Canada Day 2017

[Valka D'Ur]

Happy Canada Day to the Canadian members of CFC.

I almost made the thread title "Canada 150" but decided that I've seen enough of this obscene marketing campaign that's been a relentless part of our 150th anniversary of Confederation. It's everywhere - you see it on TV, online, in the papers, on the street - any excuse to sell stuff.

I have mixed feelings about this. I used to spend Canada Day at the local folk festival, watching a wide variety of ethnic dances, musicians, and other performers, indulging in food from many countries, maybe picking up some handcrafted item from another country's traditions, and watching the fireworks. I'm not able to do that anymore, so I'm listening to the Parliament Hill coverage right now. And there's an argument going on on the CBC.ca website over the Reformacon senators' obstruction of the legislation that would have seen the anthem changed to include women.

I'm angered at how Justin Trudeau and his cabinet betrayed the people who voted for them because they wanted electoral reform and/or assisted dying legislation in accordance with the directives set by the Supreme Court of Canada.


But still... the country's still here. There was a time back in the '90s when an intact Canada wasn't guaranteed. It was a close thing, but the saner side of the people prevailed.

Prince Charles and Camilla are here, to represent the monarchy, and I confess to being mildly interested in what he might have to say. Peter Mansbridge is anchoring the coverage, and he's retiring tomorrow, so I thought I'd watch his last broadcast. And I'd like to hear Gordon Lightfoot's portion of the stage show.

Something's just... missing. Everyone is so partisan and cynical these days (myself included).

I can't see the local fireworks from here, but might be able to hear them.


Oh, nice. Donald Trump just tweeted a Happy Canada Day to the people of Canada and his "new found friend", Justin Trudeau. So I'm wondering how many Muslim people are going to be detained in Canadian airports because they were born in the wrong country.


Actually, there is one undeniably good thing about today. We have two new Canadian astronauts, and their names will be announced during the ceremonies today.

 

[shadowplay]

Happy Canada day!

Please don't rain on my BBQ.

 

[Cutlass]

Happy Canada! I had originally had thoughts of doing my vacation in Canada for the 150th celebration. But my plans went elsewhere.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Happy Canada Day!
A day when we indulge in fine traditions of mixing Alcohol and Explosives.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I watched the early coverage this morning, when Charles and Camilla were there, and it was a bit of a sad occasion since it was Peter Mansbridge's last broadcast (he's been the CBC news anchor for decades).

Then I took a nap and watched some of the evening performances. Cirque du Soleil had some of their people there, and I was impressed by the male gymnast doing some spectacular maneuvers on a very tall pole.

Gordon Lightfoot sang a song and Justin Trudeau pointed out that he'd also performed 50 years earlier, at Canada's centennial celebration on Parliament Hill.

The local fireworks are going on right now; can't see a thing, though, due to all the trees and buildings in the way.

So I guess that was Canada Day. I didn't indulge in anything extra-special, just leftover pizza, but earlier I shared part of a ham sandwich with Maddy. That was her Canada Day treat.

And now I've started on this year's Camp NaNoWriMo entry (262 words so far).

 

[shadowplay]

I watched the early coverage this morning, when Charles and Camilla were there, and it was a bit of a sad occasion since it was Peter Mansbridge's last broadcast (he's been the CBC news anchor for decades).

I'm sad to see him go, too. One of the best journalists I've seen anywhere.

Gordon Lightfoot sang a song and Justin Trudeau pointed out that he'd also performed 50 years earlier, at Canada's centennial celebration on Parliament Hill.

That was special. He looked very frail... he must have really wanted to be there.

The local fireworks are going on right now; can't see a thing, though, due to all the trees and buildings in the way.

You can borrow some of mine:

Spoiler :

 

[Zelig]

Was looking at some family photos of my then-new-to-Canada family visiting Expo 67 for the Canadian Centenial.

 

[Zkribbler]

"We may live in British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nunavut, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia or Newfoundland and Labrador," he said, "but we embrace that diversity while knowing in our hearts that we are all Canadians."

...Trudeau

Forget something?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Somewhere in one of my photo albums, there are a couple of pictures of me, age 4, standing in City Hall Park, in front of the Centennial Cake that was erected there (not a real one, obviously - much to my disappointment at the time! ). One picture is of me alone, and the other is of my great-aunt and me. This was back in the summer of 1967.

Here's what it looked like 50 years ago (you're going to have to imagine me, since I don't post photos of myself online: a 4-year-old girl, blonde, wearing a yellow dress):

 

[Valka D'Ur]

...Trudeau

Forget something?

Yeah, he sure did.

Here's his apology.

The article isn't open to comments; probably a good thing, since people aren't happy.

 

[warpus]

Happy belated Canada day!

I spent the weekend lounging around Toronto, checking out some sights, I hit up a couple used book stores and added some more books to my collection, and I hosted 2 American visitors from New York and showed them a bit of the town, introduced them to poutine (don't worry, not at Smoke's), introduced them to caesars, acted as tour guide, recommended what else they should see and do.. All in all it was an epic weekend, although we did miss most of the fireworks. Ah well, we did get to see some of them from the top of my hotel anyway

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Did you tell them they can get poutine doughnuts at the American Tim Horton's?

I'm actually thinking of trying the maple Timbits if they're still around the next time I go to the mall.

 

[warpus]

I actually told them to stay away from Tim's, which they did

I think I did my job as impromptu tour guide well, they loved the city. Although I should add that they most loved how diverse, inclusive, and.. "polite" the city seemed to them. They loved that we had so many pride flags up, even at a lot of churches. They loved that inclusive atmosphere here, and also loved that there wasn't really much honking going on, which is what they're used to in the U.S.

 

[Evie]

I was hanging around Ottawa this weekend, close enough to see the fiasco parliament hill turned into. The atmosphere in Centretown was great, but the waiting lines managed to achieve escape velocity and get out of sanity's orbit altogether. What kind of dimwit decided a whole TWO checkpoints would be enough?

Loved the Canada day fireworks, though.

 

[warpus]

I'm not surprised they had so much security on parliment hill. Everyone should have expected it, tbh. Imagine the fiasco and negative press if something bad happened.

In Toronto there was almost no security anywhere. Some cops here and there but that's about it. Mind you the only people-heavy part of the city I was in was Nathan Phillips Square, which mind you is right beside city hall and had the biggest set up for celebrations in the city I think

 

[Evie]

Heavy security was to be expected, but only two checkpoints was ludicrous bad thinking. We're talking 6-8 hours wait time to get on the Hill. That's ridiculous.

 

[warpus]

Ah I see what you're saying. Yeah that sounds like bad planning to me. At least they should have told people what the expected wait time was, like they do at Canada's Wonderland

 

[Valka D'Ur]

From the news articles, it seems that there was only one place to get food, and people went without eating so they wouldn't lose their place in line.

What a mess. And because of the rain, part of the grounds was basically a gigantic mud puddle so they weren't letting as many people in anyway.

 

[Evie]

Yeah. It was very poorly run.

One get the distinct feeling they revamped the security plan at the last minute due to heighted terrorist concern, and just...didn't have time to think things through.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

What terrorist concern? The only concern I can see being an issue would be if a standoff of some kind occurred due to the "reoccupation" teepee. After all, one of them did say their goal was to disrupt the celebration.

Honestly, I just really felt disgusted, this year. A lot of it was due to the broken election promises and then the Reformacon senators decided to be sexist <unmentionables> over the proposed anthem change - that was passed in Parliament, bleat about "traditions," and imply that only men were involved in the wars.