What is the Next Canadian Holiday?

What is the Next Canadian Holiday? I'm truly amazed at the minor differences in the way we celebrate things. I took my daughter trick or treating an I tried to get her to scream Halloween Apples but she refused. She's two and already a lady. I tried to bring some of up there down here and it went no where.

Yeah, that would work. Give away hunks of seal blubber with the popcorn on Haloween. That'd certainly make the neighborhood preschoolers remember your house for next Haloween.

Seriously, tho...
If you ever do meet what you might call an "Eskimo", don't refer to him as such. It's considered a bit of a slur, although not nearly as bad as referring to a black person in the US as a "coon" or "darkie" or anything like that. Also, they're very good natured people and wouldn't take offense if they understood that the person calling them an "eskimo" didn't mean it in an offensive way.

I really don't know the differences between the various indigenous groups of the far north, so I plead ignorance on that count. Suffice it to say that the Inuit don't like the term "Eskimo" because they want the white people to recognize that there are diverse groups of indigenous people in the North, and not just one group of "Eskimos".

In the language spoken by the Inuit (called "Inuktitut"), the word "Inuk" means "person", so they prefer to be called "Inuit", which means "people". They're happy with this term because all of the different indigenous groups in the north are all "people". It's kinda the same thing as you have in the US, where black people have rejected the N-word because it's a "label" given to them by whites that was generally regarded as disrespectful by both whites and blacks. However, in Canada, there was never a backlash against the term "eskimo" because there was never any disrespect of the Inuit by the white people that ventured to the far north and even settled there. Far from it; it was the Inuit that taught the first white explorers how to survive in the Arctic, and I think most white people even today are impressed with their ability to survive and be successful in such a harsh environment. And, it can be said that there have always been good relations between the Inuit and the white people living amongst them.

(That last point isn't necessarily true of all aboriginal groups in Canada. In Canadian cities, there is a fair bit of prejudice against the "Indians" that live in the cities. They are generally considered to be alcoholics, drug abusers, gang members and petty criminals. But, truth be told, I can't say it's an unfounded prejudice. Rational people don't form stong opinions like prejudice based on what they've read or heard or seen on TV. They only form strong opinions based on their own personal experience. Personal experience is hard wired into the mammalian brain to be the best teacher. Animals learn to survive by remembering their own actual experiences with certain other animals, and remembering them. So, to say that people in Canada are generally prejudice against native people for no reason whatever is to say that millions of otherwise perfectly normal people are behaving irrationally in that one respect, and I can't accept that either.)

Just thought I'd throw that in about the word "Eskimo", just in case anyone in here ever goes up to the Arctic Circle on vacation or scientific expidition or something.

PS: the word "Inuk" (or "person") is the basis of the word "Inukshuk" which can be anything from a pile of stones to mark a trail or to mark a spot where the fishing is particularily good or to a "sculpture" of stones piled up in such a way as to resemble a person. The Inuit will pile up stones to mark important trails or locations to help them navigate in the north where much of the landscape has no distinguishing features. Basically, one rocky beach is indistinguishable from any other rocky beach unless you mark that beach somehow. Inuit use piles of rocks to do that, and in some cases those piles are intentionally made to look human.

http://www.inukshukgallery.com/inukshuk.html

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2005/04/26/olympic-logo050426.html (This Irniq guy needs to get off his high horse and recognize that it's a just a logo, and 10 years from now no one will care what logo they used.)

So then what's the next Canadian Holiday?

The next civic holiday will be Remembrance Day. Here in Canada we remember our war dead starting at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. That is to symbolize that we did everything we could to avoid going to war, but went to war when it was unavoidable. The official ceremonies start at 11:00 in Ottawa, and the CBC typcially broadcasts it live across the country.

Then, after that, the next real "holiday" will be Christmas (or Hannukah for Jewish people). And, I think the Sikh population also has a holiday of some sort right at the end of December, too.

I just heard on the radio that the White House has announced that President Barack will be visiting Churchill, Manitoba to inspect the polar bears there. (Not that the polar bears are gonna wear anything different for the state visit.)

The highest office in the Manitoba government is that of "Premier". Up until a month or so ago, the Premier of Manitoba was Gary Doer. He stepped down from that position to become the new Canadian Ambassador to the USA. Just a few days ago, Gary Doer went to the White House to present his credentials to the US President, and the two men got to talking about climate change (cuz Manitoba produces all of it's electricity by hydroelectric dams, and therefore our electricity is totally green. Gary Doer invited Barack Obama up to Manitoba to see the polar bears in Churchill; Manitoba's most northerly city (of any significant size) (I think it's got about 3,000 people or so.)

So, it's going to be a big day when Barack Obama shows up in Churchill with all the security people, special advisors, press and everything, and doubles the town's population for the day.

There is no road up to Churchill. There's a small airport there, and it the end of the Canadian National railway track that goes up north from Winnipeg. So, he'll have to either go by plane or train. There might be a winter road up there from Thompson, but it's not cold enough up there to have any ice on the lakes. Also, I don't think your government would like the idea of your president riding in a truck that's driving over a frozen lake. They'd be scared the ice would crack and you guys would have to have another election soon.

http://churchill.ca

Don't anyone tell Obama that the bears and whales up there tend to be Republican in their political views, but they're open to debating ecological issues with the President.

(And, what attracts the polar bears to Churchill is the smell of food from the town's garbage dump. MOST of the polar bears going to Churchill are interested in dining at the town dump, not in entertaining visiting dignitaries. The RCMP detachment up there have a full time job trapping the bears and releasing them 30 or 40 miles out of town, so that they can't find their way back into town.)

Amazing Symbolism. Good luck with Mr.Obama. He can be a handful. So what ae the polar bears like there? Are they still white? I don't know why the leader of our nation would go to Manitoba just to check out polar bears. Seems weird.

I've been to Churchill a couple of times, the last time to do antilock brake testing on a frozen lake, in the springtime. The first time I was there I foolishly went out walking outside of town by myself. I was quickly warned that the bears wander freely and are not afraid of humans. For such a tiny town, the place has a huge runway and full sized jets land there regularly..

Lucky you Manitoba, hope you enjoy the teleprompters, photo ops. Ah heck just put a dancing banana here.....

Travelover:

The first time I was there I foolishly went out walking outside of town by myself.

Click to expand...

That can be scary. Polar bears are the top of the food chain in the North, and they're the only land animal that will actively chase down and kill a human being for a meal. You don't want to wander too far away from other people.

Churchill Airport has one long asphalt runway (almost 2 miles long), and airplanes with jet engines do land there, but it's not like you're describing. The only "airlines" (if you can call them that) that regularily fly into and out of Churchill are Calm Air and Kivalliq Air. Both of those companies operate only turboprop (or perhaps piston engine) airplanes. Calm Air flies around the northern communities in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario, and Kivalliq Air flies around "Nunavut" which is the eastern part of what used to be called the "Northwest Territories" in Canada.
Churchill Airport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Calm Air - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kivalliq Air - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 2002, an Air France Boeing 777 on it's way from Paris to Los Angeles made an emergency landing at Churchill Airport because of smoke in the cockpit. The Churchill Airport didn't even have a set of steps high enough to allow the passenger's to get off the airplane. Even my local Home Depot store has several sets of steps that high for getting stock off the shelves. They crew on that plane had to deploy the inflatable slides so the passengers could get off the airplane. And, the only way they could get a pilot back on the plane was with a conveyor belt used to load cargo on planes (cuz it could be tilted upward).
Photo Search Results | Airliners.net)

Besides, there'd be no reason for full sized jets to land there on a regular basis; the only people going to Churchill are tourists there to see the bears, the whales and the northern lights, (and there aren't very many people willing to spend money to do that), and planes carrying cargo to the small towns north of Churchill would have to land on the gravel runways in those small towns, so full size jets wouldn't work for that either. There are people from the north flying through Churchill to get to Winnipeg for medical treatment or to go to university or whatever, but that kind of traffic doesn't require a full size jet. They go on smaller planes that carry a dozen people or so. There just isn't the traffic through Churchill Airport to have full size jets landing there on a regular basis.

Maybe the activity at Churchill's Airport used to be busier with larger airplanes landing more often when you were there. Churchill has a huge grain handling facility that Canada once used to sell grain to countries all over the world, and now it sits idle. Churchill also used to also be the base of a weather rocket program (that people say were somehow working with the Distant Early Warning system (DEW line), and that employed dozens of people back in the 60's and 70's. But, that's no longer going on either. So, maybe the airport was busier years ago when the grain handling facilities were still operating and the rockets were still being launched, but nowadays, the airport is lucky to see a full size passenger jet unless it's being cold weather tested or coming in for an emergency landing.

Nestor_Kelebay said:

Travelover:
..................Churchill Airport has one long asphalt runway (almost 2 miles long), and airplanes with jet engines do land there, but it's not like you're describing.........................

Click to expand...

Confession - it was at least 10 years ago that I was last there. At that time we landed on Boeing 737. I recall getting off on the runway on one of those big stair assemblies. On the return flight we were supposed to stop at a second village and the flight crew flew right past it because the fog was so thick. They did a big U turn, flew by a second time and still couldn't make out the runway so they said forget it and flew on down to Winnipeg, where we landed. This wasn't a chartered plane, but I don't doubt that regular service has been discontinued by major air carriers. I was just amazed at the capacity of the runway given the remote location.

The first time I was there we went by rail from Thompson, where we had driven. I was astounded at how long it took to get there, as the train rumbled along about 25 mph on the permafrost (this was in 1976). I just looked on line and the trip is quoted as taking anywhere from 12 to 24 hours to cover a distance of 250 miles as the raven flies.

Yep, everyone who goes up north comes back with stories to tell. I'm expecting there's going to be a lot of development in the north with global warming. A few years ago they found diamonds in the Canadian north, and Canada went from a non-producer of diamonds to one of the largest producers of diamonds in the world. Diamonds that come from Canada are marked with laser on their edge so that people buying them know that they're not "blood diamonds" that come from one of the conflict zones in Africa. That way, people don't feel bad that the cost of the diamond went to help fund a civil war somewhere.
http://www.canadadiamonds.com/canadian_diamond_story.htm

Also, just about 2 months ago, the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company discovered a large gold deposit in Snow Lake, Manitoba that they now plan to develop at a cost of about 500 million dollars.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/gold-mine-a-boon-for-snow-lake-65737322.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2009/11/05/mb-snow-lake-mine-gold-manitoba.html

That's the thing about the north. It's very much unexplored territory. You can still find natural resources up there that that have remained undiscovered because the cold weather made development impractical.

I've driven to Yellowknife, too. Boom and bust town depending on the price of gold.

You've been all over the north. They must be partying in the streets of Yellowknife. The price of gold is over $1000 $US per ounce and rising.

Canadian Diamonds? What's next? What a crazy world we live in.