I’ve already mentioned how easy it was to provoke calls on my radio open-line show in Charlottetown in the 1970s, by inviting listeners to share either recipes or gardening tips. One desperate morning, I stumbled across a topic that lit up the switchboard for three days before I had to call a halt. I started …
“To most people, the pack ice looked like a cold, endless wasteland that spread across one’s entire field of vision. But, if one watched it more carefully, one could see it come to life.” — excerpt from No Time to Bury Them by Mark C. Eddy On the surface of national history, the Yukon is …
There’s no need to be a closet comic nerd anymore. The genre has exploded into accepted popularity over the last 10 years and it’s definitely something worth openly celebrating. If you’re like me, however, and relatively new to the scene, you might be surprised to find the roots of Canadian comic artists went mainstream more …
Canada’s first superheroine saved from obscurity Read More »
Continuing this series of reviews of books that deal with the Canadian identity and, to an extent, with the idea of Canada at 150, we come to the latest book by former Berton House writer-in-residence Charlotte Gray. It’s called The Promise of Canada: 150 Years – People and Ideas That Have Shaped Our Country. It …
“Ship’s logs, myths, stories of quiet exaltation and wrenching lamentations can all become poetry when the experience resonates deeply with the rhythm of the human heart…”— Anita Hadley in the introduction to Spindrift: A Canadian Book of the Sea. The sea, in Anita Hadley’s view, may not be a tangible part of your everyday, but …
Once again I was about to die. Like every other literary artist before me I was about to die forgotten in a ditch at the side of the Trans-Canada Highway, beneath a blackened train trestle and a faded “dew worms for sale” sign, with a bullet in my brain. At least I didn’t have to …
“Come as you are, bring a friend or a parent or a daughter or a nephew, and be prepared to be blown away by NYO Canada’s talented and passionate young musicians,” says Blanche Israël, external relations manager at the National Youth Orchestra (NYO) of Canada. The August 10th concert at the Yukon Arts Centre will …
It was the summer he turned twelve, after his failed attempts to save the fox kits, that he began collecting bones, scouring the grass and pine duff for tracks and finding deer skulls, a pelvis, a sprocket-like vertebrae, the bones reassuringly solid in his hands. –excerpt from The Afterlife of Birds by Elizabeth Philips Henry …
For me to be a Canadian in the force of life I had no choice in the matter, to be a Canadian, and a Yukon Canadian at that. this is why I am glad I’am a Yukon Canadian.
Canada a country celebrating 150 years. We have lost many soldiers and cried many tears. Where else in the world can you look out your window and see the northern lights. Dancing through the sky with all colours bright. Where else can you go out in the mountains and smell the wonderful things, like sticky …
Being Canadian! Free Verse Poem by Aramintha Bradford, Age 9, Grade 3
Canadian – Living in one of Canada’s capitols, near the Arctic Circle Canadian – Including Canada’s unique makeup of nationalities and indigenous peoples cultures Canadian- Braving the cold Canadian- Embracing vast swaths of wilderness, forest, tundra and the rocky mountains
What it Means to Be Canadian The rich and bountiful stolen land, connected by dreams of megalomania fallen into disrepair A land of space for all and many more, even on the southern border with the States We the North have much to be ‘sorry’ for, for sins of the past abound aplenty. And still, …
What it Means to Be Canadian by Danielle Beaubien Read More »
What it means to be Canadian We are a people like this land, wide open and wild, each of us as uniquely brilliant as the northern lights that dance across the sky in iridescent colours, each as diverse as the people who fill this magnificent land. We have a quiet sense of pride that swells …
What it means to be Canadian by Jeannine St. Marie Read More »
What it Means to be Canadian What it means to be Canadian, it’s the essence of being free. It’s self determination and democracy, for family, friends and me. What it means to be Canadian, the thing that most defines us. It’s the chance of self fulfillment, in an openness to discuss. What it means to …
Ode to a Canadian It’s a feeling, an understanding of sorts It’s an emotion arriving without court That runs through the bones A quiet confidence spread across many zones Every sport is enjoyed by those wanting A tolerance, some patience, the results not for flaunting Amazing homeland, fascinating to see Proud of our history, with …
Multiple Nations. Leisurely dancing blades of grain, The stark brightness amidst a dark sky, Forceful mountains of snow graced across terrain. This is where I am from. Neglected and seemingly silenced moments of shame, Stolen, pilfered ancient histories and land, The stagnant wait of truth, reconciliation to be named. This is where I am from. …
Lakeside Contemplation This familiar question, this complex quandary, we only seem to solve via the dismissal of that which we know ourselves not to be. We circle around it, like an eddy in a canyon, never really resolving the issue to our own satisfaction. Turning it over and over, like a river smoothed rock, warmed …
What It Means to be Canadian Poem Contest Eh? to Zed. by Brendan Morphet: Tims in hand, cross country drive has begun.
WHAT BEING CANADIAN MEANS TO ME Nadine Peters Teslin,YT It’s Northern lights with emerald shine Upon a breaking dawn It’s long, cold nights that chill your soul As winter lingers on The joyous smells of springtime A crocuses fuzzy bloom It’s witnessing tranquility Beneath a harvest moon It’s going to a hockey game Having fun …
WHAT BEING CANADIAN MEANS TO ME by Nadine Peters Read More »
Following is a Lyric, Free Verse, Poem: The Canada man sat opposite me I, all nervous and prepared And when his judgment came to be These were the learned words he bared The most important thing Is that you were born Thirty years have passed since then A wedlock with but few complaints I’ve tried …
What it means to be Canadian – by Pam van Kampen Read More »
Soaring A red and white kite Soars in the sky, red maple leaf Dazzling in the sun It begins its journey in the east Threading its way from red beaches, dense forests, rock-faced shields Great lakes, prairie skies, to rocky mountains The journey from ocean to ocean The current shifts north to majestic mountains untouched …
Here is Victoria’s entry for this contest – She also took the two photos (Chloe and the Canadian flag). Fall comes and leaves start to fall. Our dog Chloe licks her nails when they are sore and sometimes they fall off! It is very fun in the Yukon… come visit us someday! Our dogs sleep in …
What it means to be Canadian – by Victoria Peters Read More »
When Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin, 29, defeated American Patrick Cantlay on the final hole of the Valspar Championship in Florida on March 12 to win the first PGA Tour title of his career, his life changed forever when the winning putt fell into the cup. All of a sudden instead of going on his honeymoon to …
“She was thinking about the way she’d always taken for granted that the world had certain people in it, either central to her days or unseen and infrequently thought of. How without any one of these people the world is a subtly but unmistakably altered place, the dial turned just one or two degrees.” –Emily …
Remembrance Day has taken more meaning for me lately. Recently Yukon Archives shared some information about some Japanese from Dawson City who served in the First World War. This was a complete surprise to me. I wondered, Why would they serve? The Dawson Daily News of June 21, 1918 reported that there were five Japanese …
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Calls to Action task all sectors of Canadian society to make changes that will affect “the way things are done” between First Nations people and non-First Nation Canadians. The TRC came about as a way to address the legacy of residential schools, and to help to reconcile relations between …
Brett Kissel, rising star in country music, is happy to include the Yukon on his 2015-16 tour. “I wanted to make this a truly Canadian tour”
Happy Birthday, Canada! You have come into your own these past 141 years, warmly regarded as a place of strong values, freedom and a sense of community taking care of community. Canada, you have never forgotten that you were born of the world. You have shed blood in wars that beat back that, which we …
Canada Day means you can see Canadian citzenship happening in front of you. Outside the Shipyards Park pavilion, bordered by black speakers and rows of concert lights, 24 immigrants, representing eight countries, sit in three rows facing the stage. The sun tries to come through the heavy clouds above us. Hundreds of Yukoners fill the …
I mentioned in one of my last articles, in 2008, that I am a big fan of red wines. I have found, to my delight, that there are far more of my fellow wine drinkers, here, who choose red wines over whites. I wondered if this was a Canadian thing or a Northern thing. Having …
I’m a walking mass of contagion. Well, if I were honest, I’m currently reclining on an IKEA futon, propped up precisely so that I don’t leak mucous onto the keyboard. I got a good ol’ “knock you on your arse” cold. More than just your usual sniffles, I have the kind of infection that makes …
I’m generally not one to gauge the success of my summer by small degrees, but there are certain small, simple moments that make life grand. Allow me to paint you a picture. There is a nary a breeze in the parking lot of the Travelodge hotel. Perched right on the edge of town, it hails …
Nothing Screams Summer Louder than, Well … Summer! Read More »
”It’s a huge show,” Todd Duckworth the director tells me. Twenty people in the cast, four in the band. “When you see 20 people stretched out in a line on stage singing their hearts out — it’s pretty impressive. “This is a piece of entertainment. It’s also a satire. So with all the fluff, there’s …
He calls it, “The Lenny Moment.” “I found myself frozen as music played the way I’ve never heard it before,” says Pierre Brault, a veteran Canadian playwright and actor who has performed in operas and Shakespearean and contemporary plays. He is speaking of the first time he “experienced” the music of Lenny Breau. His taste …
Point your toes! Point your toes!” I yelled at Sam Edney. He likely didn’t hear me because my mouth was full of Bacon Ranch Pringles Potato Chips at the time. Or, maybe it was the fact that he was racing down the luge track in Whistler while I was shouting at him through my television. …
Last week I was cornered by someone who asked what her options were for taking wine along on a paddling trip. For me, part of the experience of enjoying the outdoors is to end a day with friends by setting up camp with a great view, a good dinner and a glass or two of …
A kind friend returned from a trip with a belated gift for my 50th birthday – a mixed half case of British Columbia VQA wines, five reds and a white. What a terrific gift for a wine lover. As a bonus, BC wines are an area with which I am woefully unfamiliar. Recently my paddling …
For at least 4,000 years, wine drinkers have chosen food to accompany certain wines and vise versa. When I imagine trying a good wine, it is always in a setting around a table or gathered with friends, and food is always a part of the picture. I worry that the North American wine industry has …
