# The CanaDoper Café, 2013 edition. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 1, 2013, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736 "2013-01-01T03:29:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 102
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2013, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2021 "2013-08-25T15:34:48Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Looks like you picked a good game to go to! (Al’s won on a field goal with 0:00 left on the clock.) Girlfriend wasn’t too excited about being stuck in the POURING RAIN, though. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2013, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2022 "2013-08-25T18:21:59Z")
That’s a great story, **Spoons.** 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2023 "2013-08-25T22:44:15Z")
It is a good story **Spoons**. In the mid-1990s my parents were visiting me in Ottawa from southern Ontario. They went out to the museum of nature one afternoon and saw Pierre Trudeau sitting with his new daughter and the mother of the kid, his girlfriend I guess, in the cafeteria. Everyone noticed them, and no one approached them. They left him and his new family alone the whole time. That’s another case where Canada is different than the US. Oh, and just this week, I learned Justin Trudeau is married with two kids and a third on the way. I had no idea. Kinda refreshing, ain’t it? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Lurker\_Above](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Lurker\_Above](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Lurker_Above)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2024 "2013-08-26T05:37:36Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > That was one of the incidents that convinced her to take out Canadian citizenship. As she later said, “I couldn’t do that with the US president; I liked the idea that a passerby on an Ottawa street could greet the leader of the country when he got out of his car.” Cool story, though since it was Jean ‘the Strangler’ Chrétien I’m sure his security wasn’t too worried:cool:. The highest ranking elected official I ever met was then-premier Dalton McGuinty (and his wife); I delivered his room service. The RCMP detachment gave it a once-over first but the premier himself took the delivery. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2025 "2013-08-26T05:54:53Z")
> [@The\_Lurker\_Above](#): > > Cool story, though since it was Jean ‘the Strangler’ Chrétien I’m sure his security wasn’t too worried:cool:. Well, there were no Inuit sculptures handy, so I’m sure security was ready to step in if it became necessary. 🙂 > [@](#): > > The highest ranking elected official I ever met was then-premier Dalton McGuinty (and his wife); I delivered his room service. The RCMP detachment gave it a once-over first but the premier himself took the delivery. I’ve never met anybody higher than a city mayor, but I did come within five feet of Pierre Trudeau after he spoke at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough College in the 1980 campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2026 "2013-08-26T06:27:23Z")
I was leaving my office building once for lunch in Regina and shook hands with Jean Chrètien, purely by accident. He was in Regina campaigning, and he was going down a line of people on the street, shaking hands. The end of the line happened to be at the door to our office building, and I came out to the end of the line just as he reached it. He reached out for my hand and said something like “How are you?”, we shook hands, and he moved on, while I went for lunch. Just one of those weird timing things. When I was working in Ottawa in the 80’s, I saw both him and John Turner walking on the streets (not together, of course) near Parliament Hill several times. Didn’t notice any security detail for Turner, who was Leader of the Opposition at the time. I also once saw Chrètien slip into a movie theatre I was in, just as the show was starting and the lights were dimming. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2027 "2013-08-26T06:39:15Z")
Maybe we should have a subthread on “Brushes with Canadian Celebrities.” Politicians or not, who have you met, or otherwise interacted with? I once played music with John Allan Cameron in Uxbridge, Ontario; and was invited onto the stage to play with the Barra MacNeils in St. John’s, Newfoundland. A couple of members of Great Big Sea were there that night, and they joined in too. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2028 "2013-08-26T12:34:48Z")
Hey I shook hands with Phil Esposito in Tampa in 2007. I was there on business and decided to take in a playoff game. Phil came out to the pre-game ceremony outside the arena to give a rallying speech and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I called out “Mr. Esposito” and he turned around and gladly shook my hand while I told him I was a Canadian and fondly remembered the '72 summit series. I probably sounded like a 14 year old girl meeting the Beatles. Oh, and I walked past John Turner in the airport once. ETA: I guess I may as well mention my meeting with Darryl Sittler and Lanny McDonald at a mall in Ottawa. This was back in about 1994 maybe. They were promoting something, I don’t know what, and I got my picture taken with them and their autographs. I probably sounded like a 14 year old girl meeting the Beatles. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2029 "2013-08-26T17:31:21Z")
I may have worked in the same building as Lanny McDonald. Occasionally when I went for lunch or something, I’d see a guy who looked just like Lanny, except older looking with a lighter mustache. Not being a huge hockey fan, I didn’t think much of it - just a guy who looked like Lanny. Later on, I saw Lanny on tv, and saw that he was indeed older and with a much lighter mustache - the guy who looked a lot like Lanny might indeed have BEEN Lanny! ---
**Author:** ![Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dread_pirate_jimbo/32/3897_2.png) [@Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dread_Pirate_Jimbo)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2030 "2013-08-26T18:06:19Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > It is a good story **Spoons**. > > In the mid-1990s my parents were visiting me in Ottawa from southern Ontario. They went out to the museum of nature one afternoon and saw Pierre Trudeau sitting with his new daughter and the mother of the kid, his girlfriend I guess, in the cafeteria. Everyone noticed them, and no one approached them. They left him and his new family alone the whole time. That’s another case where Canada is different than the US. > > Oh, and just this week, I learned Justin Trudeau is married with two kids and a third on the way. I had no idea. Kinda refreshing, ain’t it? I was walking around Prince’s Island Park on the north end of Calgary’s downtown core one day in the mid-90s when I spotted former PM Joe Clark and his wife Maureen walking around and heading in the same direction I was. I would up following them, maybe 10 metres back, for close to 15 minutes. No CIS guys in black suits intercepted me and it really didn’t seem like anyone else recognized him or, if they did, certainly no one made any attempt to engage them. At the time I thought it said a lot about “Joe Who” but it seems that’s just how us Canadians treat our politicians. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2031 "2013-08-26T20:54:15Z")
> [@The\_Lurker\_Above](#): > > Cool story, though since it was Jean ‘the Strangler’ Chrétien I’m sure his security wasn’t too worried:cool:. > > The highest ranking elected official I ever met was then-premier Dalton McGuinty (and his wife); I delivered his room service. The RCMP detachment gave it a once-over first but the premier himself took the delivery. Mrs. McGuinty taught at my old elementary school. So I guess I knew them kinda well. Lol. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2032 "2013-08-26T21:10:26Z")
Umm… I’ve met the host of the local morning radio show and occasionally I’ll see the guy who used to do the local TV news int he evenings…:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2033 "2013-08-26T22:43:45Z")
One of the reasons why Canada is so awesome - [the Crave Yard chocolate bars from Nestlé.](http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s142/featherlou/SAM_0136_zps40b2742e.jpg) 😃 (I didn’t get the Kit Kat one with the black cat on the label because it doesn’t have a cool name like those three.) ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2034 "2013-08-26T23:14:23Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I may have worked in the same building as Lanny McDonald. Occasionally when I went for lunch or something, I’d see a guy who looked just like Lanny, except older looking with a lighter mustache. Not being a huge hockey fan, I didn’t think much of it - just a guy who looked like Lanny. Later on, I saw Lanny on tv, and saw that he was indeed older and with a much lighter mustache - the guy who looked a lot like Lanny might indeed have BEEN Lanny! Then it probably was - no one looks like Lanny but Lanny. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2035 "2013-08-27T00:34:04Z")
I’ve mentined this before… when I was a teenager, my mom and I visited Ottawa and had dinner with Ed and Lucille Broadbent. Ed Broadbent was the MP for Oshawa-Whitby, where we lived, and Mom worked in his campaign office. And in the company of an acquaintance from school, I once spent a Wednesday evening at Nash the Slash’s apartment. Nash’s costume inclides bandages across the face; without them he is relentlessly average-looking. To this day I have no idea what he looks like, other than “generic white dude”. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2036 "2013-08-27T08:23:34Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > And in the company of an acquaintance from school, I once spent a Wednesday evening at Nash the Slash’s apartment. Nash’s costume inclides bandages across the face; without them he is relentlessly average-looking. To this day I have no idea what he looks like, other than “generic white dude”. I remember him. He once produced a record that could be played at both 33 and 45 rpm, and sounded good at both speeds! ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2037 "2013-08-28T16:03:09Z")
Zero comments on any story at the Globe and Mail website? Really? I think this is two or three days in a row now. Obviously it must be something blocked at my end, no? I take schadenfreudian delight at some of those comments. What gives? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2038 "2013-08-28T17:22:28Z")
> [@The\_Lurker\_Above](#): > > Cool story, though since it was Jean ‘the Strangler’ Chrétien I’m sure his security wasn’t too worried:cool:.\ I kept that newspaper with the picture of Jean Chrétien strangling his attacker on the front - so awesome! 😃 > [@Leaffan](#): > > Zero comments on any story at the Globe and Mail website? Really? > > I think this is two or three days in a row now. Obviously it must be something blocked at my end, no? I take schadenfreudian delight at some of those comments. What gives? I just went and looked at a story - I could see the comments. I think you are indeed having some kind of problem at your end. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2039 "2013-08-28T17:26:23Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Zero comments on any story at the Globe and Mail website? Really? > > I think this is two or three days in a row now. Obviously it must be something blocked at my end, no? I take schadenfreudian delight at some of those comments. What gives? Lol. That’s like complaining your income tax is too low, or that you don’t have enough genital warts! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736/2040 "2013-08-28T17:38:21Z")
> [@antonio107](#): > > Lol. That’s like complaining your income tax is too low, or that you don’t have enough genital warts! 😃 Yes. I know. That’s what delights me about the comments. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736.md?page=101) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2013-edition/645736.md?page=103)