Canada Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Ramblin' with Roger

North American Math

The places called territories of the US are small, islands, most of which (Guam, e. g.) are very far away.

The JEOPARDY! Final question for April 23, 2013 was: North America’s 3 mainland countries have a total of 91 states & provinces; Mexico has this many states.

You have 30 seconds.

I should note that only one of the contestants got this right.

Scores at the end of the Double Jeopardy! Round: Michael $21,800 , Laurel $22,400, Bill $8,700. But Michael and Laurel both bet big ($19,598 and $21,600, respectively), and guess incorrectly, while Bill bet it all, and got it right.

(BTW, Michael’s bet was totally irrational.)

Alas, I also got it wrong, because even though the question clearly said provinces, I added the territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) to my Canadian count, which made it 13, rather than the 10 provinces. So the correct response was 91 -50 US states -10 Canadian provinces=31 Mexican states.

Rank-Name-Total area (km2)-Percentage of national total area

1 Nunavut 2,093,190 (21.0%)
2 Quebec 1,542,056 (15.4%)
3 Northwest Territories 1,346,106 (13.5%)
4 Ontario 1,076,395 (10.8%)
5 British Columbia 944,735 (9.5%)
6 Alberta 661,848 (6.6%)
7 Saskatchewan 651,036 (6.5%)
8 Manitoba 647,797 (6.5%)
9 Yukon 482,443 (4.8%)*
10 Newfoundland and Labrador 405,212 (4.1%)
11 New Brunswick 72,908 (0.7%)
12 Nova Scotia 55,284 (0.6%)
13 Prince Edward Island 5,660 (0.1%)
Total: Canada 9,984,670 (100.0%)

What I realized is that I was thinking like someone from the United States. The places called territories of the US are small, islands, most of which (Guam, e. g.) are very far away. Even the commonwealth of Puerto Rico is larger only than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island.

Whereas the three territories of Canada compromise nearly 40% of the land and are attached to the provinces.

And “territory” means something else in Canadian parlance: “The major difference between a Canadian province and a territory is that provinces are jurisdictions that receive their power and authority directly from the Constitution Act, 1867, whereas territories derive their mandates and powers from the federal government. In modern Canadian constitutional theory, the provinces are considered to be co-sovereign divisions, and each province has its own “Crown” represented by the lieutenant governor, whereas the territories are not sovereign, but simply parts of the federal realm, and have a commissioner.” I don’t EXACTLY know what that means, although it vaguely reminds me of Washington, DC, which has a mayor and local government, but no full member of Congress.

Anyway, Happy Canada Day, and here’s to the very crooked border between the US and Canada.

Casinos and power stations

The Seneca Niagara Casino, though, did have one interesting aspect; the sign for the upcoming music performers there.

RIGHT across the street from the Sheraton Inn where I stayed in Niagara Falls, NY late last month is this massive Seneca Niagara Casino. I assumed it’s run by the tribe, but I don’t have enough intellectual curiosity to find out. I just don’t enjoy being in them.

My late father, by contrast, LOVED the casinos; I went with him at least once in California. I got stuck waiting for a co-worker to lose $150 at Turning Stone, between Syracuse and Utica, NY.

Back in 1998, there was no casino on the US side of Niagara Falls, so one had to go to the Ontario, Canada side to play. Since there was little else to do, I went along. I was winning on a particular slot machine and did not like the feeling AT ALL, so switched machines so I could lose and be done with it. Why wouldn’t I want to win? Because I have an addictive personality, and it could have become a problem.

It’s also that casinos quite literally give me a headache. They’re noisy, somewhat dark, with no clocks, no windows to give you the sense of the time of day. Some even allow cigarette smoking, which is not good for me.

Whereas, on our walk to the Canadian side of the Falls this year, I was excited to discover the Toronto Power Generating Station, which is now a National Historic Site of Canada. From the Wikipedia: “Completed in 1906 in the Beaux-Arts-style, the station was designed by architect E. J. Lennox… The plant ceased operations on February 15, 1974.” Coming across it, without even knowing it was there, was a real find. It reminds me of a scaled-back gilded-age mansion. For a power plant? How oddly interesting.

The Seneca Niagara Casino, though, did have one interesting aspect; the sign for the upcoming music performers there.

Temptations/Four Tops, May 11 – the type of performers I’d expect; there’s only one original Temptation, and how can the Tops be the Tops without Levi Stubbs?
Bobby Vinton, May 25 – always associated him with that not-so-great music from that period between 1959 and the 1963 March on Washington.
Go-Go’s, June 15 – I didn’t know they were still together, or together again. I saw them live over 30 years ago at JB Scott’s in Albany; check out the Coverville tribute to them
Jackson Browne, June 29 – Jackson Browne? Why do I find this oddly disappointing, somehow?

This image, originally posted to Flickr, was reviewed on July 13, 2010, by the administrator or reviewer File Upload Bot (Magnus Manske), who confirmed that it was available on Flickr under his file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license on that date.

Coming back to America

Before you leave Canada on foot, you need to put fifty cents, Canadian or American, in a turnstile.

All of our NYS Small Business Development Center offices across the state meet once a year. In late April, the locale was Niagara Falls, NY. I’d visited there a couple of years ago with the family, but I had never had a chance to see the Falls from the Canadian side since we had our SBDC conference in NF in 1998. Back then, when a half dozen of us crossed back into the United States, I waved my passport, said, “They’re with me,” and the guy let us all through.

No more. Now when one crosses the border back into the United States, one ought to have a passport, or an enhanced driver’s license, available only in four states thus far – MI, NY, WA, VT) or other specialized forms.

Just before the trip, one of our business advisors e-mailed me that his passport had expired. Could he get into Canada? From all the anecdotal data – as opposed to the official position – it’s possible that he could get into Canada with that passport, a birth certificate, and a driver’s license, e.g. The issue was getting BACK into the US. It’s generally understood that, EVENTUALLY, a US citizen can get back into the United States, but that it might take a while.

At a break in the conference, five of us decided to walk to the Canadian side of the Falls. We had no difficulty getting in. We did note, though, that when someone getting into a car crossing back into the US, the previously placid Canadian crossing guard bolted out of her seat, and noted that if he walked into the country, he had to walk back.

After our sojourn, we were ready to go back to the hotel. Here’s something you should know: before you leave Canada on foot, you need to put fifty cents, Canadian or American, in a turnstile. (By car, I think it’s $2.75.) One of our group had stayed behind to play at a casino; we hoped he still had half a buck left to return to us. Another one of my colleagues has a motorized vehicle. While three of us got through easily, the handicapped-accessible gate refused the coins. Finally, a colleague walked around to enter Canada side and got the guard to find someone to finally let our buddy through. While we waited, surprised travelers exclaimed re: the toll, almost to a person, “You’re kidding me!”

We cross the Rainbow Bridge and got in the queue for dealing with US Customs. There were two teenagers in front of us who apparently went on the US path to Canada, because “some guy told them they could,” then they realized they didn’t want to be going into Canada. So they were going to try to get back into the US. I asked them if they had passports; one said yes, but I MEANT WITH them. Why, no, they did not, just school IDs, and the like. Worse, the one who DID have a passport somewhere was a Norwegian national. One of our group asked if they wanted to let us go first; she later said she was kidding, but none of the rest of us thought so. My party passed through the system easily, but we figured those poor teenagers were going to be there for a while.

So if you’re near an international border, carry the appropriate ID, just in case.

Dominion Day, plus 145

I need some Canadian music.

I was vaguely aware, back in 1967, that Canada was celebrating the centennial of…something or other. As it turns out, it was Dominion Day, the anniversary the British North America Act granted some autonomy to Canada. Montreal was holding Expo ’67, which, unfortunately, we did not attend.

Finally, I did get to visit Montreal in both 1991 and 1992, though not since. I was quite taken by the place, especially the old city. I have some beautiful pictures of the Notre-Dame Basilica that I should get digitized someday.

I went to a Montreal Expos baseball game in 1992, I believe. Must say that the stadium was one of the least pleasant places to watch the sport. It was foreboding and worse, nearly bereft of fans. Little wonder the team moved to Washington, DC after the 2004 season and became the Nationals.

Here’s a list of Famous Canadian actors on both the big and small screen. It is WOEFULLY incomplete.

I need some Canadian music.

King Harvest (Has Surely Come) – The Band (OK, only 4/5s Canadian – close enough)
Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell
Harvest Moon – Neil Young
Constant Craving – k.d. lang
Do You Miss Me Darlin’ – The Guess Who
A Case of You – Diana Krall

Re: above photo- This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

Let’s party like it’s 1812!

Interestingly, both Canada and the United States “emerged from the War of 1812 with a heightened sense of national feeling and solidarity, having repelled multiple…invasions.”

In 1976, there was this big bicentennial celebration of the United States Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. Currently, the country is in the midst of the sesquicentennial of various events during the American Civil War.

But what is being planned for the bicentennial of the War of 1812, which started on June 18? I’ve heard nothing, quite possibly because almost no American understands exactly what the heck it was all about.

The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including “trade restrictions brought about by Britain’s ongoing war with France, the impressment of American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy, British support of American Indian tribes against American expansion, outrage over insults to national honour after humiliations on the high seas and possible American desire to annex Canada.” The British first engaged in military rope-a-dope, which allowed the US to gain “control over Lake Erie in 1813, seize parts of western Ontario, and end the prospect of an Indian confederacy and an independent Indian state in the Midwest under British sponsorship.”

But once the British dealt with Napoleon in 1814, the British adopted a more aggressive strategy, sending in three large invasion armies.” And if Americans know ANYTHING about the war, it is from this latter period. “The British victory at the Battle of Bladensburg in August 1814 allowed them to capture and burn Washington, D.C.” The image we have is of First Lady Dolley Madison saving the picture of George Washington from a burning White House.

“American victories in September 1814 and January 1815 repulsed all three British invasions in New York, Baltimore, and New Orleans.” Baltimore, of course, is where Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the Star-Spangled Banner, inspired by seeing the flag shown above. And New Orleans was codified in an old Johnny Horton song called The Battle of New Orleans [LISTEN!].

Interestingly, both Canada and the United States “emerged from the war with a heightened sense of national feeling and solidarity, having repelled multiple…invasions,” Canada from the US, and the US from Britain. This led, in the US, “a sense of euphoria over a ‘second war of independence’ against Britain. It ushered in an ‘Era of Good Feelings’ in which partisan animosity nearly vanished.” It also seemed to codify the “manifest destiny” drive to go “from sea to shining sea,” to quote a different American anthem.

At some level, it is this war that made a squawking bunch of states into a nation, back in the days when Congress actually declared war.
***
The Year 1812, Festival Overture in E flat major, Op. 49, popularly known as the 1812 Overture…[was] written by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1880 to commemorate Russia’s defense of Moscow against Napoleon’s advancing Grande Armée at the Battle of Borodino in 1812. Interesting that music [LISTEN!] associated with the defeat of the erstwhile ally of the US has become a staple of US 4th of July celebrations.