Thursday, September 21, 2006

Only in Canada You Say?!

Once upon a time, there was a long-running commercial for a Canadian tea called Red Rose. They repeated the following scene with all sorts of different actors over the years.

A Canadian would serve Red Rose tea to a sceptical English person. Said person would then be so astounded by the taste, that he or she would exclaim: "Only in Canada, you say? Pity!"


Following, are two photos from our parliament buildings. The first shows a groundhog right on the Parliament Hill lawn: keep in mind that this is in the centre of the city and on the lawn right in front of our parliament buildings where there are always, at least in good weather, scores of people walking about — well maybe not always scores, but I'm sure you get my drift.

The second is the actually the main parliament building — The Centre Block. This structure houses both the House of Commons and the Senate. And if you look closely, you'll see that it is being held together by duct tape, a rather famous Canadian product. Red Green must be ecstatic.

Somehow, I can't imagine being able to take two similar photos at any other centre of government in the world. There are also the Parliament Hill cats. Really, they have set up housing for stray cats well off to the side of the buildings. Everybody wants to see them too! I don't have a picture at hand; maybe next time.

Only in Canada, you say?




8 comments:

  1. That duct tape shot is too funny! It looks like something that could end up on This Hour had 22 Minutes or Air Farce. Perhaps you should send it to them. :-)

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  2. Well, the duct tape seems eminently sensible to me.

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  3. It's the handyman's (formerly) secret weapon

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  4. I must be getting soft. I remember it as

    "Only in Canada, Eh? ...Pitty."

    I was, however very young at the time.

    With reference to Heather's comment, The Air Farce... now THAT'S time well wasted! You might recall the Air Farce on radio, and I think it lost some of its appeal in the television medium. I remember my Dad remarking,

    "When they lost Trudeau, they lost a lot of their best material."

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  5. Taped before a live audience. "The Fool On The Hill" starring Stephen Harper. Tonight at nine. Nine-thirty in Newfoundland.

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  6. So you are suggesting that we combine the two pictures to create a groundhog impermeable duct tape barrier to protect the hill then?

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  7. I collect the little figurines in Red Rose Tea and we watched Red Green regularly and are even lodge members since he tricked us into sending money to PBS..LOL.

    Nice photos again!

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  8. Anonymous10:42 pm

    God, I love this country! :-)

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