Ontario and Quebec

There are certain things you should know when you travel to other countries. For instance you should know the name of their president, prime minister, king or queen. Learning these facts ensures that you don’t sound ignorant when making conversation with the locals. If you plan on travelling to Canada, there is another name you should know, Maurice Richard.

Richard played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1942 to 1960. He scored fifty goals within fifty games, and astonishing feat. For this he was nicknamed “The Rocket.” When he had the puck no one on the ice could touch it. He wore the famous number nine. (When his daughter Huguette was born she weighed nine pounds, and Richard requested that number.)

Early in his career, Richard broke his ankle, and it seemed unlikely that he would be able to play as he used to. He gave up his job at a factory, hoping to make it big in the National Leaugue. There were many people doubting him, saying that he was a waste of money and a lemon. Richard worked hard to regain strength in his ankle, and waited on the bench for his chance to return. He was given the opportunity to return to the game he loved, and he proved everyone wrong. He showed a nation that he was a force to be reckoned with.
In 1955, Richard was suspended for the rest of the season. He got into a fight with Hal Laycoe of the Boston Bruins. The whole city of Montreal was in an uproar, and the riots coughed huge amounts of damage. The president of the league wouldn’t change his ruling, so Maurice had to go and ask his fans to stop the riots.

This phenomenal man has provided inspiration for countless hockey players. His life and career have recently been made into a movie. This movie, The Rocket, has just been released in the US. I would highly recommend renting this movie, especially if you have any desire to learn the great game of hockey.

Written by Katherine

(http://personal.ansir.com/img2/grinchface.jpg)

The holiday season is now in full swing. ABC has their “25 Days to Christmas” countdown going. Surely, we can expect to see The Grinch once or twice. The star of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, is none other than Canadian Native Jim Carrey.
Carrey was born January 16, 1962 in Newmarket, Ontario. His family later moved to Toronto, where Carrey tried to break into the comedy scene. It was at a club called Yuk-Yuk’s. It was not as successful as he would have hoped. He moved to Los Angeles in hopes that he would do better there. He got a break and worked his way up through Hollywood. Today, he is firmly seated in Hollywood’s A-List actors with a resume that includes: The Mask, Dumb & Dumber, Batman Forever, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Liar Liar, Simon Birch, The Truman Show, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He currently has four films in production.
Carrey has earned himself two Golden Globes. He has also won thirty-five other awards, and has been nominated for over fifty others.
Carrey is one of the top names in comedy. He has a unique persona, and has produced phenomenal work. As comedic as he is, he was nominated for a Golden Globe for the serious role of Joel Barish in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Carrey has truly proven himself as both an actor and comedian.

(http://www.britfilms.tv/images/news/Jim%20Carrey.jpg)

Blog entry by Katherine

The Bloc Québécois was founded in 1990. The party was formed after Lucien Bouchard didn't like how things were goi for Québec so he decided to make a party that would hold the best interest of Québec to heart. The first year that they were put on the ballet for parliament members the Bloc took 54 seats. It's goal was to bring sovereighty to Québec and tries to make the live of the people Québec better. The policial members of Parliement have tried to bring the National Assembly of Québec to the Canadian Parliement to get the laws that the National Assembly make to be protected under the countries laws. One big major thing that the Bloc Québécois try to do for Québec is to make Québec it's own country. They had a Referendum in Québec to see how many people would want to leave Canada if they had the choose. The vote came up to 59.6% said no and 40.9% said yes. Then after many more programs that the Bloc thought would hurt Québec the party decided it was time to do another Referendum to see if Québec wanted to leave Canada. This time the votes were closer at 50.6% said no while 49.4% said yes. The biggest step toward having Québec as it's own country came in 2007 when Stephen Harper said that Québec was a nation inside the country of Canada.

Resources:
http://www.rocler.qc.ca/turp/eng/Road/Road.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloc_Qu%C3%A9b%C3%A9cois

If you like to ski, then look no further than Whistler-Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada. Whistler has been one of the best Ski and Snowboard areas in the western hemisphere. With it’s fusion to Blackcomb resort, Whistler has become the largest ski area in North America. There are two primary gondolas with one smaller one used only on the Whistler side of the resort. Whistler also has one of the most extensive downhill mountain bike parks in North America. For someone like myself who snowboards and mountain bikes, it’s the perfect place to go!

If you live in the United States and enjoy political satire, then you will probably have heard of people like John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. But do our neighbors to the north watch these shows as well? The answer is yes, although this only gives the viewer a glimpse into American politics. When Canadians want to enjoy satire on their own culture and political system, they turn to Rick Mercer. Rick Mercer is a Canadian comedian and political satirist featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC). Mercer’s claim to fame was a one-man show entitled, “Show Me the Button, I’ll Push It, or Charles Lynch Must Die,” This was a satirical account of Canadian life after Meech Lake. His first television series, entitled This Hour Has 22 Minutes, was aired on CBC Television in 1992. This show was largely popular for Mercer’s unscripted political “rants” in which he would speak directly to the camera and go off on a long tangent. His second show called Talking to Americans was somewhat of a spinoff of a skit done on his original show. The reason people loved this show was because it really showed everyone how ignorant Americans are about anything Canadian. The show consists of Mercer asking random Americans ridiculous questions about Canadian politics. Rick Mercer even got president George W. Bush Jr. to believe that the current Canadian prime minister’s name is Jean Poutine as well as making Al Gore promise to visit Canada’s capital of “Toronto.” (The capital of Canada is Ottawa.) Mercer’s most recent show called simply The Rick Mercer Report is very similar to that of The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with John Stewart. People in Canada love Rick Mercer because he is a hilarious comic relief of the seriousness of politics.

The Mohawk tribes of Canada are found along the Saint Lawrence River located in Quebec.The Mohawks are part of the Haudenosaunee or The Iroquois. It is made up of six different First Nations that have made a allience between the nations for support. One trbes from the Mohawk nation called the Akwesasne is the home of the Mohawks capital. The Mohawks were worried when they meet the first European. Since these people from another land they didn't know thier coustoms which could cause problems wihen the group if one nation is treated differently then another. To make sure this didn't happen the Haudenosaunee made The Kaswentha or Two Row Wampum. It is a belt that is mostly white with to equal shaped purple lines that run parallel the full lenght of the belt. the white part is to repersent the River of Life while the purple lines repersent the Haudenosaunee and Europeans. The Mohawk used this as a base to deal with other Europeans and the United States. Then in 1794 the United States and Great Britain made the Jay Treaty of 1794. It protected the rights to travel between the two countries without trouble for the Mohawk. This maybe the case the Canadien government never did causing some goods to have tariffs. The Mohawk have gone to court over this matter.

resouses:
http://www.akwesasne.ca/haudenosaunee.html
http://www.akwesasne.ca/tworowwampum.html
http://www.akwesasne.ca/jaytreaty.html
http://www.mrnf.gouv.qc.ca/autochtones/english/recherche/index9.html

Ontario was discovered by Etienne Brulé and Samuel de Champlain in 1610 when they went down the St.Lawrence River. Then came the British in the form of Henry Hudson. Hudson named the bay that he came into Ontario after himself. To keep the French from kicking him out Hudson built forts to protect British interest with the fur trade. The British and the French fought one another for some years with the British victorious after the Seven Years War. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 gave the British all that was claimed by the French.

When the Revolutionary War broke out in the American Colonies many loyalist move to what would become Ontario. Then in 1791 the British put into law the Constitutional Act, which split up the territory called Quebec into the providence of Ontario and Quebec. Ontario's capital was established in Newark, but it was changed to what would become Toronto for more protection from the outside world.

During the War of 1812 United States troops came up to Toronto and burnt down the capital building. The Canadians didn't like this so they went to Washington D.C. and burnt the White House down. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. The British gave up some territory and were welling to help end the slave trade.

The population in Ontario was growing and trade was getting faster. Canals between the Great Lakes helped trade move faster. The people of Canada were angry because they were being ruled by only a select few people and the people started to have revolts. To stop the continuation of this problem the Union Act was introduced which reconnected Quebec and Ontario into the Providence of Canada. Not that effective because it put the French Canadians as minority and had the capital Montreal. Quebec and Ontario split then reformed with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to form the Dominion of Canada. The national capital was placed in Ottawa.

Resources:
http://www.gov.on.ca/ont/portal/!ut/p/.cmd/cs/.ce/7_0_A/.s/7_0_252/_s.7_0_A/7_0_252/_l/en?docid=004523
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=20

There are 1,489 songs on these iPods, needless to say I haven't yet had a chance to listen to every one of them. After quite a while I've managed to come up with five favorites though.
1st- Angel, by Sarah McLachlan
This has been one of my favorite songs for years. Sarah McLachlan has a beautiful voice and I find this song to be very soothing. Many songs have so much background noise that you can't hear the words, but in this song the piano is the only accompaniment and I like the simplicity.
2nd- B Minor, by Leahy
The intro to this song is very unusual and quite unique. I figured it would be a classical piece after I saw its title, and if the beginning hadn't drawn me in I would have skipped right over it. The piece reminds me of the Scottish music my grandfather always listens to. I like how the musicians control the violins and make the piece so fast paced.
3rd- The Old Apartment, by Barenaked Ladies
This is a song I haven't heard in years, but as soon as it came on I was able to identify the band. I like how distinct the band is, and the lead singer's voice is instantly recognizable.
4th- Gaelic Song, by the Arrogant Worms & Edmonton Orchestra
This song is ridiculous and laughed through the entire thing. The Arrogant Worms have come up with some really funny material, and if we could pick more favorites I'm sure I'd have picked some of their other work as well. "... there are 7 people left in the world who still speak Gaelic" One of my cousins went to visit Nova Scotia and asked my grandfather to teacher her some Gaelic. He used to be fluent, but like many others his vocabulary has been seriously diminished.
5th- Stanley Cup, by Richard Harrison
This is my favorite spoken word piece that I have found on this iPod. It talks about the significance of the Stanley Cup and what it really means to the people who get a chance to take it home with them. It shows how proud Canadians are of their hockey history.

Broken Social Scene is an ambient Indie rock group from Toronto and Ontario, Canada. They broke out onto the Canadian indie scene in 2001 with their album, Feel Good Lost. Their two core members are Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. The interesting thing about Broken Social Scene is that the other members of the band are mainly guests. These guests are friends of Kevin and Brendan who have their own solo careers within the indie scene. These common guests include artists like Andrew Whiteman, Jason Collett, Leslie Feist, and Metric's Emily Haines. Broken Social Scene's second album, You Forgot it In People, won the alternative album of the year Juno award in 2003. This album featured contributions from artist like, Jessica Moss, Brodie West, Susannah Brady and Ohad Benchetrit. Although these artists were featured on the album, they were never considered a part of the permanent band. My personal favorite album by Broken Social Scene is their self titled album released in 2005.

One who is not accustomed to experimental indie music may not appreciate Broken Social Scene as much as another, but once you get used to it, it becomes very enjoyable music. The mixture of ambient sounds, interesting percussion, and effected string instruments, along with a plethora of different voices and styles create a sound that is extremely unique. I highly recommend that you check them out because their music is insane! Here is a cool video of Broken Social Scene playing on the Letterman Show that I found on Youtube:

I found this picture on flickr.com by cardamom