Halloween in Canada

Happy Halloween everyone!

 

 

For more information I recommend Statistics Canada, Mellohawk.com and CBC.ca

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Mr. Hockey

Trading card photo of Gordie Howe as a member of the Detroit Red Wings. These cards were printed on the backs of Chex cereal boxes in the US and Canada from 1963 to 1965. Those collecting the cards cut them from the back of the boxes.

Gordie Howe, a great Canadian hockey legend, known for, among other feats, for his Hat Trick.

Here are a few facts:

* Born on March 31, 1928 in Floral, Saskatchewan.

* Died on June 10, 2016 in Toledo, Ohio at the age of 88.

* He was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972.

* He was ambidextrous.

* Played from 1946-1971 and 1973-1980.

* He was nicknamed Mr. Hockey.

* A 23-time NHL All-Star, he held many of the sport’s scoring records until they were broken in the 1980s by Wayne Gretzky. He continues to hold NHL records for most games and seasons played.

* He won the Stanley Cup with the Red Wings four times, won six Hart Trophies as the league’s most valuable player, and won six Art Ross Trophies as the leading scorer.

* Howe was most famous for his scoring prowess, physical stamina and career longevity. He is the only player to have competed in the NHL In five different decades (1940s through 1980s). Although he only accomplished the task twice in his own career, he became the namesake of the “Gordie Howe hat trick”: a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game. He was the inaugural recipient of the NHL Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

* He was slightly dyslexic growing up, however, he was physically beyond his years at an early age. Already six feet tall in his mid-teens, doctors feared a calcium deficiency and encouraged him to strengthen his spine with chin-ups. He started playing organised hockey at eight years old. Howe quit school during the Depression to work In construction with his father, then left Saskatoon at sixteen to pursue his hockey career.

* Howe was an ambidextrous player, one of just a few skaters able to use the straight sticks of his era to shoot either left or right-handed.

* He experienced his first taste of professional hockey at age 15 in 1943 when he was invited by the New York Rangers to their training camp held at “The Amphitheatre” in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He played so well that the Rangers wanted Howe to sign a “C” form which would have given that club his NHL rights and to play that year at Notre Dame, a Catholic school in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, which had a reputation for discovering good hockey players. Howe wanted to go back home to play hockey with his friends, and declined the Rangers’ offer and returned to Saskatoon.

 

 

Higher than Niagara Falls!

Canada boasts so many beautiful locations, for tourists and visitors alike.  We are all familiar with Niagara Falls, which borders Canada and the United States.  But in Quebec there is a special gem called Montmorency Falls and is 30 meters higher than Niagara Falls!

It is at the junction of Montmorency River and the St. Lawrence River, about 10 kilometres east of Quebec City.  It has captured people’s fascination and awe since the years of Champlain.  Like most of Canada’s geography, there is a different experience to be had if you visit in the summer or in the winter.  The following videos can show you its beauty more than my words ever could.  Enjoy them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why We Love Dogs

After the previous post about Breezy, here are examples of why we love our dogs. Enjoy the smiles!

 

Funny Dogs – A Funny Dog Videos Compilation 2015:

Ultimate Funny Dog Videos Compilation 2013:

10 Funniest Dog Videos:

You’re welcome!

 

Ah, the Brothers in Law …

 

The Brothers-in-Law was a Canadian satirical musical group active in the 1960s and early 1970s, recording many popular record albums and creating the occasional controversy.

The group was born in 1963 by four police officers in Windsor, Ontario (hence the name Brothers-in-Law). The group’s collection consisted of musical satire making fun at the Canadian government, the law, and buyer issues. They performed and recorded a mix of original songs and adaptations of folk and stage tunes.

The band’s most popular recording was the album Oh! Oh! Canada, which was released in 1965, which sold between 100,000 and 275,000 copies (sources differ as to the exact number). The album’s best-known songs included “Rally Around the New Flag“, which lampooned the extensive political discussions over the “Maple Leaf” national flag design.

The band recorded five albums of songs and a number of singles in Canada. They also recorded an album for release in the United States which included a new rendition of “The Pill” and “Canada-U.S.A.”, a song about Canadian-American similarities and the long-standing debate over whether Canada should become the 51st state.

The original members of the band included songwriter Alec Somerville on banjo, Howard Duffy on the guitar, Larry Reaume on the guitar, and Ken Clarke on bass. In 1965, Clarke left the band and replaced by schoolteacher Bob Lee. But a year later when Duffy left the band in 1966, he was not replaced. The group members maintained their regular jobs, treating their musical career as a sideline and only giving intermittent concerts.

The group officially disbanded in the early 1970s, but in the early 1980s, a compilation album named, Oh! Oh! Canada, Eh? was released. (The appending of the phrase “Eh?” to the title suggests its release was inspired by the success of Bob and Doug MacKenzie.).

In 2008, the Quebec-based label Unidisc reissued most of the group’s albums over a three-volume CD series. Volume 1 collected Oh! Oh! Canada and Strike Again; Volume 2 featured Expose ’67 and Onward the Establishment, while Volume 3 presented The Pill and the previously never released recordings featured in the 1980s compilation Oh! Oh! Canada, Eh?

 

Discography

• Oh! Oh! Canada (1965)
• The Brothers-in-Law Strike Again (1966)
• Expose ’67 (1967)
• Expose ’67 Plus (1967) – same album as above, with extra tracks
• The Pill (US release; year unknown, c.1967)
• Onward the Establishment (1969)
• Oh! Oh! Canada, Eh? (early 1980s compilation)
• The Brothers in Law (2008) – three-volume CD series collecting most of the group’s albums

 

How Well Do You Know Canada?

Here’s a quick quiz to test your knowledge of Canada.  Don’t worry, the answers are further down on the post.  If you don’t want to quiz yourself, just learn some trivia, it’s all here!  Have fun, that’s all I ask.

1. Where is the highest mountain?
a) Mount Logan, Yukon
b) Angel Peak, British Columbia
c) Mount Walsh, Yukon

2. What is Canada’s longest river?
a) Mackenzie, Northwest Territories
b) Athabasca, Alberta
c) St. Lawrence, Quebec/Ontario

3. Where can you find Canada’s oldest maple tree?
a) North Pelham, Ontario
b) Gaspe, Quebec
c) Richmond, British Columbia

4. What famous person opened the first post office in Canada?
a) Sir John A. Macdonald
b) Benjamin Franklin
c) John Molson

5. Where can you find the longest covered bridge?
a) Souris, Manitoba
b) Lethbridge, Alberta
c) Hartland, New Brunswick

6. Where can you find Canada’s biggest salt mine?
a) Goderich, Ontario
b) Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
c) Calgary, Alberta

7. Where was the first emergency number implemented?
a) Winnipeg, Manitoba
b) Toronto, Ontario
c) Ottawa, Ontario

8. When did Canadian John R. Connon patent the first panoramic camera in the world?
a) 1788
b) 1800
c) 1888

Answers:
1. b) Angel Peak, British Columbia at 6,858 m. The second is Mount Logan, Yukon at 5,959 m.
2. a) Mackenzie, Northwest Territories at 4,240 km. The second is St. Lawrence, Quebec/Ontario at 3,060 km.
3. a) North Pelham, Ontario. It is estimated to be approx. 500 years old and is 30.5 m tall!
4. b) Benjamin Franklin. He was joint deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753.
5. c) Hartland, New Brunswick at 391 m it is the longest covered bridge on Earth!
6. a) Goderich, Ontario where it’s the world’s largest salt mine. Sifto extracts 6,577,089 tonnes a year.
7. a) Winnipeg, Manitoba on June 21, 1959 with the number 999. Most of Canada’s 911 was adopted on June 22, 1975.
8. c) 1888. Even if you find earlier patents, Connon’s was the first to actually capture vistas of up to 360 degrees in a single exposure.

 

Guess What Day Today Is???