearing he would starve to death rather than desert his 'object of desire' and shot him with a tranquilizer dart and got him back into the bush.

The Laurentians are a mountain range that at one time were connected to the hills of Scotland. They are an old, weatherd range, but to see them in the fall when the various leaves on trees turn red, orange, yellow--it really gives meaning to the words of Jesse Winchester in his song, "Yankee Lady." ("I often walked down a country road, with a million flaming trees . . . ") He was talking about Vermont, but someone from there would see no difference were they to wake up in that part of Quebec and determine their location based on the fauna/flora that surrounded them.

I have often derided Saskatchewan because if you stand on a chair, you'll be able to see for at least a thousand miles. That is exaggeration of course. But, not a big exaggeration, as long as it's a normal-sized chair.

Mount Royal, around which the city of Montreal grew, is a dormant volcano. The Canadian Shield is miles and miles of--right--miles and miles. But it was such landscape that entranced the Group of Seven (and Tom Thompson); it inspired them to create a new form of painting that is distinctly Canadian. No one from northern Quebec, Ontario or Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta or British Columbia coud look at their paintings and not say, "Hey, I have been there."

The Maritimes in the east of Canada: WOW! Boys from parts of Burin Bay Arm (Placentia Bay) will think nothing of making a run to get the French stuff. Small boats, open ocean. Cheaper in St Pierre-Miquelon than on The Rock. The same people will tell you about the fellow whose body got caught under a bridge, and the divers who went to untangle his body had to get the eels out of him before they could rise him to the surface. They hate eels to this day. Those people introduced me to cod's head soup, cod cheeks, cod tongue, cracker berries, and even one fellow told me to ignore his friend who was pointing out schooners, trawlers, punts, dingie, etc., to a mainlander who knew little about the ships on the ocean or the ways of the sea. He put his arm across my shoulder and said, "Bruce, ignore that asshole. Them's boats." We all laughed. Fact is, them's people. And they are wonderful.

The watchman behind the Schooner Beer factory in Halifax found me sitting on the bow of the Bluenose II. He politely told me I shouldn't be there. I apologized and explained that I hadn't known it was a NO TRESPASSING area. He and I talked there for over half an hour, and he told me stories of Halifax and the Bluenose.

Unless you have seen a sunrise in Calgary--well, Kodac or Fuji don't make a film to capture all the colours.

This place is worth getting to know. I have been trying to for most of my life, and God willing, I will yet get to see Nahanni Falls, canoe from Fort Chipewyan to Winnipeg, walk the shores of Vancouver Island, and spend a day in Yukon--where a day can last for months. I am in love with this country and its people, proud of its attempts to make peace where it can.

The people tend not to brag of their exploits--and maybe that's part of the national character. Read sometime of the paratroopers who jumped into a blizzard in minus forty degree to rescue people whose plane had crashed in the Arctic. They all volunteered. When they arrived, the pilot had frozen to death. He had given his coat to a passenger who was injured. Two days before they were brought out. It made the papers for a short while and faded into history.

Indeed, as Metchosin says, get out of the car. I don't think you will be sorry you did. I know you won't be sorry you did.

Bruce M

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Metchosin
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 01:37 PM

Peter T, I've travelled throughout Banff National Park for the past 12 years and still don't consider myself well seasoned. If all tourists see is the Banff corridor on either side of the road, Lake Louise or a few ski resorts, yeah it's hardly pristine.

However I assure you, if you head up into the headwaters of the Panther, Clearwater or Red Deer rivers or in from Kananaskis country to the Palliser or Burstall Pass areas or have ever stood above the treeline on Pulsatilla Pass and have not been overwhelmed by prisitne wilderness, something is decidedly wrong with your senses or your perception of the massiveness of the Park area.

I have been in that Park during the height of tourist season, in valleys and mountains where I haven't seen another living soul in 5 days, other than those with whom I was travelling. Banff is huge and does have serious human impact problems in a few parts, but Banff is not just what you can experience from the well beaten path or highway.

And.....

Just a damned minute here, I know we want to keep this Island a secret, lest we get even more incoming migration, but no ice on Vancouver Island? Not familiar with the Comox Glacier ? Ever considered climbing Mt. Golden Hinde at 8,799 feet or a few others such as Mt. Colonel Foster, without encountering ice and snow, even in summer?

Fog? Fog? Rain? I live in an area of the Island where I can count foggy days on one hand and the rainfall on parts of the east coast of the Island, in the rainshadow of our mountains is quite often less than 27 inches in a year. Almost half of that experienced by Vancouver.

Come on Canadians, get out of your car........and get to know Canada....please.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Peace
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 12:48 PM

Willie-O,

I have the vinyl record somewhere. I will find it and get the details to you soon. The liner notes may have the details my old mind can
t remember. Like all of them--except we were on a train. I did the bit from Edmonton to Vancouver then flew back. Doug Lennox, Bill Garrett and Paul Mills were on the trip. It was coast to coast for them. Touch the Earth was a CBC radio show, and Sylvia was the hostess. When I get details, I'll message you.

Bruce

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Peter T.
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 11:04 AM

Ask Pam Swan to do your quiz, she just came back from Nunavit (The only person I know who has been there, and a Yankee to boot).

Alas, contrary to the percentages above, the huge population increases of human beings in the south of the country are wrecking (1) the Grade A agricultural land; (2) the Carolinian forest and the mixed forest around all urban areas; (3) cottage country. Go to a park like Banff and you can see what a mess we have been making of this country. It is hardly unspoiled nature.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Willie-O
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 09:58 AM

That's an interesting quiz BlackCatter, but sure has details...1993, 1994, who the hell remembers? Is this a test of research abilities.

And it's dated, there is no "interim commissioner" in the present tense--Premier Paul Okalik has just been re-elected for his second term in office.

I'd like to go to Nunavut someday though. I actually know a lot of musicians that have played in Iqaluit.

Brucie:
Your mention of a cross-country train recording related to the CBC radio show "Touch the Earth" interests me. Do you have any more details? As I recall, Touch the Earth was hosted by Sylvia Tyson, who was also one of the Canadian musicians riding the 1970 Festival Express. Maybe that's where the idea came from...

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: *daylia*
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 06:31 AM

Canada is made of:-
    25% ice-covered lake
    25% trees
    25% bog (with trees)
    25% bare rock.

If you're speaking about Ontario and Quebec, then I'd say you are about 99% accurate, HuwG. About 75% or more of Canada's population live in Ontario and Quebec - on only about 35% of her geography.

(While some countries have way too much history, Canada has, like, way too much geography eh?)

Go west of Ontario on the Trans Canada, and you'll find only about

10% ice-covered lakes (in the winter of course -- only about 9 months/year in Alta and Sask ;-)
2% trees
1% bog (no trees)
7% oil wells
0% bare rock
40% sagebrush, prairie grass, wheat and canola fields
40% big big BIG SKY!!!!


Now keep going even farther west and you'll find Canada becomes

100% mountains, consisting of
15% ice-covered lakes
10% rushing crystal-clear glacial rivers
35% big big BIG trees
25% bare rock
15% clear-cuts :-(

Ok hang in ... one last ferry ride across the Straits of Georgia and .... we're on the Island! Where it's ....

0% ice-covered lakes (no ice)
10% absolutely breathtaking mountain and ocean scenery, and ...
90% FOG and RAIN

.... Are we there yet????

Hope you do make it back someday HuwG

daylia

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Gurney
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 04:30 AM

Little Hawk, did you forget Ann Murray?

Canada must be a nice place, I have relatives who went there 80 years ago, and never came back. Except one in 1940, in uniform.

You can forgive people for thinking it is cold there when you read stories about stocking rivers with trout in spring, and if they are not caught then they die when the river freezes solid in winter, and then next spring, they stock the river with trout.....

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Scoville
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 10:39 PM

Don't forget Lorne Greene . . .

I'd like to see more of Canada. I just got back from five days in the Quetico but all I know from that is that the pine squirrels chatter in the same accent as the gray squirrels down here in Texas.

My grandparents were midwesterners (Illinois/Iowa) but spent a lot of time canoeing in the boundary waters area. I've always suspected that that affected my dad; he has way too much in common with Red Green.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: freda underhill
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 09:18 PM

New Zealanders also have this "eh"happening at the end of sentences.. and like in Canada - there are a lot of Scots in NZ - eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Peace
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 06:48 PM

GG: She was an American trying to pass.

We seldom use the expression here, but because we want the world to think we're quaint, we encourage folks to think that we do. And from generation to generation, one of the things that gets drummed into us as we grow up is to make sure that if anyone asks if we say 'eh' at the ends of sentences, we say, "Yes, eh." Otherwise our citizenship is revoked.

Except for Ontario people. They use 'eh' lots. Just ask my Ontario buddies, eh?!.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 05:47 PM

I note that in the 11 years I've been coming up to Toronto for an annual filk music convention, I've only heard the infamous "Eh?" once, from a waitress at a coffee shop.

-- Gary

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Blackcatter
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 04:38 PM

By the way,

I'll post the answers to the quiz soon.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: HuwG
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 12:24 PM

I visited Canada many years ago, and spent most of the time around the mining communities in North Ontario and Quebec, in late winter / early spring. (I didn't see much of Toronto or Niagara; it was throwing it down when I went there, and nothing was visible beyond fifty yards or above two stories.)


My impressions, or observations were that:

Canada is made of:-
    25% ice-covered lake
    25% trees
    25% bog (with trees)
    25% bare rock.

(On the other hand, a trip as far as Mattagami in Quebec would suggest that 99% trees is closer to the real total, and the amount of bare rock is exaggerated close to any working mine or smelting operation. For example, the geology around Sudbury, Ontatio, is believed to be an "astrobleme" i.e. originally derived from a meteor impact. The varions nickel extraction companies seemed determined to recreate the appearance of the landscape immediately following the impact.)

In Ontario, they speak accented but clear and lucid English. In Quebec they speak incomprehensible French. Not just French, which most English people mangle horribly anyway, but a variety of French that many Frenchmen would struggle with.

Ice hockey is simultaneously the religion, wallpaper, and background music of Ontario.

The north wind goes far beyond any quality that could be described as "bracing". It also seemed to be the wind most heavily laced with suplhur fumes from various smelting plants, I suspect because the sulphur would emerge from the stack, shiver uncontrollably in the blast from the arctic and then huddle as close to the ground as it could get.

Against any implied or express criticism in the above, I found that all Canadians and Quebecois were friendly, direct and welcoming.

I wasn't as heavily into music then as I am now, and didn't hear much of it on that trip, nor did I make much effort to seek it out. I regret that now, but should I ever win the lottery, or earn enough to do more than just stay ahead, I hope to make it back to Canada some day, and see more of the place.

Best wishes to all in Canada.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 12:08 PM

GUEST, Obie:

You needn't apologize to the weather broadcasters for sending all the cold weather. After all, they should thank you, for providing the materials of their trade.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Cool Beans
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 11:41 AM

I just got back from Newfoundland. Boy, are my arms tired. And the water's c-c-c-cold.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Blackcatter
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 11:37 AM

Texas, the Prussia of America

As for Canada, I'll take Nunavut!

OK Canadians, Here's a quiz, let's see how knowledgeable you are about the land to your north.



Nunavut quiz

1)Why is April 1,1999, the most important date in Nunavut history?

a) Becomes a new Territory
b) Gains oil rights
c) Mining rights
d) separates from Canada.


2) What is Nunavut's Capital?

a) Nuvik
b) Inuvik
c) Iqaluit
d) Innuktuk


3) What does Nunavut mean in Inuktitut?

a) Our Land
b) Endless sun
c) midnight sun
d) new land


4) When did Nunavut residents vote on whether to create a new territory?

a) April, 1982
b) June 1990
c) March, 1985
d) April 1983


5) In what year does Nunavut become a new Territory?

a) 2000
b) 1999
c) 2001
d) 2002


6) When did the Government of Canada and representatives for the Inuit of Nunavut sign the historic agreement?

a) July 9, 1997
b) June 9, 1993
c) July 9, 1993
d) August 10, 1993


7) How big is Nunavut (approximately)?

a) 2,500,000 square kilometers
b) 5,000,000 square kilometers
c) 2,000,000 square kilometers
d) 2,000,500 square kilometers


8) Who is the interim Commissioner for Nunavut?

a) William Noontik
b) Jack Anawak
c) John Ounack
d) John Nanook


9) What are the official languages of Nunavut?

a) Inuktitut
b) English and French
c) Inuktitut, Innuinaqtun, English and French
d) Innuinaqtun


10) What is the approximate population of Nunavut?

a) 26,000 people
b) 25,000 people
c) 20000 people
d) 260,000 people


11) When was the last time the map of Canada was changed?

a) 1867
b) 1949
c) 1901
d) 1970


12) When did the Nunavut Act pass Parliament?

a) June 1993
b) June 1994
c) June 1992
d) December1994


13) What report help design the Nunavut Government?

a) Interim report on Nunavut Government
b) Footprints in New Snow
c) Midnight Sun Recommendations
d) Our Land


14) What is the proposal to deal with criminals in the new territory of Nunavut?

a) Prison at Yellowknife
b) Sending to Alaska
c) sending them south
d) isolated camps

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Peace
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 11:19 AM

Did Saskatchewan join too? Cool.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Joe_F
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 10:16 AM

There ain't nothing between the North Pole & Texas but a barbwire fence. -- Texan saying (I won't try to do the accent)

One time, on a newsgroup, we were lamenting the ignorance of Canada in the U.S. As an example, I said: Given a blank map of the contiguous U.S., I could probably pencil in the states pretty nearly; but when it comes to Canada -- which comes first, Saskatchewan or Manitoba? To which a Canadian retorted: They both come last.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Blackcatter
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 01:59 AM

ha!

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Peace
Date: 07 Aug 04 - 12:09 AM

You bet. I suppose you want it sent back, too?

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Blackcatter
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 11:16 PM

Isn't it about time for us all to join hands and sing Oh Canada, eh?


By the way, Living in the shadow of Disney World, I often find Canadian coins in my change. If I were to mail them to one of you Canadians, could you exchange them for real money?

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: GUEST,Blind DRunk in Blind River
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 08:07 PM

Carol...Flippin' A, eh!

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: CarolC
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 03:41 PM

BDiBR... beauty, eh!

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Peace
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 03:36 PM

No offence taken, buddy.

Maybe one of the best kept secrets in the world is how to pronounce 'eh'. It is done like the 'ey' in hey. Of course, after a few brew it starts to sound like 'eh'. And get pronounced like 'eh'. So, sentences like, "You saw that too, eh, eh?" make sense. A very erudite people are Canadians. And a good answer would be, "Eh? Eh! Eh."

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: GUEST,Blind DRunk in Blind River
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 03:24 PM

Eh is a very cool expression, eh? We use it a lot in Ontario. You can pretty well use it at the end of, like, pretty well anything, eh? It's like an all porpoise word, eh? The French don't, like, use it much because they don't speak English too good, eh? That is there loss! The people out west don't use it cos they are embarzaessed to be Canadian, eh? They should all just move to the USA in my opnion and then we real Canadians from ONtario cvould mvoe out there and fix the place up, eh? To be in good shape a town needs at least one Tim Hortons, 2 bars, a Beer Store, and a LCBO, and a strip joint, eh?

I used "eh" a lot in this, like, post so's you would, like, get the idea, eh?

Decent.

- BDiBR

p.s. brucie, don't get upset over what I said about people out west. You are an exception and I would not mean to insult you, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: CarolC
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 02:22 PM

"Eh" is a very, very good word, Ellenpoly. It has many subtle permutations and shades of meaning. Unfortunately, not all Canadians use it regularly. In Newfoundland, "right" ("roite") and a particular sound that can't be spelled out, and I can't even describe, but is as versatile as "eh", are more commonly used.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 10:20 AM

We also had a lovely bumpersticker - group of faces with huge toothpaste smiles & the caption - "Keep taking your medication, our overseas visitors must not suspect a thing"

One of our radio stations asked listeners for advice for tourists, & they were brilliant. I can only remember a few of them, one was about taking bicyles from riders as the Givernment provides them for everyone to use, another was to remove all clothes, not just shoes as Japanese peole do, before entering a home.

But then I cocmpletely ignored the 2000 Olympics & will do again in a few weeks when the 2004 games start taking over the world of the media.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 05:40 AM

Has anyone asked the one question that has been plaguing me for decades (hey, Ellenpoly, get a LIFE!)...

Do all Canadians end their sentences with "eh", eh?

;-D


..xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Metchosin
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 03:15 AM

OK. How about some questions asked by tourists at the Banff National Park Information Kiosk?

1. How do the Elk know they're supposed to cross at the "Elk Crossing" signs?

2. At what elevation does an Elk become a Moose?

3. Tourist: "How do you pronounce 'Elk'?"
    Park Information Staff: " 'Elk' "
    Tourist: "Oh".

4. Are the Bears with collars tame?

5. Is there anywhere I can see the bears pose?

6. Is it okay to keep an open bag of bacon on the picnic table, or should I store it in my tent?

7. Where can I find Alpine Flamingos?

8. I saw an animal on the way to Banff today - could you tell me what it was?

9. Are there birds in Canada?

10. Did I miss the turnoff for Canada?

11. Where does Alberta end and Canada begin?

12. Do you have a map of the State of Jasper?

13. Is this the part of Canada that speaks French, or is that Saskatchewan?

14. If I go to B.C., do I have to go through Ontario?

15. Which is the way to the Columbia Rice fields?

16. How far is Banff from Canada?

17. What's the best way to see Canada in a day?

18. Do they search you at the B.C. border?

19. When we enter B.C. do we have to convert our money to British pounds?

20. Where can I buy a raccoon hat? ALL Canadians own one, don't they?

21. Are there phones in Banff?

22. So it's eight kilometres away... is that in miles?

23. We're on the decibel system you know.

24. Where can I get my husband really, REALLY, lost??

25. Is that two kilometres by foot or by car?

26. Don't you Canadians know anything?

27. Where do you put the animals at night?

28. Tourist: "How do you get your lakes so blue?"
      Park staff: "We take the water out in the winter and paint the bottom".
      Tourist: "Oh!"

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Peace
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 02:32 AM

Jesse's in Montreal last I heard.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: CarolC
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 12:39 AM

I don't know, LH. Just rubs me the wrong way, I guess.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 06 Aug 04 - 12:18 AM

G'day Willie-O,

I see that set of silly questions has been retreaded ... again! I doubt that the version I saw in 1999 ... before the Sydney Olympic Games ... was original - and I'm sure there is something equally rude to the tourist influx to Greece will be floating about the Athens end of the Web.

However, someone must have really been anxious to stir the Canadian / US (and a few others) pot ... to have this out in anticipation of the 2010 Winter Olympics!

Regards(les)s,

Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: GUEST,Obie
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 10:49 PM

Years ago I was camping in nortern Maine. In answer to a Question from a man in the next campsite; "Where ya'all from?" I told him "Nova Scotia". "Is it very cold way up there ?" "Actually no, because Nova Scotia is southeast of here." He just could not comprehend that Nova Scotia could be where I said until I took out a map and showed him.
                   Obie
P.S. My humble apology to all U.S.A. weathermen for sending you all that cold weather from Canada that you frequently mention in your forecasts.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 10:26 PM

Huh? What have you got against Jesse Winchester? He did some great tunes. I believe he is living in Quebec, but I'm not quite sure. He might be farther east than that.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: CarolC
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 10:02 PM

Ack! You can keep Winchester! In what part of Canada does he live?

In the export category don't forget Dan Ackroyd, Martin Short, Dave Foley, John Candy, Rick Moranis, and Dave Thomas, although you've kept some of the best for yourself, like Rick Mercer, Mary Walsh, Cathy Jones, Greg Thomey, and Buddy Wassisname.

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 09:21 PM

And...some of Canada's most famous exports:

Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Ian & Sylvia, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn, Joni Mitchell...and more recently, Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, and Celine Dionne...and best of all.... (drum roll) ... William Shatner!!!!!

And Canada's most treasured musical import...the expatriate southern American singer, Jesse Winchester!

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Blackcatter
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 06:22 PM

Liz,

That's the first time I've ever seen a double post separated by 37 minutes!


I've always thought it odd that Canadian culture is less like British culture. The sortie/exit sign is one example. Usually in the U.K. the sign would be "way out."

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 06:14 PM

I know that most Canadians speak pretty decent English, but why, when we landed at Toronto Airport, was I looking at the sign that read 'Sortie' and translating it to English, when it was in English underneath?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: open mike
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 06:04 PM

i thought a sortie was a bombing radi..

and here is a blurb about the movie mentioned above..
FESTIVAL EXPRESS.
"Should rightfully take its place in rock history as one of the great
performance films of all time.' Richard James Havis, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
In 1970, a train journeyed across Canada carrying some of the greatest rock
bands of the time. Janis Joplin, The Band, The Grateful Dead, Delaney &
Bonnie, Buddy Guy, Ian & Sylvia and others lived (and partied) together for
five days, giving concerts where and when they stopped.
Festival Express was planned as a festival with a difference -- it would be
portable. The artists would be showcased at festival sites spanning the
breadth of the Canadian heartland, from Toronto to Calgary -- and
transportation was by chartered train. This proved to be a stroke of
genius, indelibly stamping the event with an aura of magic.
see SF Chronicle Review at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/23/DDG257QUIA1.DTL

I remember hearing about one fellow who could have been in that train video, or at least i heard he made music on trains in canada..He was
drowned in a flash flood in the south west (TX, Ariz, N.Mex?) a few years back....any one know who i mean?

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 05:50 PM

Was it sortie like and "Exit" sign?

Subject: RE: BS: Get to know Canada...please
From: Amos
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 05:45 PM

That is not a Canadian issue, darlin, but an English one!! :>))

A