Posted on 11/27/2011 9:50:44 PM PST by buccaneer81
And They Say Canadians Don't Brag.....
So, what do we Canadians
have to be Proud of?
1. Smarties (not sold in the USA )
2. Crispy Crunch, Coffee Crisp
(not sold in the USA )
3. The size of our footballs fields, one less
down, and bigger balls.
4. Baseball is Canadian - 1st game
June 4, 1838 - Ingersoll , ON
5. Lacrosse is Canadian
6. Hockey is Canadian
7. Basketball is Canadian
8. Apple pie is Canadian
9. Mr. Dress-up beats Mr. Rogers
10. Tim Hortons beats Dunkin' Donuts
11. In the war of 1812, started by America , Canadians pushed the Americans back past
their White House. Then we burned it, and
most of Washington ...
We got bored because they ran away.
Then, we came home and partied....
Go figure.
12. Canada has the largest French population
that never surrendered to Germany .
13. We have the largest English population
that never surrendered or withdrew
during any war to anyone, anywhere. EVER!
(We got clobbered in the odd battle but
prevailed in ALL the wars)
14. Our civil war was fought in a bar and
lasted a little over an hour.
15. The only person who was arrested in our
civil war was an American mercenary who
slept in and missed the whole thing.
He showed up just in time to get caught.
16. A Canadian invented Standard Time.
17. The Hudsons Bay Company once owned
Over 10% of the earth's surface and is still
around as the world's oldest company.
18. The average dog sled team can kill and
devour a human in under 3 minutes.
(More information than we need!)
19. We know what to do with the parts
of a buffalo.
20. We don't marry our kin-folk...
21. We invented ski-doos, jet-skis, Velcro,
zippers, insulin, penicillin and the telephone.
And short wave radios which save countless
lives each year.
22. We have ALL frozen our tongues to
something metal and lived to tell about it.
23. A Canadian invented Superman.
24. We have coloured money.
25. Our beer advertisements kick ass
... as does our beer.
26. Our Country is the only one to have plastic money bills in 2011
AND MOST IMPORTANT ....
The handles on our beer cases are big enough for hands with mitts on.
Oh..... Canada !
Oh yeah... and our elections only take one day!
Pass this on if you're proud to be Canadian!
You’re right about baseball I think. Even every Canadian writer I’ve read about the game said that if you give some kids a ball and a stick they’d invent something that looks a lot like baseball. I think the writer may be referring to the first “official” game but I’ve never heard about it.
Now for a good sports argument- the oldest football rivalry in North America is between Toronto and Hamilton, and the oldest professional football championship is the Grey Cup (just played last night, 99th annual, awesome game).
Major flashback to my misspent youth. That sot always ran during the Saturday 5pm broadcast of the Bugs Bunny Roadrunner Hour- it always ran immediately after the Curling games.
In the interest or enjoing a good barroom argument, I gotta bite.
2. So Crisie crunch din’t fly there. Businesses fail all the time.
3. I’ll grant that as the NFL always considered the CFL to be a development league. I still think the CFL rules make for a more interesting game- some of the best moments were due to the fact that a missed field goal is a live ball.
7. Prepared to concede the point, but my understanding of the history was that he invented the game in a high school here in Canada to give the kids an indoor game during the winter.
12. As a French Canadian I do consider it subject to bragging rights. What most people don’t realize is that the Conquest created a unique culture, because the English left us alone and we were cut off from the inflence of France.
14. 1837 was actually pretty interesting- it was a bar fight that secured property rights and led to the birth of a nation. Google “Montgomery’s Tavern”.
16. You are correct that Fleming was Scottish by birth, but his career was made in Canada. Before Standard Time was adopted he built a transconintal railway. What most people (including Canadians) don’t realize is that our cultures are not English/French; they are French and Scottish.
19. Not sure about that one- if you can cite an older company still in business I’ll stand corrected. HBC was started with a Royal Charter signed by Charles II.
20. Busted. FWIW the taboo about cousins is unique to America.
The first war that I mentioned, the War of the Palatine Succession, also known as the War of the League of Augsburg or the War of the Grand Alliance was known in North America as King William's War. France started the war by invading the Rhine-Palatine or Rheinpfalz. The French destroyed most of the castles in the region, a major reason why most of the castles in the Rhine valley, including the big one in Heidelberg are now in ruins. However, the war ended in 1697 with a French defeat.
The War of the Spanish Succession, which began in 1701 when France tried to seize control of the Spanish Empire is known in North America as Queen Anne's War. This also ended in a French defeat.
The War of the Austrian Succession started with a border dispute between Prussia and Austria but escalated into a major European war in which England and France once again found themselves on opposite sides. In Canada, New England militia captured the powerful French fort of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, but had to give it back according to the terms of the treaty that ended the war. This angered the New Englanders, since Louisbourg, being near the main trade route to Europe posed a threat to their security, and may have contributed to revolutionary sentiment.
Although the French recovered Louisbourg, the war was yet another defeat for the French.
The French losing streak continued with the Seven Years' War, which I prefer to call the Third Silesian War, because it actually lasted nine years, from 1754 to 1763. In the US, this is called the French and Indian War. For the first two years, the fighting was confined to North America, but it spread to Europe in 1756, with Prussia's King Frederick II (the Great) fighting off invading armies from Russia, Sweden, France and Poland while conquering Saxony. In North America, the war resulted in France's loss of Louisbourg, along with the rest of French Canada.
The other wars involving America and Canada were the War of the American Revolution in which Canada was heavily involved, especially in 1775-1777, and, of course, the War of 1812.
If you can cite a reliable source I'll accept it but it seems counterintuitive. The history of the relations with the Indians here is primarily about the fur trade, with the Hudson's Bay Company buying pelts from the natives. Given that economic relationship, it strikes me that the last thing they would want is for the Indians to die.
Not just Cuban sugar. Thanks to American protectionism, the price of sugar (we get some from Cuba but most from Jamaica), sugar costs 4x as much in the USA so a lot of candy companies have shifted production to Canada. A major landmark here in Toronto is the Redpath sugar refinery.
Depends on your taste in chocolate. I do find that American chocolate is a bit to sweet for me.
Everything I read about the war says it was a draw. We claim victory because the USA didn’t take over, while Yanks claim victory because the British conceded territory. Bottom line is that Madison wanted all and didn’t get it.
You are correct. In all of the conflicts, we were referred to in Cabinet documents as “Canadiens”.
First polymer bills were introduced in Australia in 1988. I know I was there. Since then all bills in Oz are polymer. Every other country follows in that wake. Some components of Canada’s bills are from Australia. All you need to know about them is here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_banknote If you go to the timeline at the link Canada is the latest not the only and very far from the first.
Our navy excelled in mounting a massive campaign with limited resources. I do have a stake in this argument as our war effort was so massive that every Canadian family has a personal stake in WWII. My father passed away in August, 2011 as an indirect casualty of the Battle of the Atlantic. His oldest brother served in our navy on escort duty with the Murmansk convoys. During one of the visits to Murmansk he was exposed to tuberculosis, which he brought back and infected my dad. My dad passed away this year as a direct result of that episode.
I don’t know how it was in the USA, but during WWII EVERY family here had someone in service. At the time we were a nation of 10 million and we had more than a million serving in the military.
Indeed, I knew that already.
All true, but you’d be surprised at how many US companies are Canadian-owned. Here’s a hint- look at all the invenstment firms and banks that AREN’T implicated in the ‘08 meltdown.
OK, gotta bite- what happenend that day?
I am privy to some of the history. They’re are a lot of consiracy theoris about why the Arrow project was spiked, but Occam’s Razor dictates that there was no market. It was the best fighter bar none at the time, but it was not finacially viable because everyone thought that the fighter was no longer useful; the quote when the project was terminated was “The era of the manned fighter was over”. The bottom line about the machine is that it took 30 years to match its performance.
An interesting aspect of the episode is that most of the engineers on the Arrow project ended up working for NASA on Project Apollo; I have seen an uncropped photo of the Lunar Module on the assembly line at the Grumman Canadair plant in Montreal.
True, but what you call Smarties are probably what we call Rockets. Smarties here are a chocolate thing.
Coffee Crisp is a layered wafer with chocolate and a coffee cream between. Just a hint of coffee taste, mostly chocolate and wafers.
Interesting stuff, especially Louisburg. I’ve visited the site twice during my childhood while touring the ancestral homeland (I’m Acadien). The other areas I’ve visited that really got my interest were in the Niagara Region where a lot of the War of 1812 was fought. If you ever get the chance, pay a visit to Fort Niagara on the US side then hop across the river to Fort George which is within shooting distance.
Mexican is a race?
Your remarks about the French aren't exactly a shower of rose petals.
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