Did the Iced Capp Igloos Melt?

I am aware that it’s almost winter, but just like many other seasoned Canadians, I enjoy my Iced Cappuccinos year-round.  Today, however, something dawned on me.

Where are the igloo-patterned iced capp lids?  I am pretty sure they have been gone for awhile and I have not paid much attention, but seriously . . . WHERE DID THE ICED CAPP IGLOO LIDS GO?

Seriously, with a 5% price increase, they could at least give us the cool lids.

(EDIT: Okay, were there ever Igloo lids, or am I going crazy?  I can’t seem to find any pictures of the igloo iced capp lids, and it is driving me nuts.  I SWEAR that they existed!!)

Price increase?  Yep.  As of November 9th, Tim Horton’s jacked prices up five-percent in certain regions of the country (Yeah, CERTAIN regions.  What’s that about?).  A lot of people are in uproar about this.  And, of course, even the media’s grabbed a hold of this, particularly in this article from The Canadian Press that has been syndicated by major news sources including Yahoo!, The Edmonton Sun, The Winnipeg Free Press and the Cape Breton Post.

Personally, I’m indifferent to the 5%.  Sure, I’m not happy, but as a university student with two Tim’s locations less than a five minute walk from campus, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than food on campus!  So, I’m not complaining.

But, for those of you in uproar, here’s a recipe so you can make your iced capps right at home.  I haven’t tried it yet, but you can expect an update when I do.  If you try the recipe, let me know what you think and leave a comment!

The Rural Alberta Advantage

Today, I came across a band called the Rural Alberta Advantage.  This song is called Edmonton, which is pretty Alberta if I do say so myself.  Enjoy!

I love Anton Stralman. Especially when he is in Canada.

I have been writing a real post of sorts for about two weeks.  It is hurting my brain, but I decided I should post SOMETHING!

Sooo, awhile back I found out that Anton Stralman, formerly of the Toronto Maple Leafs, was traded to the Calgary Flames.  At this point, I had to decide whether to remain a fan of the terrible Leafs, whom I love dearly because somebody has to, or switch over to being a Flames fan.

I decided I’d go halfers this season, and cheer for both the Flames and the Leafs.  And if the Leafs played the Flames, I would cheer for the Flames because they had Stralman.

Oh, wait, did you say HAD? Yes, I did.  Because on Wikipedia today, I read this:

Transactions

July 27, 2009 – Traded by Leafs along with Colin Stuart and seventh-round pick to the Calgary Flames for Wayne Primeau and the Flames’ second-round pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.
September 28, 2009 – Traded by Flames to Columbus Blue Jackets for a 2010 third-round pick.

Um, hello?  No, Columbus, I am not cool with you taking Stralman out of Canada.  Sorry, this is NOT right:

 

I don’t care if the Flames don’t want him, or the Leafs don’t want him, I want him!!  And at the very least I want him in my country!  I don’t care if he’s Swedish, he has a cool accent, and plays hardcore hockey with asthma, and, most of all, he is cute.

COME BACK STRALMAN.  CANADA LOVES YOU.  Or, you know, this Canadian does!  And, I blog, so I count!

An American in Canada

One of the websites I subscribe to in Google Reader [nerd much? ] is called NotAlwaysRight – Funny and Stupid Customer Quotes.

This one I read this morning, seemed very appropriate to repost.

Translation: Stupid
(Gas Station | Ontario, Canada)

Customer: “Excuse me, why won’t my card work on the pump?”

Me: “Is it an American card?”

Customer: “Yes.”

Me: “American cards don’t work at the pump.”

Customer: “You should put up a sign or something.”

Me: “Actually, there are several right above the card slot.”

Customer: “Oh. Well, I don’t read Canadian…”

Congratulations, Canada!  We are no longer bilingual . . . But trilingual!  We speak Canadian, eh?

I do acknowledge that all Americans are not this silly.  However, when my friends and I were in Chicago, we encountered a few people saying, non-jokingly “So how’s your igloo/pet polar bear/dog sled?” (etc).

But seriously?  I love the United States.  I may even go there this weekend.

Encounters with Canada

In January 2005, back in grade 10, I got to participate in a program called Encounters with Canada. Students from all over the country travel to Ottawa, Ontario to take part for one week at a time. We slept in dorms; it was kind of like being at Canadian camp. It was the dead of winter and Ottawa was freezing and snowy.

We got to visit parliament, many many museums, and we even got to go skating on the Rideau Canal. We had lectures and discussions about government, identity, international relations, and learned about our country through what each of us had to say.

And man, did we have different things to say. By the end of the week, we had made the realization that we were all different, that we had been shaped by our geography and local culture more than we had ever thought. At the same time, all of us felt so connected by the single fact that we were Canadian. It sounds cliché, but this verity we had come to understand from our week-long experience, and all at once it became concrete and tanglible.

We didn’t even all speak the same language: the BC-ites couldn’t speak a lick of French whereas the the Quebecois were just as lost in English. I was the oddball in that department, coming from a francophone school on the prairies. We laughed at the Newfies’ accents, and were flabbergasted when the girl from Miramichi, New Brunswick admitted she had never been on an escalator. One boy from rural Alberta poked fun at himself, making us laugh all week with “you know you’re a redneck when….” jokes. The city kids wanted to know what it was like to live and work on a grain farm. The grain farmer wanted to hear about what it was like to live on the ocean. The girl from Vancouver Island wasn’t liking the weather too much…

We were socialists, conservatives, anarchists, liberals and everything in between. It didn’t matter so much, it was just nice to be removed from our familiar political climates. It was wonderful just to be able to deliberate at that age where we were learning to be diplomatic and to form ideals that were our very own. How enriching it was to see that our perspective was indeed not at the centre of the universe!

The food sucked, the dorms weren’t great and it was really, really cold. But, I think I did manage to encounter Canada somewhere during that week!

If you are in high school, find out more here!

I think a little Bob and Doug is in order here…

As if I have time for 2 blogs eh? That is why I am posting a video today. Now, I’m sure you hosers remember Bob and Doug McKenzie from SCTV? Well, I don’t cause I’m a little on the young side, but I’m just saying some of you might. Despite the portrayal of Canadians as nothing but beer drinkers whose only interest is obtaining more beer, THIS VIDEO CRACKS ME UP. Enjoy!!

 

CBC Radio 2 Great Canadian Song Contest

As the title suggests, CBC Radio 2 is running a contest. The way it works is that listeners vote for the place (city or town or park/area) they would like to have immortalized in song. Then they vote for the artist local to that place to be the one to write/perform it. 13 songs will be made in total (I’m guessing one per province/territory?) During the nominations, I nominated Canmore but alas it didn’t make the cut. Canmore is my favourite place in the whole entire world, je ne kid pas. I’m reluctant to vote for Banff (which is like 20 minutes away) because it just doesn’t have the same appeal.

Sooo, what’s your take? Why not go and vote?

Canada Rocks, Rolls and Makes Music!

To say Canadian music is important to me is an understatement.  I can definitely say that certain musicians have aided in shaping me as an individual, some of those artists being Canadian.  I have received my best songwriting advice from a singer/songwriter friend of mine named Eric, who is a the lead singer for a Canadian band called Flavour, who has recently released a solo album, and the first concert I attended was Avril Lavigne’s second tour in 2005.

I spend a lot of time listening to Canadian music, but without thinking that many of these songs were likely written, worked through, and possibly recorded in Canada.  Last night, for example, I listened to a ton of Alanis Morissette.  Right now, I’m listening to Carolyn Dawn Johnson’s third album “Love and Negotiation”. 

Very diverse and well known artists have evolved out of this country, from Raffi to Three Days Grace.

Just for a glimpse into the music I find often myself listening to (which in itself is fairly diverse), here are some of my favourite Canadian bands and artists:

-Armchair Cynics

-The Arrogant Worms

-Steve Bell

-Die Mannequin

-Elyon

-Amanda Falk

-Finger Eleven

-Fresh I.E.

-Nelly Furtado

-Hedley

-Carolyn Dawn Johnson

-Chantal Kreviazuk

-Avril Lavigne

-Lillix

-Live on Arrival

-Marianas Trench

-Matthew Good Band

-Alanis Morissette

-A New Honour

-Nickelback

-Melissa O’Neil

-Stabilo

-Starfield

-Sum 41

-Theory of a Deadman

-Three Days Grace

-The Weakerthans

 

Who are your favourite Canadian artists?  Leave a comment below!

Keep on rocking, Canada!

**********************************************************

Danielle chiming in here, I couldn’t resist!! I’m more of a folk music fan, as you’ll see. Damn, we got talent:

Kate and Anna McGarrigle!

Leonard Cohen

Leahy

Raffi (story of my childhood right there)

Oliver Schroer

Stan Rogers

Kinnie Starr

Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir

Glenn Gould

The Acorn

Randy Bachmann

David Francey

Joni Mitchell

Tanya Tagaq

Bell Orchestre

La Bottine Souriante

Le Vent du Nord

Great Big Sea

The Moffats (re-living my pre-teen years now!)

Stephen Harper sings the Beatles

This is pretty cool. Say what you will about Stephen Harper, maybe you don’t like the way his hair never ever moves, or maybe you are completely against Afghanistan, and maybe you think he should just go back to Alberta. But really, how many other PMs or presidents have had the guts to do something like this?!

Also, I’m pretty sure our prime minister just said “I get high with a little help from my friends”

Hee hee.

Why I don’t like the Vancouver 2010 olympic logo

This is an inukshuk. Or, at least a cartoon of one.

This stone monument evokes images of the arctic, where it is used as a landmark by the Inuit people. Why don’t I like it as a logo for the Vancouver 2010 olympic games? I don’t think it’s representative, or appropriate, or relevant. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.

Vancouver, as many of you will know, is situated at the southernmost point of Canada’s west coast. Its extremely temperate climate and lush vegetation do not conjure up any images of the arctic whatsoever. The inukshuk is not part of the west coast culture, nor do Inuit have a significant presence in Southern BC. It’s just one big misrepresentation. First Nations that ARE alive and well on the west coast include Haida, Salish, Squamish and Nootka.

Many of these cultures make use of totem poles for symbolism and cultural celebration. Totem poles are absolutely gorgeous but more importantly, they strongly represent the culture  of the people in the area. If VANOC was so intent on using an Aboriginal symbol to represent these games, then why not use something that legitimately represents the Aboriginal people who actually live there and have done so for ages? To me, it seems a slap in the face to all First Nations people, as if to say “you’re all the same, we’re not going to bother making a distinction here”. It’s like nobody bothered to do their research, nobody bothered to appreciate the vast cultural differences between Nations. It makes me cringe every time I look at it, does anybody else feel this way?

Northwest Coast art is beautiful and certainly distinct; I think if the organizers had any cultural sensitivity at all, they would have made tasteful use of it for the logo.

http://www.georgestorry.com/totem-poles.htm

Vis-a-vis women’s ski jumping: do not even get me started. VANOC and IOC, you had better pull up your socks if you are going to make this a games that Canadians will be proud of. And believe me, I want to be proud of it.