It’s frosty around here, but our carpet roses are still blooming. They’re tough plants!
Damn.
Agreed. I thought he was tone-deaf as Premier of Alberta, but he had a good track record in the federal Cabinet and always seemed a decent guy.
Damn is right. Condolences for his family with this double loss. He always seemed like a principled man to me, and a respectable politician. A big loss for Alberta.
The first report didn’t mention that his daughter’s father-in-law was also on the plane. That will be very hard on the family - to lose both grandfathers in the same crash. So sad. 
This will bring back bad memories for Premier Notley. Her father died in a small plane crash 30 some years ago, when he was the NDP leader and MLA of a northern riding. He was coming back to Edmonton when the plane crashed.
Historic Day: Last Rider Game at Taylor Field!
611th and final regular season game starts in 30 minutes.
And it’s a sell-out, standings be damned!
Opening ceremonies:
• Sask Riders Drum Line;
• massive Canadian flag;
• half a dozen descendants of Piffles Taylor himself;
• nephew of the (former) oldest-living Rider alum, who died two weeks ago at 93;
• season-ticket holder whose family has held the same season-tickets since 1948;
• announcer confirms that this is the 611th Rider game at Taylor Field;
• and that the CFL estimates that there have been 11.4 million fans watching CFL games from these seats;
• and the Riders come out through the big helmet, crowd chanting: “Bring 'em out! Bring 'em out!”
• one of Piffles’ family leads the crowd in “O Canada”;
• the Snowbirds fly over;
• the Riders win the toss, and we’re off!
Oh, and Referee Proulx got more booing when he was introduced than the Lions got.
One of our friends said “They give us f**** Proulx on the last game at Taylor Field!?! Bastards!”
(It’s a Rider thing. 
)
I’m unsure if I like the “patriotism” aspect of sports events.
When I was a kid, attending Toronto Maple Leafs games with my Dad, the national anthem played. We stood, and a recording of “O Canada” played. The Canadian and US flags (this was NHL in the Original Six era, so four games out of six involved a US team playing Toronto) were blown by a fan over the ice. Then the game started.
Some years later, I went to Blue Jays games at Exhibition Stadium. Sure, we stood for a recording of “O Canada,” but we kept our caps on, and did not remove them–let’s get through this crapola, and get the damn game going! I once said, before a ball game, “The US baseball fan removes his hat and places it over his heart during the anthem. The Canadian fan keeps his hat on, and puts his hand on his beer.”
Now, we have flags, colour guards, flypasts by the military on occasion, and Canadian people removing their hats and holding them over their hearts! Those are all American things, not Canadian ones. Heck, when I do ring announcing for the local pro wrestling promotion, I’ve actually had wrestling fans come up to me and complain because I did not tell all fans to “remove their hats and hold them over their hearts during the national anthem.”
Again, that’s an American thing. The US has a flag code, and a pledge of allegiance, and a whole bunch of other stuff to demonstrate patriotism, that we in Canada just don’t have, and that is not part of our tradition.
Let’s get rid of the enforced patriotism at sports events. We don’t have it before live theatre shows, before movies, before symphony performances, before operas, before local festivals or fairs open, and before so many other things. We seem to want to differentiate ourselves from Americans–so why are we copying their displays of patriotism?
That the offensive part of it for me. Patriotism being socially mandated.
I agree with Spoons!
We should leave that aspect to the neighbours and get our own shtick!
Maybe we could wildly wave our Maple Leaf mittened hands in the air, for the anthem duration, instead. All that moving around will keep everybody warm!
You want to be the first ballpark/rink to stop playing national anthems?
Hey, I agree, they have no place in sports, but there’s no way to eliminate it now.
I’m trying to think of events where they don’t play anthems: golf? Tennis?
Sent from my adequate mobile device using Tapatalk.
Canadians in the USA – what do you miss the most?
I was thinking today about Red Rose Tea, Rose’s Lime marmalade, and packets of vinegar to put on an order of chips.
Coffee Crisp according to my sisters.
Darn tasty
Rose’s Lime marmalade?? Never heard of it. What part of Canada is it available in?
First ski of the season for me. Life is good.
When I go to the US, I miss the chocolate available in Canada. And the milk (I’m talking about milk in general, not the milk bags.)
Newfoundland, very popular. But I think it is imported from UK. You can order it on Amazon.