It's a weekend of celebrations, as Canada kicked off the festival of national pride on Thursday with our 143rd celebration of what eventually morphed into Canada Day, today of course is the day of celebration for our neighbours to the north and the south as the USA celebrated Independence Day, all helping us set the tone of this weeks brunch.
The Globe and Mail commemorated our 143rd Birthday with an essay outlining our strengths on the world stage and the footprint we are leaving on it, some fine reading for Canadians to reinforce what we bring to the world.
The Montreal Gazette challenges you to show off your knowledge of Canada with a Canada Day quiz put together by the The Historica -Dominion Institute Canada, you can put your knowledge to the test here.
The Globe also offered up a musical smorgasbord of Canadiana a cross Canada tour of the familiar and some of those that may be off the radar a bit but still offer up an interesting interpretation of what we are all about.
Now that you're in a musical frame of mind, there's a new reference point on the internet, where Canadian music fans can find out more about this nation's wide range of musical tastes and talents, the Museum of Canadian Music opened up on Canada Day and awaits your arrival.
Michele Catalano of True/Slant also takes a tour of Canadian music, a rather knowledgable dash around the national musical block as Ms. Catalano is an American writer, though she does get some serious brownie points for her love of hockey and frequent praise of all things Canadian.
Canada Day was also an Independence day of sorts for professional hockey players, as the much anticipated free agency frenzy sent players scurrying off in different directions, providing hope for some fans and bewilderment for others, the most recent list of who went where and who hopes to get off the merry go round soon can be found here.
Of course while sports fans took time to review the diversions from the hockey world, the truly dedicated are still immersed in the World Cup, a tournament that has provided no shortage of surprises and shocking exits from the quest for bragging rights in the foot world, there have been a number of high profile departures from this tournament thus far, from France and England to Portugal, and let's not forget Argentina and Brazil! For those looking for a common theme for those three teams, look no further than this now famous Nike commercial.
The fact that many of those stars on display on behalf of Nike have suddenly found their summers to themselves has resurrected the idea that there is Nike curse when it comes to the World Cup.
Another fellow having a pretty crummy summer, but one that is purely his own fault, is Tiger Woods who in addition to finding that his golf form has gone missing thus far on his comeback trail, now finds that divorce is a very costly thing for one of the world's most recognizable sports figures. The numbers being bounced around this past week to bring to dissolution the Woods vows was simply astounding, somewhere along the lines of 100 million if the latest reports are correct , though if you're looking at it from Tiger's point of view that's a far cry better than what the Australian media had for a final figure. No official word has been released yet and perhaps second thoughts will still rule, but we imagine that by the time this all comes to an end, the new buzz word for this tawdry trail of lost trust will be "show her the money"
Gordon Campbell probably isn't looking forward to this summer either, his HST ambitions are becoming an anchor around his political career, with the delivery of anti HST petitions to Elections BC last week, there's a very good chance he may have to take that HST program to a referendum in BC. Or face the potential recall of his elected MLA's, Bill Tielman one of the architects of the anti HST movement, outlines his thoughts on recall for the Tyee, if it's feeling hot Mr. Premier, it may not necessarily be the summer sun!
Our Podcast selection this week focuses on the HST debate as Mark Forsythe examined the issue for BC Almanac on CBC British Columbia, his report was posted to the Almanac podcast site and you can listen in to it here.
And for our musical selection of the week, we turn to an iconic Canadian group which defined Canadian music in the sixties and seventies, taking the sound of the prairies across the land and into America. From those halcyon days when The Guess Who rode high upon the music charts of the world, we offer up our salute to all things Canadian. Here's 'hoping that you had an enjoyable Canada Day.
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