This past week, I attended an activity with a local intercultural group: learning to kayak. Now, this group is big into canoe camping and white-water kayaking, but they have to entice us newbies into the sport a little more gently.… [Read More]
Category: History, Culture, and Politics
At approximately 3 pm today Canada’s population reached 40 million people (according to Canada’s population clock, which really looks more like test tubes….disturbingly).
By comparison, California has a population of about 39 million packed into a lot less geographical space–lookee here**:
This is one of the many reasons we’re in Canada.… [Read More]
Montréal has many, many churches. So many that one of the city’s nicknames is “ville aux cent clochers” (city of a hundred bell towers). Images Montréal, a website dedicated to documenting architecture in the city, lists 437 buildings in the “Churches” category.… [Read More]
You’ve certainly heard about the massive wildfires in Canada–there have been over 160 in Québec alone. The drifting smoke is choking East Coast cities and causing airlines, baseball games, and Broadway shows to cancel.… [Read More]
photo: Lise Gobeille
Hey kids, we’re heading back to Montréal next month, and we’ll be living in a new arrondisement (borough) called Rosemont-La Petite Patrie (“the little homeland“). According to one source, it acquired the second half of its name from a novel that was adapted into a popular TV show:
… [Read More]The name of this district comes from a soap opera, broadcast in the 1970s, created by Claude Jasmin: La Petite Patrie.
Tomorrow, September 30th, is a statutory holiday in Canada called the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
This holiday is meant as a day of reflection on Canada’s colonization of its indigenous peoples and the devastating impact of the Indian residential school program on indigenous families and culture.… [Read More]
Early voting started this weekend, leading up to Election Day on October 3rd. We’re relieved it’s almost over, but some Québécois are having fun with it.
Technically the equinox isn’t until Thursday the 22nd, but last week Montréal definitely shifted gears into greyer, cooler, start-to-hunker-down mode. Probably just the shorter days, but it seems as if the arms of the sky are closing after the wide-open embrace of summer.… [Read More]
Quebecers are fiercely proud of local folks who have achieved fame and fortune. There are statues in the parks of notable artists, poets, and writers, and you’ll even see streets or parks or cafes named after some of them.… [Read More]
A couple Mondays ago I walked up to the local épicerie to do the weekly grocery shopping (I like to go early in the morning, when our nightowl party street in The Village is quiet).… [Read More]