Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler So, what exactly makes Canada so great?

Not sure why I am starting this thread, but let's have a go...

Besides Axiom speakers coming from Canada, what else makes the country great?

#1) They have their own bacon named after them...

What else?

From Ren and Stimpy

"Our country reeks of trees
Our yaks are really large
And they smell like rotting beef carcasses

We'll probably go to hell
and that's our great reward
for being the Royal... Canadian... Kilted... Yaksmen"

Bren R.

2nd largest country in the world with only the population numbers of California filling it up

Nick, thanks for asking.HHere is a list of some of the things which were invented in Canada .I'll be the first to admit, that I was surprised at some of these.
This is actually rather hard to answer, because there are so many things that I could say here(as I'm sure Americans would if asked the same question) from personal freedoms, respect and tolerance to the beauty and variances across the country in it's people, geography and history. Cheers
PS....who else would you blame!!?

It is God's country up there, I would love to live up there, just would have to find a job first.

I always like to elevate the importance and beauty of embracing multiculturalism. Canadians seem to truly appreciate the influences of English, French, First People, Pacific-Rim immigrants and others too numerous to mention. In some ways, Canada seems like a better salad bowl than the US. Americans have no better friends in the world than Canadians; a blessing we too often take for granted.

Road trip! A day in the life of Canada.

Banff

Calgary

Collingwood

PEI

Cape Breton

Man, I'm so lucky being here:

Vancouver

How's the rain?

Coincidentally, February has been really dry. Today's gorgeous, probably about 13C now, not a cloud in the sky. Was driving yesterday with the sunroof open and all the windows down, include the rear. First time this year. Nice.

That said, the old saying around here goes something like "If you can can't see the mountains, it's raining. If you can see them, it'll rain soon."

Still, wouldn't give it up for anywhere. Rarely too hot or too cold. Not to say that the odd trip somewhere isn't nice.

Hockey must be amongst the things that makes Canada so great.
Now that I live in a place w/ a team to follow, I've learned to love the sport immensely.

"CAR!!"

A lot of tourists come to Canada just to see the Niagara Falls.

They can stay in the States to see them too, yes? Not exactly uniquely Canadian.

The Canadian side is nicer . Lots of people outside North America visit that area. Huge tourist destination.

Whole heartedly agree!!

Eh?

Huh?

I agree. Canada is much like the States. We have hot, we have cold, we have mountains, we have oceans, we have farming, we have high tech, we are rich in resources, we are poor in managing them, we have great wealth compared to the third world but we also have poverty, we have freedom, we have diversity in culture. Most importantly, we are generously giving away Celine Dion to the US. No really, she's yours, feel free......

A couple of things that stand out.

Universal health care. It's by no means perfect but nobody gets turned away from an emergency room if they have no insurance.

I am always hesitant to praise our reputation as a more friendly country because while I think the generality is fairly true, the sad reality is that, especially in our bigger cities, we have the same crimes committed and serious issues as any other similarly sized nation. You will meet many, many friendly people but the illusion that none of us can be rude is a pretty big stretch.

I can proudly say that with the exception of maybe a couple of middle eastern countries, I can proudly wear my Canadian flag on my sleeve or backpack without fear that it might induce bad feelings or even worse. In fact, I like wearing it when I travel because, deservedly or not, people seem to naively think you are automatically safe and approachable when you wear our flag. I have met a few friends this way who just struck up a conversation with "Hey, Your Canadian!"

Some quick hits.
-- Hockey is everywhere
-- Some great beers. (if it's not 5% it's considered light.)
-- Elections that are over in months not years (not that the results are often much better.)
-- Vast expanses of hardly touched nature in every form imaginable.
-- Maple Syrop (OK that's a personal favorite.)
-- Great neighbors to the south.

I'm a realist. I could list a few flaws too but overall, it's got to be one of the best places in the world to grow up and live.

**swoosh** ... that went over my head

Crown Royal

Canadian Club!!

Um, Canada Dry Ginger Ale?

OK, so someone beat me to the beers. Probably worth mentioning again though.

Also, the size-to-population ratio is great if you like the outdoors; there's a lot more outdoors to go around. I think we actually have maybe half the population of California.

Sorry Jaime, shouting "CAR!!" is like a secret code to "good Canadian kids", because we all - OK almost all - played road hockey as kids, complete with goalie nets and pads and orange hockey balls or tennis balls.

So you play while watching for cars. Everyone runs for the nets to get them out of the way.

"CAR!!" is usually followed quickly by "GAME ON!!"

This concludes Canadiana 101.

Don't forget the penalty box(snow bank) at the side of the road, where you were responsible to keep time of your own penalty. You guys actually used those orange "hockey" balls? those were suicide if you took one in the beans, a tennis ball was bad enough, but thooosee!!!( painfull flashbacks, winter of '77....)

Let's just say that the "Kruncher" name was well earned even back then. Now if I could only skate, I'da made the '70s Philly Flyers look like pansies.

Just as nice was getting one of those orange things in the thigh from somebody's slap shot.

We'd get those old add-on plastic blades all bent up with wicked curves. Watch out... Ah, memories.

Not to mention more skeeters than you can shake a stick at.

The natural thing is to be self-deprecating... then you meet people that move here and just love it.

Our maintenance guy at the range moved up here... and I was wondering why, especially as a shooter, he would move up here. He just waved a hand in a 120 degree arc and said "look around"... I guess he saw "God's Country" where I saw "the annoying flat green bit between the city and the lakes."

I guess it depends where you settle on why you settle... can cut it down to a single word usually...

Why did you move to...
BC "Weed"
AB "Oil"
SK "Cheap"
MB "Acrophobic"
ON "Opportunity"
QC "Culture" (or "Poutine" or "Chicks")
and anything east of there "Lost"

(oh, I'm kidding! *ducks, grins, runs like hell*)

Bren R.

Classic!

Wasaga Beach!

Longest freshwater beach in the world stretching at 14 kilometres/8.7 miles

Now, I'm not Canadian, but I was on the receiving end of a few illegal (you weren't supposed to raise the stick above your knee) slapshots in my high school P.E. days. Suffice it to say, I avoided the goalie position from then on. Prior to that, I thought that's where the glory was.

[quote=pmbuko]

No risk, no rewards.

Still, I'm no masochist. You wouldn't catch me in net very often.

Goalies are like drummers: a different breed.

I don't think I've ever had welts quite like those ever since.

I loved playing goal. Didn't have to holler car though. We played in a neighbours tobbaco barn. Even had a decent set of boards up the sides.

Tell me about it! I'm 10-15 minutes away from the falls.
Funny, I've not seen the falls in well over a year and I work and live in the area.
Niagara On The Lake is very special as well. Excellent bike ride between St. Catharines and Niagara Falls via N.O.T.L.

One more thing that makes Canada great, President Barack Obama loves Canada. Finally a U.S president that appreciates a good friend when he sees it. Smart man!

we use the letter "u"

In 3 hours I'm at Axiom's front door

we enjoy going around in circles http://www.roundabouts.ca/orc_webcam.htm
I'm there at least 2 times a day.

...and lastly we've got a very good neighbour

Gotta mention the best fishing in the world too. In Ontario, we are blessed with the most lakes on the planet (around 500,000), great freshwater fishing with so many varieties and beautiful cottage country within hours of the Golden Horseshoe . (give the link a few secs)

Tie die money

I admit to turning my head and looking behind me as soon as I read "CAR !!" Nice one! I'll also add that tennis balls hurt as much as those orange hockey balls once they get wet and freeze.

Some of my best memories come from playing road and pond hockey with my friends. The great part was that people of all ages played together. Nobody thought twice if an adult wanted to play and a kid was welcome in a mostly adult game. You just were not allowed to complain if you got hurt.

In Peterborough we have the Peterborough lift locks which are the highest hydraulic boat lifts in the world, and pretty darn cool to see. We also have the Peterborough Petes OHL team (that I worked for) that has turned out a lot of excellent NHL hockey players, a few of which were good friends of mine from high school.

As long as you go north of Sudbury.

The best fishing I ever had was around Lynn Lake Manitoba. I used to 'trawl' a wet fly behind a canoe late at night to catch trout. The lake was just teaming with them.

Never tried fishing out that way before, but northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan get some monster pike, that's for sure.

Great Northerns. The easist fish in the world to catch. Find one in the shallows, drop a hook in front of its snout. Bam! Looks impressive in a picture though.

One of the Girls in our camp caught a huge lake trout that summer. It measured almost 4' tip to tail.

Chemong Lake is an amazing lake for fishing. I was fishing off the dock one day when I was a kid and Bob Izumi trolled by when I was a little kid, I even gave him some tips on the best fishing spots in the bay near my parents house and he actually took my advice .

I guy I used to work with, actually his buddy, had part of his calf muscle torn off by a muskie when he was swimming at his cottage as a child. There was an incident last year in Georgian bay where a small girl was paddling in the water, and a muskie started circling her/chasing her. Thankfully, her father heard her screaming and grabbed her before the muskie attacked. I've seen a few large muskie where I go fishing for smallies, you see them following some of the loons around esp the chicks. Muskie get bigger than pike but, from my experience anyway, I find pike to be more aggressive(not necessarily more dangerous).

I'll tell you one thing Canada is not great for: those frickin' geese!

Those lift locks are pretty cool!

I remember reading about the physics of lift locks in the past. They only need to engineer them to lift the weight of the water when full to the brim. Because any boat displaces its weight in water, the total weight of the system never changes.

Hate the geese, make a mess all over beaches and waterfronts, kind of ruins the experience.

What makes Canada so great, a few people come to mind (you may know some of them, and be supprised by others).

A.G. Bell
Howie Mandle
Micheal J. Fox
Donald Southerland
Dan Aykroyd
Matthew Perry
Alan Thicke
Alex Trebek
Keanu Reeves
Paul Shaffer
Martin Short
Jason Priestly
Leslie Nielsen
Rick Moranis (AKA Dark Helmet)
Mike Meyers
Lorne Greene (Bonanza, Battle Star Galatica)
Monty Hall
Guy Lombardo (from my home town, London, Ontario)
Rachel McAdams (nuff said)
John Candy
Joni Mitchell
Jim Carrey
Celine Dion (It's true, you guys in the US can keep her, it's OK, we don't mind)
Shania Twain (unlike Celine, we don't want to give Shania away)
James Cameron (Titanic, True Lies, Aliens, etc)
Peter Jennings(ABC)
John Roberts (CNN)
Kim Kattrall
Bryan Adams
Barenaked ladies (only a Canadain could come up with that name).
Rush
Triumph
The Guess Who
Loverboy
Paul Anka
Micheal Buble
William Shattner
Christopher Plumber
Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve (F1 drivers)
Neil Young

And ofcoarse

Wayne Gretzky


People like these make me proud to where the MapleLeaf on my jacket.

paul

S'ok, you can keep Shania, too.

Remember Ken, you don't have to listen to her.......

John Roberts...I will always remember him as J.D. Roberts from The New Music TV show back in the 80's. I always chuckle when I hear him say his proper name.

I know, I know... I'll get back on working on their numbers again in September. Yeesh. If only more people ATE the damn things, I could go out hunting more.

Maybe someone should invent the GooTurDucKen.

Bren R.

Yep, the Much Music Power Hour, with the hair and the..... hair.

paul

I am talking about the show when it was a stand alone in the early 80s before Much Music was around, Much Music's predecessor, it also had Jeannie Bekker(sp?) from Fashion Television as the co-host.

The "show" was "The New Music" on city TV back in the 70s. Channel 79 in Southern Ontario if the brain cell remembers correctly.

Wow, that's before my time. I didn't realize he was on TV before MM. Cool.

paul

I said The New Music in my original post didn't I? Looking.....I did, I did...

Just read about a broken hockey stick for a pool cue in another thread, and it made me think of the many uses people have come up with for the broken stick. I can remember many benches built out of broken hockey sticks using the good portion of the shaft as slats for the seat and back etc., truly classic Canadiana.

Okay, broken hockey stick uses.....pool cue as noted, the best tomato plant sticks available anywhere(also for planting/tying saplings), guys used to use them to protect the tunnels on their snowmobiles when they studded the tracks.

Missed your post re. "The New Music" Jay. Funny to see Roberts on CNN these days....Jeannie Bekker? well she's just...funny

Adrian, I believe you need at least two brain cells to "fire" together in order for your memory to function, so you might be in a little bit of trouble there

Well, the second brain cell is there, but he takes a lot of vacations.

Yeah, and that's what I tell people in regards to my legs not working. Either that or that I have a serious case of restless legs syndrome.

All of us here know you're gonna kick butt regardless, on Saturday, Cam. Your donations are kick'n butt too!!

Yeah man, generous friends from Facebook have donated today, as well as another person from Johnny Cash's forum. Truly amazing people(everyone).

Edit-my voice program accidentally put in ungenerous which I obviously didn't mean to say.