Happy Victoria Day!! May 24 is the queen's official birthday. The day is celebrated on the Monday preceding May 25. This is the latest Victoria Day can come on the calendar.
The day marks the unofficial start of summer, the initial long weekend, in Canada. Outside of the Atlantic provinces, summer 2020 was not remotely normal in the rest of Canada. This includes Americans "driving to Alaska." We are rooting for Canadians and Americans to cross the border sometime this summer.
The Atlantic travel bubble was supposed to return May 3 but is on indefinite wait and see. The 2020 Atlantic Bubble ran from July 3-November 26.
Travel between provinces is being discouraged. British Columbia is restricting travel to other regions (e.g., Vancouver to Victoria) and to Alberta. Manitoba is requiring self-isolation except for essential workers. Ontario has restrictions on travel with Manitoba and Quebec.
Canada is catching up on vaccines, some of them even in Ontario. The difference between the first shot and the second shot is a lot longer in Canada (4 months) than the United States (more like 4 weeks).
We are even rooting for the people of Saint Pierre and Miquelon to travel to Newfoundland and vice versa.
As for the picture (above), this is the first Beavers Tail I had in Canada along the water in downtown Halifax in 2009. The O was in honour of President Barack Obama, who made a trip to Beaver Tails when he visited Ottawa in February of that year. A reminder that traveling to Canada brings on new adventures you can't get if you don't live in Canada.
Traveling within Canada will have to involve a bus company other than Greyhound. Greyhound Canada finished the piecemeal destruction of their Canadian service with the withdrawal of southern Ontario and Montréal.
Your humble narrator would love to research other bus companies that have taken over some of the routes. Greyhound gave a smooth experience with coordinated schedules before abandoning western Canada and northern Ontario in 2018. Yes, ViaRail does cover some of that ground with less than ideal schedules and a lot more money. Intercity bus travel is essential for many in a country that is as spread out as Canada.
You might have to do more research to travel across Canada by bus. The journey is worthwhile.
The Toronto Blue Jays have a "home" game on Victoria Day, per tradition. The Blue Jays are playing their last game in Dunedin, FL for the season, hosting their regional Tampa neighbours. That game will be on Rogers Sportsnet in Canada and the MLB Network in the United States.
The Blue Jays are 23-22 resting 4½ games out in the American League East. The team lost the first 3 to Tampa, that team is on a 10-game winning streak. Toronto has lost its last 5 games.
The Blue Jays will start playing their home games June 1 at the refurbished Sahlen Field in Buffalo, a short distance from Canada. Capacity will start out at 5,810, 35% of the 16,600-seat stadium. The park is split in half between vaccinated and unvaccinated fans.
The team played its home games at Buffalo in 2020 where fans were not permitted.
Having 4 Canadian NHL teams in the playoffs on Victoria Day is a mirage. Either the teams are long gone or if you go back far enough, the 1979 Montréal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup on May 21.
The NHL surprisingly gave Canadians a most unusual NHL doubleheader on Victoria Day with Game 4 of the Winnipeg-Edmonton series and Game 3 of the Montréal-Toronto series.
The Jets have a commanding 3-0 lead after consecutive overtime wins. The Habs and Maple Leafs have split the first 2 games.
The game in Montréal starts at 7 pm while the game in Winnipeg follows at 9:45 pm. CBC and Rogers Sportsnet will have the games in Canada while NHL Network (Leafs-Habs) and NBCSN (Oilers-Jets) have the games in the United States.
Victoria Day marks a time where Canada doesn't have a permanent Governor General and the United States doesn't have a permanent U.S. Ambassador to Canada.
Canada Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner has been the acting governor general since January. Wagner is the head of Canada’s judicial, executive and legislative branches of government. That scenario should be tenuous at best, especially with a minority government.
The only time in the modern era (1952-present) of Canadian governors general where there was an interim gap was when Georges Vanier passed away on March 5, 1967. Roland Michener didn't take over until April 17, 1967.
We haven't heard a peep about candidates that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will consider with the consent of Queen Elizabeth II.
We have heard speculation about Comcast executive David L. Cohen as the potential nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Canada. If that is true and Cohen doesn't screw anything up, he likely won't take over in Ottawa until at least the fall. We were not impressed on the surface for either of Barack Obama's picks though they turned out okay.
Am willing to bet I would outscore Cohen on a quiz about Canada, even if Cohen has been studying. The United States has not had a permanent ambassador since August 23, 2019 and even then, not much of an ambassador.
Katherine Brucker has served as the acting ambassador since November 9. We are sure she is doing a fine job as did Richard M. Mills Jr. (August 23, 2019-November 9, 2020). A permanent ambassador has more sway on important issues such as reopening the border.
Kirsten Hillman has been Canada’s ambassador to Washington since March 26, 2020. Hillman previously was acting ambassador and deputy ambassador. The Canadian process makes getting and implementing ambassadors much easier. They tend to be career diplomats as opposed to random heavy donors. This is in part because Canada values the relationship between the two countries more than the United States does, even under Democratic presidents.
Speaking of politics, Wednesday marks the end of the Mike Duffy era in the Canadian Senate. Senators have to retire when they reach 75. Duffy was part of the Senate scandal on claiming improper housing expenses. Duffy accepted a $90,000 "bribe" from Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff, to repay the expenses. Duffy ran into ethics issues over a Stephane Dion interview while he was with CTV before being appointed to the Senate by Harper.
Nav Bhatia is the superfan of all fans. Now he is in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Bhatia and the Toronto Raptors are synchronized together.
Bhatia has never missed a Toronto Raptors home game in Canada. He is well known for buying tickets and getting people of different cultures to sit next to each other.
Bhatia was the grand marshal of the 2019 Toronto Raptors World Championship parade.
His story of being a mechanical engineer in his native India to coming to Canada and ending up selling cars to make a living is extraordinary. Maybe someone will make a Canadian film out of his story some day.
There is an argument that more Canadians could have seen Beans, the Canadian Screen Award for Best Motion Picture, than other recent winners. The film played as part of the Toronto International Film Festival, available to more Canadians through streaming. I have seen Blood Quantum, winners of 6 CSAs, one of the best films of that genre I have seen, regardless of country. Have been impressed with Jeff Barnaby.
Perhaps more Americans are watching some Canadian television than Canadians. Canada is producing some amazing television even if you only count what Americans can watch. We hear about Schitt's Creek, Kim's Convenience, and Workin' Moms. Transplant (CTV/NBC) and Coroner (CBC/CW) as well as Trickster (CBC/CW) might have hit the U.S. airwaves because of the pandemic. Then again, they were great TV shows.
In the original 2021 CFL schedule, the BC Lions would have been in Calgary yesterday at 4:30 pm Eastern for the first preseason game. The season was scheduled to start June 10 with a rematch of the 2019 Grey Cup with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Winnipeg to take on the Blue Bombers.
The targeted start date is now August 5. The 2021 Grey Cup is set for December 12 at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, the first Grey Cup in the Steel City since 1996. This is, as we known for awhile, subject to change.
From TSN's Dave Naylor earlier this month: " … the CFL has for weeks been working on a schedule that opens with all of its games being played in Western Canada. Provincial and municipal governments in the West have indicated a greater willingness to open stadiums to fans as COVID-19 case counts come down and more Canadians become vaccinated."
We suggested in 2020 that the CFL play in the Atlantic provinces. There was talk of a bubble in Winnipeg. Setting up the 4 East teams in the Prairies would ease concerns in Ontario, a province slow to give approval. There would be a lot less travel. The implication is that the western Canadian provinces might be more likely to allow fans in the stands. The Hamilton-Toronto battle might look odd at Mosaic Stadium in Regina but better than not playing at all.
I love safety as much as the next person but if the NFL is going to play in London, the CFL has to play in the Prairies.
Vinyl Tap from Randy Bachman will end its 16-year run on CBC Radio on the next major Canadian holiday: Canada Day 2021. While CBC is ending the show's run on the public broadcaster, Bachman wants to continue Vinyl Tap either with another broadcaster or as a podcast.
Bachman plays songs, tell anecdotes, presents a theme for the show, and even has musical demonstrations. Bachman is known for his stints in the Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive.
The battle has been to give the 2-hour timeslot to a more current show versus giving a home to a Canadian music legend.
The program airs on Saturdays at 7 pm on CBC Radio One with a rebroadcast Sundays at 6 pm on CBC Music (aka Radio 2) and Fridays at 11 pm on CBC Radio One. Those in the United States can tune in on the CBC Listen app. The app offers Canadians more options such as multiple streams in a variety of music formats.
Katherine Barber, known as the Word Lady segments on CBC Radio One and editor-in-chief of The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, died last month in Toronto at 61. Barber did a lot of diligent work with The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, released in 1998, with more than 2,200 Canadian definitions for words such as toque, double-double, and English muffin.
Barber even resorted to trashy novels to find national and regional language unique to Canada and Canadians.
Canadian English might be a combination of British English and American English with Canadian words not used in the U.S. or UK. Thank you Katherine Barber for your hard work. RIP.
photo credits: me; Vinyl Tap/CBC Radio
Twitter capture: @superfan_nav
