The Great White North

[fah]

It's officially winter in Vancouver ~ the local mountains are open for skiing

 

[fah]

Hey all I'm loving this thread! I'm from Montreal and I'm thinking of moving somewhere else. Does anybody know if it's really that much more expensive to live in Vancouver,Calgary or Toronto compared to Montreal? I believe rent here is way cheaper and so is the cost of living but, of course, I think the salaries are slightly lower here also.

I'm in Vancouver ~ it's expensive but it all depends on where you want to live and what you need.

 

[Thora]

We had snow today in the suburbs of Vancouver! Very little though. My front yard looks kinda cool with a light dusting of snow.

 

[angelordevil]

We had snow today in the suburbs of Vancouver! Very little though. My front yard looks kinda cool with a light dusting of snow.

I noticed there's a light dusting on my car and the nearby rooftops this morning. It looks pretty in a gearing-up-to-Christmas kind of way.

I'm not a big beer drinker, but I have to represent the local Moosehead brewery. It's pretty good

I hate beer, and I'm a fully-grown Canadian man! It's the missing ingredient on my citizenship resume. Ah, well. I try to compensate by being sickeningly polite, drinking lots of coffee, and by watching hockey. My lack of beer-drinking usually leads to me being the unofficial designated driver at parties and family events. I should start charging at least a loonie a ride.

 

[VintagePunk]

I hate beer

I hate hockey.

Brings to mind the Hip line, "you said you didn't give a fuck about hockey, and I never saw someone say that before."

I used to be an obsessive Jays fan though, but then I went back to school, and they started sucking, so that kinda faded out.

It's a balmy 13C here today. Practically tropical.

 

[Thora]

It's a balmy 13C here today. Practically tropical.

And we have all the snow! It looks beautiful outside, but it's going to be a gong show out there. Nobody in Vancouver knows how to drive in the snow!

 

[LeafsNation]

Okay, so we're not as demonstratively patriotic as Americans are, but I'm sure you've all had this experience: have you ever had a situation where you're SO enveloped in Canadiana that you feel it seeping out of ever pore, and you just have to stop and think "damn, I'm glad I live here, and I'd rather be here than any place else?"

Last night, I saw Gordon Lightfoot perform at Massey Hall in Toronto. It's an annual event he does, several shows each November. Apparently, this year was his 39th.

If you youngsters out there don't know who I'm talking about, go here for a history lesson:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Lightfoot

I've never been more than a casual fan of Gord's, but I can remember when the 70's Canadian music scene was just starting to take off, back when pretty much all you heard as far as Canadian music goes was him, Anne Murray and The Guess Who. I grew up hearing his tunes as a young kid, and always felt this sort of pride when hearing them. He is about as Canadian as it gets. And, he was always just there. I grew up, my tastes evolved, the Canadian music scene exploded into what it is today, something I think we can all be immensely proud of.

Anyway, a couple of years ago, I was deeply affected and saddened when we almost lost him due to an abdominal aneurysm. Kept wondering why the hell I'd never seen him perform live. Thankfully, he recovered, and I promised myself I'd see him play.

Wow. He's 68 now, and visibly more frail. His voice isn't what it used to be, but he gathered steam as the night went on and seemed to get stronger and stronger. But my god, the songs! What an amazing wordsmith. It was an amazing show. Not flashy, very humble and understated. Very Canadian.

Some of the hits he played:

Cotton Jenny
Rainy Day People
Alberta Bound
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Carefree Highway
Early Morning Rain
Baby Step Back
Canadian Railroad Trilogy
Beautiful
If You Could Read My Mind
Sundown

Gord announced several celebrities in attendance - Ronnie Hawkins (man, another legend, how awesome to see him! He walked by our section several times, stopping to pose for pictures with people, his personality so huge it nearly filled the entire hall! And his seats were several rows behind ours, showing that in Canada at least, celebrities are just ordinary folk ), former PM John Turner, and sports radio personality Bob McCown.

When I got home last night, I looked up reviews from a few of Gord's recent shows. While doing so, I discovered that he apparently had a mild stroke five weeks ago. Hopefully he'll have improved health and continue to play for us for many years to come, but I'm really grateful I got the chance to see him.

I posted this here rather than B&C because the night was about so much more than music for me. It was about our identity. It was about a Canadian hero.

The Canadian Railway Trilogy gives me the goosebumps...that's one of the most patriotic songs we have.

 

[Thora]

Tons of snow in my neighborhood today!

My house

Our back yard

 

[trevster2k]

^have they called out the national guard yet?

-35 right now at 7am, only a few more degrees to reach the point where Fahrenheit and Celsius are the same.

 

[Thora]

Not yet trev, but at the rate the snow has been coming, they just might! We have about 3 feet of snow at my house, but I'm way out in the suburbs.

I'm watching the news right now, and it looks like everything's shut down for the day. Vancouverites don't know how to deal with this kind of weather.

 

[VintagePunk]

The Canadian Railway Trilogy gives me the goosebumps...that's one of the most patriotic songs we have.

It is.

I feel incredibly lame mentioning this, but a couple of seasons ago, they had a Gordon Lightfoot themed night on Canadian Idol. In fact, I think it was one of the first things Gord was involved with after recovering from his illness. At that point, I think they were down to six contestants, and they were easily the most talented top six I've ever seen on any talent-type show. For their group performance, they did Canadian Railroad Trilogy, each of them playing their respective instruments, and it was highly touted as being the first time on any worldwide Idol show that contestants had played instruments. They did a great job of it, really touching. Gord was in the audience (he'd been coaching them during the week), and he seemed very pleased with the result.

 

[RavenBlue]

Loooove Gordon Lightfoot. We always crank up Canadian Railroad Trilogy and Song For A Winters Night.

Stan Rogers also has many songs that are truely Canadian and make one proud. Northwest Passage being the obvious one (Adrienne Clarkson was considering it as another national anthem)

Did anyone here walk the Confederation Bridge when it opened in 1997? Just curious.

 

[yolland]

we're not as demonstratively patriotic as Americans are

Well, this thread certainly suggests otherwise! I can't imagine a thread this rhapsodic about the US surviving very long, actually; it'd be savagely mocked from the beginning (including by us), plus I can't imagine what we'd talk about--a region-specific thread would have a lot more success I think.

We hike and camp in Ontario and Quebec fairly often, so I'd be interested in hearing about what some of the best places to hike in Canada are--not necessarily just in those provinces. Especially places that are a little more off the beaten path, or just undersung.

 

[RavenBlue]

New Brunswick has some really nice hiking trails and National Parks. Kouchibouguac National Park is a beauty. Great biking trails there. Also some nice beaches. We found the last time we were there that there's a nudist beach there was well.. if that's your tastehttp://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/nb/kouchibouguac/index_E.asp
http://www.greatcanadianparks.com/nbrunswick/kouchnp/index.htm

Also Mount Carleton is a great provincal park. Mt.Carleton is the highest point in the martimes and if my memory serves me right, it actually connects with the Applachian Trail. When we hiked it, it was cloudy (with a severe t-storm line coming in fast too) so we didn't get a great view. I'd like to get up there again soon when it's a bit nicer in weather. There's no fee to enter and lots of nice camping spots plus 11 hiking trails. I definitly want to get up there again soon.
http://www.gnb.ca/0078/carleton/index-e.asp

If you're looking more for coastal hiking there's the Fundy Trail. You can choose to drive or hike this. I think it's 13km from the start to the interpretation centre. Also the Fundy Footpath follows past there to Fundy National Park. Not for the weak of heart, the Footpath is a challenging hike (and a very beautiful one at that) It's roughly 41 km long (24 miles) I've been as far as Long Beach, and have been to Martin Head before.. beautiful places. The beauty never stops amazing me.
http://www.fundytrailparkway.com/
http://www.fundytrailparkway.com/fundy_footpath.htm
http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/nb/fundy/index_E.asp

That's all for now, I'll likely add more later. New Brunswick I find, is the province alot of folks seem to forget about. But it's very diverse in both it's people and it's landscapes. You can go from the bay to deep woods to plains and swamps in a matter of minutes. It's quite varied and I'm proud (like you couldn't tell already ) to call it my home

 

[Canadiens1131]

Well, this thread certainly suggests otherwise! I can't imagine a thread this rhapsodic about the US surviving very long, actually;

Despite being from crazy different backgrounds, Canadians are united by the fact that we're not Americans, dammit, we're Canadians.




Also, I love hockey

 

[Dalton]

I didn't have time to read the whole thread, but did anyone mention Canada's burgeoning real estate market?

 

[ntalwar]

I didn't have time to read the whole thread, but did anyone mention Canada's burgeoning real estate market?

I like the Canadian oil trusts.

 

[Carek1230]

ThoraSEB has some great Canadian snow pics in her journal.

 

[yolland]

Originally posted by RavenBlue

Thanks, that was some great info! I was just checking where those are in my road atlas, and they're really not much further than some places we've been to in Quebec. I was puzzled when you said Mt. Carleton "connects with the Appalachian Trail" because so far as I knew that ends in north-central Maine, but now that I check Google I see there's an "International Appalachian Trail" I'd never even heard of extending all the way from where "the" AT ends up to Belle Isle in Newfoundland! Wow! Wonder how long it takes to hike that ...I've done the entire New York and New Jersey sections of the AT plus parts of the Tennessee section; would love to do more of it someday.

The places we've hiked/camped so far in Canada are Algonquin, Lake Superior and Sleeping Giant PPs in Ontario, and Gaspesie and Saguenay Parks in Quebec. Initially we just started going up there because it was cheaper, but what's kept us going is the great campgrounds. One thing that's unfortunately happened with many American campgrounds over the past couple decades is that they've slowly but surely become overrun with RVs (especially the "family" campgrounds--which is often where we're headed since we've got kids) so that if you're in a tent, you may find yourself sticking out like a sore thumb! It's pretty depressing when you're out there gamely trying to entertain the kids with stargazing and stories around the campfire, while meanwhile everyone else's retreated into their motorized palaces to watch TV...

 

[fah]

It's a winter wonderland here today

Lots of snow on the ground and sunny

We lost our power for 9 hours yesterday ~brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr~

 

[Canadiens1131]

McDonald's hockey cards are back, motherfuckers!!!!!
http://www.mcdonalds.ca/McDonaldsHockeyCards/web/en/default.aspx

 

[GibsonGirl]

It's officially winter in St. John's. No huge amount of snow or anything, but cold enough to make your nose run like a tap after standing five minutes outside. I'm sure that was a thrilling mental image.

 

[Canadiens1131]

Nose running like a tap

 

[RavenBlue]

They were calling for 20cms of snow here tomorrow But it looks like it'll be rain instead... *phew* But we all know maritime weather can change in five minutes.

It's about -4C with a -11C windchill. Brrrfect

Oh did anyone see that New Brunswick is apparently the happiest province in Canada. I told you this place is awesome. Newfoundland is second. Kind of cruddy they left out the territories

New Brunswick: 78.6
• Newfoundland: 78.4
• P.E.I.: 76.
6
• Ontario: 76.1
• Quebec: 75.3
• British Columbia: 75.1
• Saskatchewan: 75.0
• Alberta: 74.0
• Manitoba: 73.2
• Nova Scotia: 72.8
Scoring is based on a scale out of 100.
http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=9856&sc=2

 

[fah]

I had the breakfast sandwich with bacon at Tim's this week

 

[snowbunny00774]

I didn't have time to read the whole thread, but did anyone mention Canada's burgeoning real estate market?

I know, the price of snowblocks, ice caulk, and other construction materials is completely ridiculous these days.

 

[DaveC]

I had the breakfast sandwich with bacon at Tim's this week

Yeah, I tried it last week. It's tasty but otherwise nothing special. I'd still prefer a Bacon & Egg McMuffin given a choice.

 

[Canadiens1131]

We finally got snow in Montreal this weekend and it's here for good. Pretty pretty!

 

[DaveC]

There's a snowstorm in Halifax right now, the first snow we've seen all year. We have a snowfall warning and a forecast of 10-20 more cm overnight.

I love snow now that I no longer live at home and have to shovel it. Sledding at Citadel Hill tomorrow

Here's an interesting Canadian Christmas article, too:
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/h0h0h0.asp

 

[DaveC]