My Canada Day includes poutine

By Philippe Gohier - Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 11:55 AM - 0 Comments

As far as slights are concerned, whether real or perceived, this one seems fairly innocuous. The Canadian embassy in Washington has apologized for posting an invitation to a Canada Day party that featured Samuel de Champlain holding a plate of poutine. The offending image has since been removed from the page, but that’s it on the left. (Why do I feel like I’m turning into Ezra Levant all of a sudden?)

Some complainants, however, aren’t willing to let it go. The French-language advocacy group Impératif français is calling for nothing less than an official apology from Stephen Harper, and the resignations of newly-minted Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson and Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson.

Bill Johnson better be thankful the folks at Impératif français apparently didn’t get their hands his recent op-ed in The Globe about St-Jean festivities in Montreal. If they found a strange non sequitur by the Canadian embassy in Washington offensive, who knows how they would have reacted to the former Alliance Quebec leader’s insufferably patronizing piece?

UPDATE: Andrew Potter beat me to it. And he has a better headline.

BTC: The most recent Canada Day

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 12:21 AM - 0 Comments

Standing beside the national gallery, just before the bridge to Gatineau, watching the fireworks explode over the elaborate glass structure at the gallery’s north end. As the show begins, the national anthem is played triumphantly over speakers nearby.

“What the f— is playing?” begs a stoned teenager nearby.

“O Canada!” corrects one of his apparently less stoned friends.

The First Canada Day

By Andrew Potter - Tuesday, July 1, 2008 at 10:22 PM - 0 Comments

From the closing passages of Donald Creighton’s The Young Politician:

By nine o’clock, the public buildings and many large houses were illuminated all across Canada… When true darkness had at last fallen, the firework displays began; and simultaneously throughout the four provinces, the night was assaulted by minute explosions of coloured light, as the roman candles popped away, and the rockets raced up into the sky…

In Ottawa, long before this, Monck and Macdonald and the other ministers had quitted the Privy Council chamber; and Parliament Hill was crowded once again with people who had come to watch the last spectacle of the day. The Parliament buildings were illuminated. They stood out boldly against the sky; and far behind them, hidden in darkness, were the ridges of the Laurentians, stretching away, mile after mile, towards the north-west.

Liveblogging Canada Day – Yes, really.

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, July 1, 2008 at 10:53 AM - 0 Comments

At least until the liveblogger remembers that she isn’t actually working today, making it a voluntary endeavour, and/or decides to ditch the official programme for a convivial deck a safe distance from the madding crowd. Mmm, madding.

Anyway, I’m planning on heading up to the Hill for the Canada Day show — something I’ve managed to avoid doing for the last two and a half decades, which is a proud tradition amongst native-born Ottawans — and will provide highlights from the front lawn before elbowing my way through the crowds to Major’s Hill, where Stephane Dion will mingle with the masses at the Great Canadian Chicken Barbecue. After that – well, we’ll see where the day takes us. Doesn’t that sound fun?

I’ll start a new post for updates, and I warn you in advance that there may be oddities in formatting, since I’m going to be using the ultra-minimalist WordPress mobile applet. Yes, this means real, true liveblogging. Let’s all cross our fingers that it works. Oh, and I may end up resorting to that horrible reverse-chronological order format, where new entries are at the top and you have to read from the bottom up, so be warned.

Okay, now that we’ve gotten all the boring fine print out of the way – on with the show! Expect bulletins to start rolling in around, say, noonish.

Things that drive journalists (or maybe just me) crazy: First of an occasional series

By kadyomalley - Monday, June 30, 2008 at 3:11 PM - 0 Comments

Yes, this probably does indicate that I have too much time on my hands today, which is why I’m headed out with my trusty BerryCam to snap some pics of the pre-Canada Day preparations on the Hill.

Anyway, if there’s one thing that sends me into a frenzy of rereading, it’s when someone sends out a revised version of a press release without including a note to say what has been changed from the original. That’s what PMO did this morning with Stephen Harper’s Canada Day statement, which led to me wasting more minutes that I’m willing to admit trying to figure out the reason for the revision.

Continue…