The National Anthem

Tags

Anthem, Canada., CBC, EXPO 67, Montreal, Quebec City

This morning on CBC Radio 1, Michael Enright on Sunday Edition had a program all about Canada. The first segment was about our National Anthem O Canada, the second part about EXPO 67 which was held 50 years ago in Montreal, the most successful World  Exhibition ever held in the World, something I remember well I was 11 yrs old. How wonderful that was, one of my best childhood memories. The third segment was about how there his 3 founding Nations in Canada, the Indigenous, the French, the English and how we are finally coming to understand that fact.

He had Musicologist and Historian, Robert Harris to explain it all and how wonderful it was to hear. http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/sunday-edition/episode/13062323

Just wonderful, Robert Harris explained so many secrets about our National Anthem, the opening two stanzas of O Canada is taken from Mozart’s March of the Priest from the Opera Magic Flute. How wonderful is that given that our Country was born from a series of drinking and dancing parties here in Charlottetown and Quebec City held by the Fathers of Confederation in 1864.

The second incredible secret is that the National Anthem of Canada was written/com posed for the Saint Jean Baptiste Society in June of 1880. A French Nationalist Anthem to be sung at a Convention of French Canadians who had gathered from all over North America in Quebec City. The lyrics are about the French in North America and the music is martial, reference to God, the King (France) and our ancestors in this land.

How did it become the National Anthem of Canada? Harris explained that in 1902 King Edward VII was visiting Canada and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir in Toronto decided that they needed to sing an Anthem about Canada and not the Royal Anthem, God Save the King. So they arrange for a quick translation of the lyrics into English to sing for the Royal visit, the result was not very good and was difficult, cumbersome to sing, nothing like the French version. A few years later in 1906 Judge and poet Robert Stanley Weir wrote the English lyrics to O Canada, he changed them again in 1908, 1909, 1913. For a long time we had the 1921 lyrics which most English speaking Canadians know.

We will have to wait 1964 and the debate on the New Canadian Flag in Parliament to have another debate about making O Canada the Official National Anthem.  But that did not work out, to much opposition, too many English Canadians wanted to keep the Royal Anthem and having to swallow a new flag to replace the old Red Ensign was too much politically. Again in 1967 and 1968 Parliament tried and failed and again in 1976 and again in 1980 at the time of the first referendum on Quebec Independence. This time it worked and O Canada became our Official Anthem. Though many Canadians had taken it as the Official Anthem for many previous decades.

Currently a Bill in the Senate C-210 would amend one sentence of the English Lyrics of O Canada from IN ALL THEY SONS COMMAND to IN ALL OF US COMMAND. This to satisfy the Feminists in Canada. It would appear that many do not know that the English lyrics have been amended in the past many times, this includes the media who are very confused on the topic. Senators who hold a more traditional point of view oppose any change.

All this to say that the radio program was most interesting on the history of our Anthem, they also played several various versions from 1908, 1910,1927 and a famous one by Roger Doucet, tenor who for years would sing the National Anthem in both French and English before the beginning of a Hockey game at the old Forum in Montreal. He changed 2 words of the Anthem in 1979 before a game, at first the crowd in the Forum is silent not quite understanding what went on and then suddenly the reaction. The words, inserted by Doucet were Our Rights and Liberty, a reference to the upcoming Quebec Referendum and the demands of French speaking Canadians.

Nothing is ever simple in Canada. My favourite rendition c.1960 is the one with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal with Maestro Wilfrid Pelletier and chorus sung in French. It is quite beautiful.

 

Ô Canada! Terre de nos aïeux,
Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux!
Car ton bras sait porter l’épée,
Il sait porter la croix!
Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillants exploits.
Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits,
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.
Sous l’œil de Dieu, près du fleuve géant,
Le Canadien grandit en espérant.
Il est né d’une race fière,
Béni fut son berceau.
Le ciel a marqué sa carrière
Dans ce monde nouveau.
Toujours guidé par sa lumière,
Il gardera l’honneur de son drapeau,
Il gardera l’honneur de son drapeau.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Historical black holes

Tags

150, Acadiens, Canada., CBC

For the 150th Anniversary of Canada’s union into a single Nation (1867-2017) the Department of Heritage has sponsored a televised serial presented by the CBC entitled the Story of Us.  It’s been a disaster from the get go, a producer was hired to produce these televised shows on what is suppose to be our National history and many scholars were consulted. The biggest problem of the entire series is the omissions of many very foundational moments in the history of Canada. The producer decided to start the story in 1608 with the founding of the City of Quebec, then it jumps to the Seven Years War and the battle of the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City in 1759.

Right away the screaming started not only from the public but from Provincial Governments who felt slighted by the omissions. The Story of Canada really starts for the French settlers in 1534 with the arrival of Jacques Cartier in the Gaspé Peninsula. The settlements of Louisbourg and Isle Royale, today’s Cape Breton in Nova Scotia and the Deportation of the Acadiens known as le grand dérangement 1755-1764 are completely missing and not mentioned. Given that these events by modern standard can be seen as British war crimes and crimes against humanity and help explain how the British came to control North America and much of the social tensions which exist to this day in Canada, it is rather strange that the CBC and the Office of the Minister Mélanie Joly gave the go ahead speaks of the lack of historical education of Ms Joly and the usual nonchalance of the CBC in such matters.

The same then happens for the period 1765 to 1864, one hundred years of history which shaped events that led to the Conference of Charlottetown in 1864 is cut out of the narrative. The CBC explained that they had to make choices and preferred to concentrate on what can only be described as Pop History. Given the lack of knowledge of our National History by the majority of Canadians, this if very unfortunate but illustrates a greater problem which is the little value placed on education in general by institutions like the CBC and our Federal Government. A cynic might say that the politicians try to control the official narrative too closely to suit their own purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If these words mean anything to you

Tags

CBC, meaning, Tom Howell, words

This past Saturday morning we got up early I had food shopping to do and other errands to run and wanted to have it done early before the crowds got out. Well I half succeeded since a lot of people had the exact same idea than me.

On CBC Radio I heard this program called If these words mean anything to you with Tom Howell who is a former dictionary writer. It was 8am PEI time and was having my morning espresso machiatto, here is one Italian word, a dash of, stained with milk.

The episode of the radio program was about the words reasonable and the other word was conservative. So the host asked; A)  Are you reasonable? B)  Are you conservative? Then he went on to interview guests and ask them if they were or thought of themselves as A and B.  Of course he explored the meaning of the words in their origin and today. It was fascinating because what he demonstrated was that you are probably conservative in some things you do, attitudes, opinions etc. while thinking of yourself as liberal in other areas of your thought process or attitudes.

As for the word reasonable the host approached the whole question of how we discuss issues, ideas, situations in our world of the internet and twitter sphere. He argued that we have lost the ability to listen to the other and even reflect on their point of view or arguments before deciding how to respond. Can we take a reasonable approach, ponder what is being said and maybe consider if we could reasonably adopt the other point of view. If not can we refute the arguments without resorting to the sort of behaviour seen so often now of personal attacks and gross insults on chatlines.

One guest, I forget his name, said that he despite being quite liberal on most issues, he was tired of the exclusive left leaning views of the CBC, excluding any right wing thought of any kind, on any topic. This is true, think of programs like The Current or As it happens or social affairs shows on Radio-Canada in French, same situation. Is it unreasonable to question the approach of the CBC/Radio-Canada.

The host asked his guests are you a reasonable person? We, the listener were also invited to ask ourselves that question.

On the word conservative, the host had several guests, one was the Leader of the Green Party, Elizabeth May, MP and the other was Michael Chong MP and leadership candidate to the Conservative Party, CPC. Both expressed their views on a host of issues showing that depending on the issue. they could be conservative or not. I think it is true of a lot of people, we may support or adopt an idea because for us it means something while see another issue totally differently. Chong for one has been at odds with Stephen Harper the former Prime Minister while in his Cabinet. Without naming Harper, he made it clear, he thought the man an authoritarian, top down style of manager and did not like him much. Chong did resign from Cabinet over a disagreement with Harper on Quebec.

May said that depending on the issues she could be Green, Liberal or Conservative. She did work for Conservative PM Brian Mulroney in the 1990’s and admired his approach to environmental policies. She also admired the late Flora Macdonald, MP, P.C. who was the first women Foreign Minister of Canada. I worked for Ms Macdonald and I really liked her a lot, brilliant woman.

Chong said that he did not consider himself a liberal, he believed in merit and not quotas. Attacking the position of PM Trudeau who claims to be a feminist. Chong gave the example of Trudeau achieving the 50% parity between men and women in his Cabinet and when asked about it answered glibly ”Because it’s 2015”. Chong maintains that this answer is revealing in the sense that Trudeau believes in social engineering to achieve his political goals and he, Chong does not, merit alone should be the criteria for promoting men or women to Cabinet. I agree with Chong on this point, does that make me a Conservative, no I don’t think so. But I do believe in Merit or Meritocracy to be promoted. Human nature does not respond well to social engineering by politicians. So far the women in the Trudeau Cabinet have not done particularly well in their portfolio, think of Jody Wilson-Raybould at Justice, Bardish Chagger, House of Commons reform agenda, Mélanie Joly at Heritage, Catherine McKenna, Environment, Maryam Monsef who was demoted after bungling Electoral reform and replaced by Karina Gould and MaryAnn Mihychuk who was simply dropped. So much for quotas.

An interesting program and leads listeners to question the meaning of words.

It’s Spring time

Tags

Al Jolson, April, Brendan Allen, Canada., CBC, Maritimes, PEI, Weather

Well according to Brendan Allen our new weather man who is replacing our retiring Kevin Boomer Gallant at CBC Weather here in the Maritimes, Winter is over and the mild weather pattern shows that we have broken the back of Winter. Mild Spring weather is with us now.

Brendan Allen, new radio weather man on CBC in the Maritimes, most people think he is 16 years old. A very friendly guy, he is still in school.

So I called the dealership and am having the Summer tires put on the car. Started to wash the windows, we have 18 large windows, you have to pace yourself.

I also started to clean our back deck which looks out unto the Hillsborough river, love to sit there in the morning having our coffee and Nicky loves to just take the Sun. I know that on the mainland in the rest of Canada it still Winter but hey that is why we moved to the Island, enough with the 10 months of Winter.

Tomorrow we are getting April showers say Brendan, here is Al Jolson to tell us all about it. Enjoy Spring!

 

 

Intermission

Tags

CBC, Charlottetown, PEI, storm, Wind, winter

Well this morning we got up and the storm has stopped or past us, the wind is still pretty strong but is diminishing gradually. The Confederation sea bridge is still closed to all traffic, it has been closed for 12 hours now and I can just imagine that many trucks on the mainland side in New Brunswick are just waiting, parked in the special area for the bridge to re-open. The weather was just as bad in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and Cape Breton (Isle Royale) sticking out into the Atlantic, they always get the brunt of all storms.  What it means for us on PEI is that the grocery stores will start having shortages in fresh produce like salad and imported fruits from the USA or South America. You can still get the essentials since we have lots of farmers and livestock farms.

My main concern is digging my car out from under the snow, right now the front of the car is buried in snow, our parking lot is clean, the plow guy came by early around 5am and cleaned it all out. The City and the Province have re-started the plowing of the streets and the highway and secondary roads after a 12 hour stop, so now they have to catch up. Matt Rainnie the host of CBC Island morning was telling us that another storm is coming this is just a break, an intermission if you like, the new storm should arrive by early hours of Thursday and dump another 25 cm of fresh snow. So Wednesday off I go for more food shopping and essentials.

 

I don’t think I would want to live outside of a major town on PEI in Winter, here we have all the services and living at the corner of two main city arteries means the roads are cleaned first. I heard stories of people in the country side and they are left to fend for themselves, no one can get to them, the wind is too high and there is too much snow on the road. Stories from last night are of 3 babies being born during the height of the snow at home. The way it is organized on PEI is when a storm hits, emergency plows stand by at Fire Halls, all of whom are staff by volunteer fire fighters. If a call comes in the emergency plow will open up the road for the Fire trucks and hopefully make it on time to help, like in the case of births at home. It becomes a neighbourhood affair, since everyone knows everyone else.

 

There are some tragedies of homes burning down and the Fire dept can’t get to them because the driveway to the Farm house is 200 feet long and has not been plowed or is too narrow. Last night a big barn full of bails of hay burned, the storm delayed the Fire Dept by 3 hours. Many of our secondary roads are also nothing more than soft red earth which in Winter turns to hard icy roads and are not necessarily plowed.

I don’t think many people will be going out for Valentine’s day given the state of the roads and everything is closed today anyway. Just stay home and read and enjoy the day. Until the next storm on Thursday morning.

I have to say that the City of Charlottetown is doing a wonderful job of cleaning the streets quickly and efficiently, a much better job than Ottawa who never seemed to be able to clean streets unless you called your City Councillor to complain.

The world is a small town

Tags

CBC, Charlottetown, PEI, storm, Wind, winter

This saying figures in the title page of my blog. This is certainly true of where we are now. We go to Receiver Coffee three times a week when I am done with my duty at the Art Gallery. It is the in spot on Richmond Street behind the Confederation Centre of the Arts.

The food is quite good and the coffee superb, they also have art on the walls for sale by young emerging artists. Currently they have amongst others a photographer who is also a barber at one of the Hip Barber shops in town. His name is Jared Doyle and he has an account on Instagram Ivory Orphan. Looking at his portfolio I notice that we know all the people featured, same at the Café, everywhere we go now, look around and you see friends, acquaintances, neighbours or prominent citizens, we speak to everyone, exchange greetings and news. It is that sort of a place.

This morning I was listening to CBC Island Morning with Matt Rainnie and Rich Cormier, there is a big storm coming says Matt so you should go to the grocery store and stock up because Friday morning it is going to be a snow day and no one should be on the road. He is speaking about the entire Province of Prince Edward Island not just Charlottetown the Capital. As I write this the storm has arrived and already the wind is howling at 80Km per hour and we are expecting 40 Cm of snow or 16 inches in the next 5 hours, which is significant. The winds will top 100km in about one hour, the bridge to the mainland has is closed to all traffic and the Canadian Coast Guard has come into the harbour to dock for the night, I can understand they don’t want to be out at sea in this weather.

So I followed Matt Rainnie advice and went to the SuperStore to stock up on all the food items we may need. I was not alone at the store and it was a chance to speak with people about this and that, at the Deli counter a lady was exchanging news with the Deli Counter clerk, the polite thing to do is wait until she finishes the story, you don’t want to barge in, she might be someone’s cousin you know.

Got my shopping done, it was a beautiful day today but by 6 pm the clouds had accumulated and on the news they were giving us the run down of all the places that were cancelling activities tonight, all of it re-scheduled for a Saturday or later. So it is pretty obvious no school tomorrow, the University and College are closed. Many businesses will not open and very likely the government will also be shut down for the day. The airport has already cancelled the evening flights and many delays for tomorrow, so call ahead. At any rate who wants to land or take off in 80 Km winds, not me.

I still had to take the dogs out, they did not want to go out too much wind and blowing snow for them, but out we go, not far like a few feet do what you have to do and turn around quick.

Yes we live in Mayberry and it is a nice feeling, everyone will be at home tomorrow and just read and relax until the storm passes.

Power ball storm.

Tags

Canada., CBC, Charlottetown, Christmas, Confederation, RCMP, Sea bridge, snow, storm surge

Yes since Thursday night a wild storm has raged over the Island Province. The Confederation Sea Bridge had to be closed which is exceptional because of the winds of 107Km per hour. Here in the Capital Charlottetown the wind was at 90Km, flights cancelled, no ferry service, the snow plows of public works were pulled off the roads and the RCMP advised everyone to stay home, roads are closed. Some people did go out and ended up in the ditch because of the intense snow white out caused by the winds. Police could not help them at all. Only going to people who were injured in emergency situations.

All schools and all businesses are also closed. All night we could hear the wind slamming our house and the howling sound coming off the sea. It was pretty though with the snow swirling all around like a being in a giant snow globe.

So we did like everyone else which is have plenty of food in the house and just enjoy a quiet time, we made macaroni and cheese from scratch using 5 yr old Cheddar and Parmesan. Then this morning got up at 8am to see the winds had not died down and were just as furious, in the park behind us the Canadian Flag on the pole of Confederation Park was just being stretched by the wind in a West to South East direction. There was no one about, no cars and the streets covered in snow, so I was not going to go out to walk the puppies at any rate they would have refused to go out,  I opened the door Nicky just stuck his nose out and sat back, to say I am not going out there even if I really have to pee. We did go out quickly, no walk, just enough to do what had to be done and run back quickly in the house. They do not like such high winds because it pushes them about and it scares them.

I was suppose to entertain at Lunch today but my caterer did not come in to work and my guests called to say they would not be coming in this weather. I told them to please stay home, too dangerous to go out.

But tonight there is a party we are going to, just about 100 feet from our house and it will be one of those great parties. Here on this photo above is the new light system on the tower of the Charlottetown City Hall, our Empire State Building, it is a new system which allows the city to flash various colours for different events, is that snazzy or what.

Here above are the lights around the Confederation Centre of the Arts where I work as a volunteer docent in the Art Gallery.

What would PEI be without its lighthouses. Now tomorrow Saturday and then Sunday the weather will become quite warm, we will go from a current temperature of minus 15 C to plus 12 C, meaning that a lot of this lovely snow will melt quickly in the forecasted rain, that is Island weather for you.

Our numerous lighthouses all around the Island are truly the symbol of this place, navigation around the Island would not be possible without them.

Finally I thought this was a very different type of decoration for the Holidays and quite beautiful.

 

 

 

Getting there

Tags

CBC, CCOA, Charlottetown, Christmas star, Food Bank, Food drive, Friends of CCOA, Island Morning, Matt Rainie, PEI, Receiver Coffee, XMAS

Today we finished decorating our Christmas tree and as tradition dictates I put the Star on top. Same Star ornament, decades old, bought in a local store in Ottawa all those years ago for $1. a lot of sentimental value in that little tin foil star.

Today at the Confederation Centre of the Arts, the Friends of the CCOA offered as is tradition a thank you Coffee with cakes and sweets to all the staff of the Centre. All the cakes and sweets are home made by the board members,  I made oatmeal muffins which flew off the plate. We also offered Mandarins which are so popular at this time of the year.

While at coffee, our Board President was discussing next year’s decoration at the Centre with the Chief engineer. This year we did 21 Xmas trees all decorated differently this does not include all the other trees outside around the Centre. The Chief engineer was saying that he can buy a 15 foot tall tree for $40. A tree that size in any big town in Canada would go for $350.+. Here on the Island everyone does boughs and wreaths from natural products often coming from a relatives grove or farm, you just don’t buy the stuff at the store. The little grocery store I go too on Riverside, has an excellent butcher shop in the old fashion sense, they have two butchers who can advise you and give you the cut of meat you want. On the other side they have a bakery, Cristal is the baker but she also has friends who bake for her and all her breads, buns, cookies, etc. are made right there, they also have a great PEI Cheese counter and organic vegetables from the Island Farmers, you know them the names are familiar. So they also sell all kinds of greenery to make wreaths and boughs and the prices are very reasonable. Just love going to that store which is in front of the Hillsborough River.

A wreath on our Friend D.S. front door, they are made by P.S. who has a lot of talent when it comes to doing such things.

Here is another wreath on the house next door

I think those wreaths are just beautiful and all on my street, so I get to walk pass them every day.

Talking of coffee, we go at 3pm to Receiver Coffee shop on Richmond Street, the place is owned by Chris and the coffee is superior in taste and quality, the food is also very good, It is the place to go for coffee in Charlottetown. The shop sits just across from the CCOA so you get a lot of actors, artists and musicians who come in for coffee and a bite to eat. So the other day on FB, I saw this promo for the Island Morning coffee blend with Matt Rainie and Mitch Cormier who are the hosts of the CBC Island Morning Show, it is listened too by most of the population of the Island. Everyone knows Matt Rainie, so they arranged with Chris to get a coffee blend which could be sold to customers for $20. of which $10. would go to needy families and Food Banks during the Holiday Season.

 

At Christmas time a lot of groups will give money and food to the Food Bank. The CBC is doing a turkey drive and the Island Potato Farmers will give 10lbs of potatoes for one turkey given, so a family in need gets a fresh Island turkey and 10lbs of spuds. They did say on the radio tonight how many turkeys have been given so far and they already have hundreds of pounds of potatoes to go with it. Another business gave 120 pies to the CBC for the food drive and Boomer Gallant our local weatherman star went to collect them. The generosity is touching and surprising because it comes from people not Corporations or big business, many donate anonymously.

Just a final picture tonight of St-Paul’s Anglican on Grafton Street next to Province House.

St-Paul was built by William Critchlow Harris in 1896, brother of the famous Canadian Painter Robert Harris.

If you do not like…

Tags

Boomer Gallant, CBC, Charlottetown, PEI, Urspo, Weather PEI

Here on PEI the old saying if you do not like the weather just wait and it will be different in 20 minutes does apply. The Island being in the Gulf of St-Lawrence and facing the open Atlantic, we are subjected to winds and sea currents and their effect on the weather patterns. Storm can come and go or simply not materialize at all despite getting a warning.

We have been on the Island now for 2 weeks and the weather has been early Spring like despite the fact that we are in February and there is at least officially one more month of Winter left. This Winter has been very mild both in Ottawa and elsewhere, I really don’t mind. The weatherman in PEI is Boomer Gallant, he is on the CBC daily, wearing baseball hats and windbreakers to match.

Kevin “Boomer” Gallant is one of the most recognizable faces in Prince Edward Island. He was born and raised in Charlottetown and is in his 24th year as weather host on CBC Television’s supper-hour news program – CBC News Compass.

Along with delivering the latest weather reports, Boomer also hosts a daily segment in CBC News Compass to promote community events and fundraisers.

Apart from his work at CBC, Boomer is well known to many Maritimers for the sixteen years he spent calling harness races at the Charlottetown Driving Park.

I also believe that Boomer is a client of the famous Jungian shirt maker extraordinaire UrSpo of AZ  https://sporeflections.wordpress.com   Boomer sports his shirts.

On another topic, a dear friend of mine recently was speaking of the price of wine in restaurants. I often wonder how restaurants can charge 3 times the price of a bottle of wine you can find at the Liquor store. Now remember if you see on the wine list a price of $30 dollars for a wine bottle it does not mean it is worth it or is any good, it is just the restaurant profit margin. In Canada price of beer, wine and spirits is dictated by Governmental bodies and tightly controlled, it is also heavily taxed. So a bottle of wine imported from Italy at a cost of $7 dollars arrives on the shelf of the Government Liquor Store at $16 dollars, the restaurant in turn will sell it for $48 dollars. People think of this must be good wine because it is expensive. NO it is still a $7 dollar bottle of wine which means it is a good table wine nothing more.

I find that you cannot put a dollar value on wine or liquor based on the price in the store because the price is subject to a strong mark-up. Better to read up in trade magazines what is said about the wine and its producer, read the critic and see if it is a good year or a bad one for such and such a wine  and don’t forget the most important, do you like it? If not it is not worth anything.

The same applies to Scotch, in many Steak house and other restaurants, half-ounce of Single Malt Scotch sells for $10 to $20 dollars, this is a total rip-off but the owners are appealing to the snob factor and they know how their clients fall for it. I remember a time when a drink was 2 ounces minimum, to maximize profits it is now only half ounce servings and the price has gone up substantially. Price has nothing to do with quality, maybe that is why so many restaurants are struggling to keep their clientele.

Often people put the wrong emphasis on the wrong thing, value on material goods in our consumer society, we are pre-conditioned by marketers to think that you must do this to achieve life goals. Success is defined by material goods, cars you drive and flashy knick knacks, real estate, etc. Canadian Banks love to tell you that you need a minimum of $1 million dollars in savings alone just to retire at 65. Given the personal average debt of Canadians, most do not even have $2000 dollars in an account and have personal debts they cannot repay, so how will they retire if ever.

It is best to put value on personal growth, education, friends, focusing on what matters in life, like good health and peace of mind.