When I first moved to Ontario, whenever I heard someone referring to “central Canada”, I’d say “You mean Winnipeg?”
Well it’s provocative - kind of like telling people to freeze in the dark. 
I was going to say that it was a hold over from when the central region (Ontario and Quebec) massively dominated the population profile of the country - but that isn’t true. Ontario and Quebec remain dominant from a population perspective.
Year BC Alb/Sask Man Ont/QB Atl NFLD Ter
1901 3% 3% 5% 72% 17% 0% 0%
1911 5% 12% 6% 63% 13% 0% 0%
1921 6% 15% 7% 60% 11% 0% 0%
1931 7% 16% 7% 61% 10% 0% 0%
1941 7% 15% 6% 62% 10% 0% 0%
1951 8% 13% 6% 62% 9% 3% 0%
1956 9% 12% 5% 63% 8% 3% 0%
1961 9% 12% 5% 63% 8% 3% 0%
1966 9% 12% 5% 64% 7% 2% 0%
1971 10% 12% 5% 64% 7% 2% 0%
1976 11% 12% 4% 63% 7% 2% 0%
1981 11% 13% 4% 62% 7% 2% 0%
1986 11% 13% 4% 62% 7% 2% 0%
1991 12% 13% 4% 62% 6% 2% 0%
1996 13% 13% 4% 62% 6% 2% 0%
2001 13% 13% 4% 62% 6% 2% 0%
2006 13% 14% 4% 63% 6% 2% 0%
2011 13% 14% 4% 62% 5% 2% 0%
The neat things is the shrinking of the Atlantic region compared to BC.
I would guess, but I don’t have the data, that if we weighted the percentages by % of national wealth we’d see a more impressive growth in regions outside of central Canada and a narrowing between “core” and “periphery”.
It’s because we have bigger whangs. (What can I say – I was born in PQ and live in ON.) Bow down before us, oh ye lesser ones of the periphery.
(Errrr . . . well . . . on second thought . . . maybe not.)
Fell asleep last night to frogs croaking, and woke up this morning to birds chirping. Must be spring.
That being said, it’s a few weeks later than last year.
So I see that Dalton ‘Iron Balls’ McGuinty has decided that it is time for him to step down as MPP for his riding in Ottawa south. Yet the timing is such a coincidence that it is coming at the same time it is revealed his office broke Ontario law by deleting emails dealing with the power plant scandal.
Why won’t Wynn do the right thing and admit she has no mandate to govern and call an election?
Because she doesn’t want to?
Or because she doesn’t have to. At least not until the other parties (ok the NDP) stop supporting her government.
Yeah, that too.
What do you think of Stephen Harper’s speech to the British Parliament.
I’m surprised Mackenzie King was the last PM to address the British Parliament.
Anyway, it should come as no surprise here that I’m a Conservative supporter, but even as a Canadian I am very impressed with Mr. Harper’s diplomacy and image on the world stage; it’s a very impressive speech and makes one proud to be Canadian.
It was good. I suppose it could have been great, but Harper doesn’t seem to me to be an orator in the style of Churchill, Lincoln, or (brace yourself, Leaffan), Pierre Trudeau.
There was a lot of good in the content of Harper’s speech, and it wasn’t just empty platitudes. I did like the way that he tied history into the speech: King’s speech to the British parliament, and Churchill’s “Some chicken, some neck” speech to the Canadian parliament. I also liked the way that he mentioned the UK and Canada working together in pursuit of common economic goals; but also militarily in Libya, Afghanistan and elsewhere, without mentioning the United States.
But it was apparent in places that he had not practiced the speech as much as he could have. As one who has spoken in public many times myself, I did not see a polished, professional delivery. Rather, it was a speech delivered by someone perfectly at home answering questions in his home House of Commons, but a little uneasy in speaking to the government of a foreign world power.
I do take issue with Mr. Harper including French in his speech. While such a thing is expected in our House of Commons, I’m not entirely sure if it was expected (or even wanted) in the British Parliament. I doubt very much if many of the British Members understood what he was saying; and it seemed to me that the message was more “we’re bilingual and you’re not, nyaah,” than it was a message that Canada has two official languages.
Looked at a different way, if Mr. Harper was addressing the French government, we would expect him to speak French. But if he made some remarks in English during his speech to the French government (just because we’re bilingual), what might the French think? Probably not much. I was left with the impression that the British Members felt the same.
I believe that the Canadian PM should be fluent in French and English, and if possible one or two more languages, so as to make communications easier between heads of government. But one must always consider their hosts: if they are undoubtedly English speakers, one speaks English. If they are French, one speaks French. But even though one may speak French, one does not inject French into a speech given to an undoubtedly English audience.
Missed the edit window. Let me rephrase the above to say the following:
“… so as to make communications easier between him- or herself and Canadians, to make communications easier in the House of Commons, and possibly to be able to speak with other heads of state/government in their own language.”
Perhaps he was confused by “Dieu et Mon Droit,” the use of Latin and French by early parliamentarians, and all that.
Yeah, to be honest I cringed a bit too at this. However, it’s damned if you do, and damned if you don’t really. I imagine the thought process was that Radio Canada might show the PM in England, speaking French, and that might score some brownie points in Quebec. Otherwise, I agree, there really was no point to speaking French in England.
Indeed – maybe he gets his idea of British life from 19th century novels, where people are always tossing in bits of French to show how educated and worldly they are.
I’d say it was 100% because of domestic concerns. If he didn’t use any French, he’d be castigated for it - in Quebec.
I don’t know how much people in Quebec like Harper to begin with, though…
Good thing he represents Canada rather than the NWT and its eleven official languages.
Good speech; I like the part where he called Canada (if I recall correctly) Britain’s truest friend. I was wondering how true that is - they’ve fought with just about everyone else, so we just might be. 
Holy shit!
Current Montreal Mayor, appointed (?) to replace the previous guy who was accused of corruption, is himself arrested for corruption:
Canadian Mayors: between the corruption and the crack smoking allegations …
I think I’ll run for the position of Montreal mayor. My French should be good enough.
I’ll fix the roads and lower the price of poutine. And create more music festivals, including an on-island classical music festival in the summer.
And not accept any suspicious brown envelopes…