Welcome back to News from the North! This week we have a roundup of diaries with everything from hitchhiking skunks to plots against Canada's oil sands, not to mention healthy dollops of right-wing slander and thoughtful progressive musings on the way. (And if that's not enough to tempt you, how about this: there's scandalous truths about "24's" Kiefer Sutherland!) It's drama, drama, drama ...and music! (Courtesy a new oratorio based on The Life of Brian.) Like the reviewers say...you'll laugh, you'll cry, it's better than Cats. And speaking of cats, there's still a (public domain) Pointless Pootie Pic for you to enjoy along with a (copyright-compliant)virtual tour of Corner Brook, Newfoundland! So pat the (legally obtained) Newf on the head and come on down below the fold!
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Crossposted at The Next Agenda.
Canadian-American Relations
The rightwing smear machine is now open...north of the 49th. You may not have known this, but We aren't "good Canadians" if we were opposed to sending troops to Iraq. tribe34 fills us in on the smear against Canadians from an American neo-con "think" tank.
Uh-oh. Here it comes. The U.S. wants an increase in oil production! by TexMex is a brief diary with troubling news for US-Canadian relations and the Alberta oil sands.
Society and Culture
In Canadians Brace Yourselves: your marriages might get stronger wclathe reveals that, far from shattering western society as we know it, straight Canadian marriages have risen after the legalization of gay marriages. When love is in the air, love is in the air!
They walk among us! Another Canuck celebrity revealed...at the heart of the right wing's favourite tv show. Larry Jones asks Is "24" propaganda? The answer: you bet. What's more surprising is that Kiefer puts up with it, considering he is the grandson of (drumroll please) Tommy Douglas, one of Western Canada's most progressive premiers, still beloved amongst forward-thinking Westerners. And didja know that Kiefer's mother Shirley Douglas was a semi-militant activist? Read it and weep...for Kiefer.
Pointless Pootie Pic
Humor and Weirdness
Comedy lovers, unite...and get thee to Toronto. If you missed the Saturday Night Loser's Club, Vol. XXXVI: People's Front of Judea Edition by chingchongchinaman then check out this fun news about the latest Monty-Python inspired theatrical fun. It's an oratorio based on Life of Brian, and it's opening in Toronto in June. Sounds hilarious!
Last week it was spy coins. This week it's hitchhiking skunks! Not quite cute and fuzzy from Sharon in MD tells the tale of a Californian skunk that somehow ended up in a transport truck driven to Canada.
Analysis and Opinion
I kinda hesitated to add this diary (since it's mine), but America Needs You, Gillo Pontecorvo is a mediation inspired by U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy's questions to AG Gonzales about Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen unjustly rendered to Syria, where he endured months of torture. It's a story that has yet to permeate American consciousness, despite causing years of controversy in Canada. Links to Leahy's full comments are in the diary.
Maybe you were hiding under a rock and missed the Daily Kos rec listed diary from Canadian Bill: What I've learned about America from Dkos. If so, check it out, for an "only-in-Canada" commentary on American progressives that manages to be funny, gracious, and insightful–all at once.
Featured Canadian Community: Corner Brook, Newfoundland(2)
This week we're visiting a friendly city of about 20,000 Newfoundlanders. Picturesque Corner Brook is located at the mouth of the beautiful Humber River. Surrounded by magnificent forests and a beautiful coastline of fjords and jagged headlands, it is a popular tourist destination–and not a bad place to live, either! Last year it celebrated its 50th anniversary.
History of Corner Brook from Wikipedia:
James Cook, the famous British cartographer and explorer was the first to survey and record the geography of the Bay of Islands, including the area that is now Corner Brook....The area was originally four distinct communities with unique commercial activities. Curling, with its fishery; Corner Brook West (also known as Humber West or Westside) with its retail businesses; Corner Brook East (also known as Humbermouth and the Heights) with its railway operations; and Townsite (known as Corner Brook), home to the employees of the pulp and paper mill. In 1956, these four communities were amalgamated to form the present-day City of Corner Brook.
Corner Brook is home to the Pepsi Centre; thanks to this multipurpose facility, the city can has hosted a wide variety of athletic events, including the 2004 Adventure Racing World Championships / Raid the North Extreme, the Annual TRI-FEST and International Triathlon Union (ITU) Triathlon World Cup and 2003 Canadian Senior Broomball Championships and the 999 Jeux Canada Winter Games. The Pepsi Centre also helps to make possible a small but vigorous film and television industry; Atlantic Canada's largest sound stage can be found in Corner Brook's own Atlantic Studios Cooperative.
Corner Brook Media
You can tune in to OZ FM for a taste of Corner Brook community's radio online. Tune in early for the Dawn Patrol, or check out Pub Cam to get a LIVE look at Corner Brook and surrounding communities!
What to do in Corner Brook
After checking into your hotel or B&B, you have lots of options for fun in Corner Brook. Want to stay inside? You might consider visiting the Hockey Hall of Fame located on the third floor of the Pepsi Centre. The Newfoundland Insectarium showcases live and preserved species of insects from around the world. Or the Corner Brook museum and archives, where you'll find numerous exhibits from days gone by.
There are all kinds of outdoor activities available to you in Corner Brook. How about using the Marina?. In winter, you can ski on Marble Mountain Or go snowmobiling. In summer, you might take a scenic drive , use the walking trails, or play a round of golf at the Blomidon Golf & Country Club.
I can personally vouch for nearby Gros Morne Park. A UNESCO heritage site, it's only an hour and a half from Corner Brook and offers mountains, beaches, fjords, and a beautiful glacier-carved landscape full of wildlife. The park also features geological deposits from a long-disapeared preCambrian mountain range. It's beautiful and fascinating. But be warned: watch out for the moose!
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If you decide you just can't get enough of Corner Brook and want to move there, you may want to look for a job with the Corner Brook Pulp & Paper Mill, the biggest employer in the region. There's also a regional hospital and Sir Wilfred Grenfell College to round out the other retail and governmental options. You'll find all kinds of useful information on the city's website, which maintains a FAQ that will answer many of your important queries about living in Corner Brook, such as:
When are my city taxes due?
Why is my street always the last to be plowed?
What do I do if I see sewer overflow?
My smoke detector activates whenever I make toast. How can I prevent this?
This has been News from the North. Can't get enough of Canadian politics? Check out The Next Agenda, a Dkos-style blog for progressive Canadian politics. See you next week for more News from the North!
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*Image credits*
All images not marked with a number are in the public domain.
- Newfoundland dog image createdby Małlgorzata Miłlaszewska and used in accordance with the GFDL and: Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license versions 2.5, 2.0, and 1.0.
2.Corner Brook map used under the terms of GFDL. (No creator listed; uploaded to Wikimedia by Terry Randall.)
3 Gros Morne moose sign photo created by Anacagua. Used under terms of GFDL and Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license versions 2.5, 2.0, and 1.0.
4.Canadian flag photograph by Jared Grove and used under terms of GDFL.
The full terms of the GDFL license are available here. The full terms of the Creative Commons license are here.