Ottawa’s hopping over a friggin’ flower? This city with a boring reputation is actually having a big shindig worth attending? Cool! Sign me up! Check out the Parliament Buildings, the Château Laurier, and the Byward Market while you’re at it. Also take a bike ride down the Ottawa River and see the terrific views of [...]
Got Poutine? Want to experience the joy of feeling your arteries clog as you eat! Try poutine. It’s probably Canada’s most famous (ha!) dish. It’s actually just about the closest thing to a national dish we have – even thought it’s more of a Quebec thing. Ottawa is, as you should know by now, just [...]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA!! I apologise if you happen to be reading this in August. 132 years ago, the Fathers of Confederation’s dream of a new nation came to life…now we party! Ottawa is the site of the nation’s most surprisingly active Canada Days…surprising because public servants and NORTEL employees don’t exactly have reputations for partying-down. [...]
Current Happenings Events special to this month are not numerous, but I’ll let you know of upcoming and ongoing gallery and museum exhibitions in coming months. Summer is usually better for such things. At the National Gallery (on Sussex Dr., within blocks of the major hub of bus activity, the Rideau Centre, and visible from [...]
Top 10 Things To Do in Ontario (Warm Months – all two of them) 1. Big Nickel, Sudbury "Look on my Works, ye mighty and despair!" A site too grand to fathom. It must be experienced! Larger-than-life, larger than the city of Sudbury. Made to greet visitors and represent their main industry, it has become [...]
What Horrors Hide in the Ottawa Valley???(Aside from the marauding Liberal caucus) Since it’s near Halloween, this article is about the scariest place in all of Ontario: the Ottawa Valley! Man-eating bears! Polish vampires! Gawking Francophones! Gigantic sea-monsters! Drugged-out hippies! Radioactive rhubarb! Deadly bacteria! All 100% true! (with just a bit of my characteristic hyperbole). [...]
Southern Ontario vs. Northern California I just returned from my honeymoon in San Francisco. I heard that it was one of the three most beautiful cities in North America, the others being New Orleans and Quebec City. Since I had already been to those two, we decided to finally see the third. While in San [...]
How to celebrate a dead monarch! I am already excited. The May 24 long weekend is coming. That date has particular resonance for Ontarians. "We are amused." Officially, it commemorates the birthday of Queen Victoria on May 24, 1819. After her death, we celebrated her birthday to show loyalty to the British Empire. In the [...]
Our Prime Minister is a French Fry and other Great Canadian Myths How much do Americans know about Canada? Almost nothing. Case in point, a Canadian comedy show, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, featured an interview with American Presidential candidate George W. Bush. The interviewer told Bush that Canada’s Prime Minister, Jean Poutine, supported his [...]
