Tag Archives: Canada
Breaking With Tradition
I was rather curious as to how Canada’s Parliament was going to handle its opening Thursday, as for the first time in more than 150 years the Senate and the House of Commons are meeting in different buildings. Traditionally the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod has walked to the Commons Chamber from the Senate […]
Only In Canada
The Calgary Flames hockey team fired their coach last week. Well, he resigned before they could fire him over an alleged racial slur made a decade ago. Bill Peters might have been fired anyway, given the team’s poor performance of late, but the situation has cast the spotlight once again on the Canadian double standard. […]
Welcome To Black Friday
I seem to have been inundated by Black Friday ads for the entire month. Now that the day is upon us, I have no urge to spend. Oh, I did see an eight-terrabyte portable hard drive advertised online at a very nice price. I don’t have 8T of data though that I want to save, […]
Grey Cup 2019
There will not be a post today. It is a national holiday. Well, not really, but for Canadian sports fans it is an important day. Our national football championship is being contested today, as the Hamilton Tiger Cats take on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 107th annual Grey Cup game. I had thought of re-posting […]
Building A Better Cabinet
On November 4, 2015 I posted my thoughts on the process involved in cabinet building – the political kind as opposed to home renovations. Today once again the Prime Minister is set to unveil his new cabinet, which makes that four-year-old post relevant. I had concerns the first time around that turned out to be […]
View From The Terrace
Berne (also spelled Bern), the Swiss capital, reminded me a lot of Canada’s capital, Ottawa when I visited in 2018. Both cities have a relaxed feel, big enough to have whatever you want/need – without the traffic. I only have vague memories of my first visit to Berne, in 1986. I remember seeing the famous […]
Remembrance Day 2019
Canada remembers its war dead today, as it does every November 11th. It was on this date in 1918 that the “Great War,” the “War To End All Wars” came to an end. Today we know that the First World War was just the beginning. Most years of the 20th century saw war being […]
An Act of Remembrance
As much of the world celebrates Remembrance Day on Monday, I am re-posting some of my earlier thoughts on the subject. Today’s post comes from 2016. I only know her name, nothing else about her. And where she lived in 1916, a place that I had never heard of before, Manor, Saskatchewan. By 1921 she […]
Decision Chamber
Made a quick visit to downtown Ottawa last week, as I realized I had yet to see the new chamber for Canada’s House of Commons, which relocated to West Block earlier this year. Centre Block is undergoing a ten-year renovation/restoration, and a new place had to be found for the House to meet. So they […]
Signs of Winter
Do you know what you are seeing in the picture? Most likely not, unless you are Canadian. It is a national tradition, a fall rite of passage. A sure sign of changing seasons. In my neighbourhood and across the country, as October blends into November, the boards are dropped off in the parks and […]
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