General Questions

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

fenderbender — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:21:59 GMT

winchester21:
Just got back from the Montreal jazz fest/ Canada day celebration.WOW what a party. Great food, drink and Music. The Canadians really know how to put on a festival.Many friends up there.

Glad you had a great time!!! I was there a few years ago for the Jazz fest, great party....really wonderful city....I agree, they do put on a great festival!!!!

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

winchester21 — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:29:28 GMT

Just got back from the Montreal jazz fest/ Canada day celebration.WOW what a party. Great food, drink and Music. The Canadians really know how to put on a festival.Many friends up there.

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

Islander — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:33:24 GMT

Colin James is a great blues player and deserves to be much better known. Here's one of his older videos. No better way to mess up your cheating ex-girlfriend's marriage to your best friend than flying in by helicopter and bringing your guitar and backup singers with you. Pardon the very low resolution.

Colin James - Just Came Back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZCWGUeMkb0&NR=1

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

BigStewMan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:21:29 GMT

I saw The Guess Who listed already; but, a special nod to Burton Cummings as a solo act.
Also, at least for a few songs, April Wine.

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

Islander — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:15:31 GMT

Good calls on Leonard Cohen and k.d. lang (yes, she spells her name in lower-case), Sputnik. Jane Siberry is also really good. Have you ever heard her songs Mimi on the Beach or One More Colour? Love is Everything is great too. I was going to send my gf a Youtube link to it, until I realized it was a breakup song, so not a good idea.

Love is Everything: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLbarC63q74

One More Colour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GMqBh5Zt-4&feature=related

As for Leonard Cohen, I wanted to see him when he played the arena just a couple of blocks away a few months ago, but the concert sold out within half an hour, in spite of having very little advance advertising. Yes, Leonard Cohen sells out hockey arenas here. When James Taylor played the same venue last summer, tickets were available for weeks. I went and James was great.

If you ever get a chance to make it back to the Island, it would be great to have you over for a visit and listening session.

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

sputnik — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:55:11 GMT

You guys didn't mention Leonard Cohen or Alan Thicke. OK, I can understand wanting to keep Alan Thicke a secret.

Back '01, we were in Victoria for Canada Day. We splurged big time and got a gorgeous harbor view room at the Empress and got to watch the fireworks from our window. Beautiful city you got there Pat.

We tried but weren't able to make it to Hyder Alaska for the fourth (we did make it by the 8th though.) The bordering towns of Stewart BC and Hyder AK give an interesting contrast. The only way to drive or fly commercially to Hyder is via British Columbia. Just off of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, you drive through the neat and tidy town of Stewart - nicely paved streets, quaint well maintained homes, and very clean downtown. You go through the most informal border crossing you'll ever see and enter Hyder (population around 100.) Hyder is like a town straight of Alaska bush country - dirt streets, old shabby buildings,and lots of rusty corrugated metal set along with Stewart at the end of a long fjord in stunning coastal scenery.

The Fourth of July is the biggest day of the year for Hyder and can be a pretty wild time.. They put on as big a parade as they can muster and the Canadians come over from Stewart to watch and be part of the antics. I gotta make it up there for the fourth someday - it's on my "things I must do before I die" list.

Hymns of the 49th Parallel by KD Lang is a must have album (buy it if you don't already have it.) I've touted it before in Thebe's music threads. Here is a part of a review that I clipped from Amazon that descibes it better than I can:

"The result is an intimate and warm record perfect for quiet reflection. Like the citizens of that country, the music is powerful but extremely understated, incisive and brilliant. From Neil Young to Leonard Cohen to Joni Mitchell to the vastly-underrated Jane Siberry, lang's voice provides a soothing glimpse into the stillness of the Great North."

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

Islander — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:46:50 GMT

Not to forget:

Bruce Cockburn
Bif Naked
Carole Pope & Rough Trade
Wayne Gretzky
Klaatu
Lexa Doig
Alex Trebek
Jeff Healey
Colin James
Gilles & Jacques Villeneuve
Yvon & Miguel Duhamel
Nanaimo bars & butter tarts (two great dessert treats)
Maple syrup
The Calgary Stampede
The Blackberry
Paradigm speakers
Bryston electronics
Rush

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

Colin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:38:26 GMT

Canada

Snow

Ice

Extremely low population density

Enormous natural resources

French

Indians

Scottish

European cities

The Metro

Winning U.S. hockey for them

First to fight

Friendly

Neighbor

Poutine

Diana Krall

Holly Cole

Celine Dion

Maynard Ferguson

Robert Goulet

K. D. Lang

Arvil Lavigne

Gordon Lightfoot

Sarah McLachlin

Joni Mitchell

Alanis Morrisette

Ann Murray

Oscar Peterson

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Shania Twain

Bachman Turner Overdrive

Bare Naked Ladies

Mr Hockey, Gordy Howe

Pamela Anderson

Jim Carrey

Shannon Tweed

Keanu Reeves

Natasha Henstridge

Jennifer Tilly

Mounties

Pierre Trudeau

IMAX system

Telephone and National Geographic Society by Alexander Graham Bell

Television

French and Indian/Seven Years'/War of the Conquest

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

Fish — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:53:57 GMT

The Guess Who,they'd never let ya forget,and Bob and Doug.Best neighbors we could have.

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

tuned4life — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:55:54 GMT

Neil Young

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

tom67 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:22:52 GMT

Canadian bacon

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

Islander — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:13:07 GMT

picky:

I used to head to Tim Horton's as soon as I crossed the bridge just to get a cup of their great coffee. But now we have Tim Horton's all over our area so I didn't feel it was worth mentioning. I guess we've been "Canadianized". LOL

Another example of Canadian cultural imperialism at work. Soon you'll all be watching hockey and putting maple syrup on your pancakes while listening to Rush. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

Islander — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:07:40 GMT

greg928gts:

Islander:

I wouldn't think our pharmaceutical firms would have any incentive to sell their products at deep discount prices, so could it be that there is some extreme greed on the part of some US drug companies?
Not so much. It's because it's the US companies that spent the hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the drug and get it approved by the FDA. Canadian and other foreign drug companies pilfer the forumula and manufacture their own versions without having had the cost of devleopment and approval.

Aren't most drugs patented in a number of countries, so that generic versions can only be made after the patents expire? I don't think pilfering is the business practice of most companies. We do have laws here, too. Also, not all drugs are invented in the US, either, although many are.

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

picky — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:07:39 GMT

Islander:

Good one! No Tim Horton's Donuts, either. What was up with that?

I used to head to Tim Horton's as soon as I crossed the bridge just to get a cup of their great coffee. But now we have Tim Horton's all over our area so I didn't feel it was worth mentioning. I guess we've been "Canadianized". LOL

Re: What Makes Canada Canadian?

DU73 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:19:48 GMT

i'm not sure... but they sure love their BASS!!!