# The Canadoper Café 2024 is now open! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 1, 2024, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432 "2024-01-01T03:30:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/341 "2024-09-29T14:14:14Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > No one has yeet mentioned the Ford tunnel idea? Sounds like a Utopia episode. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/342 "2024-09-29T15:59:57Z")
My humble opinion - I have mixed feelings about a possible election. June 4th, 2026 is the next ‘fixed date election’ for Ontario, so anything that gets the Ford government out of power before they can do more damage is fine with me. On the other hand, I haven’t seen the polls for a couple of months, and when Bonnie Crombie came out against carbon pricing, she completely lost my support. I think a Green/NDP government, which would be my first choice anyway, is extremely unlikely. (I’ve always thought fixed date elections are a stupid idea in a parliamentary democracy anyway.) I don’t understand the support for the Ford Conservatives. My priorities are health care, education, the environment, and care/maintenance of our public spaces and institutions such as Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre - all issues where the Ford government has an appalling record. Add to that the stupid priority of booze in corner stores (when that agreement was set to expire within a year anyway), and the taint of corruption over the Greenbelt deal with developers, and I just don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/343 "2024-09-29T17:39:38Z")
People judge a candidate based on the alternatives. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/344 "2024-09-29T18:22:49Z")
Perhaps, but I can’t imagine a worse alternative that Doug Ford. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/345 "2024-09-30T02:44:19Z")
It’s been tried. They were running a GO train that route for several months. It stopped along the way, as it were. They were hoping to create more ready intercity transit. It did not go well. Largely because what was a, several times a day, a two hour, twenty minute trip to Union in Toronto, became a four plus hour trip, only two a day, one extremely early, and one bringing you back far too late. Oh, and the price was outrageous because why not? Bah! What we need is high speed rail, that arcs down into cities, from a few hundred miles north of thick population. Then give every migrant who makes it here, a few acres along the soon to exist line of new development. They’re ingenious they’ll find ways to create something awesome I suspect. Same with First Nations, give each band a chunk to develop or not. It would drive development in a way that the West has forgotten even exists is my guess. We need people who can think big. Current political outlook is not promising unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/346 "2024-09-30T11:54:47Z")
To mark Truth and Reconciliation Day (or Orange Shirt Day, if you prefer), I’d like to draw your attention to some Indigenous artists. Please let me start with Carey Newman, whose powerful and moving work “The Witness Blanket” has just found a permanent home in the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. > **[Witness Blanket finds permanent home in human rights museum](https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/witness-blanket-finds-permanent-home-as-human-rights-museum-celebrates-10th-anniversary/)** > > The Witness Blanket will now have a permanent home in the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg as part of the museum's anniversary. > **[Carey Newman](https://careynewman.ca/)** > > Indigenous artist, master carver, filmmaker, author, mentor, and public speaker, explore Carey's work and its impact. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/347 "2024-10-04T16:27:42Z")
At a dinner party in NYC the other day, and when they found out I’m Canadian, they asked the question “What’s the most Canadian thing you’ve ever done?”. Well, hasn’t that question just been running around in my head ever since! I didn’t exactly know how to answer, largely because I have no idea if my conception of being ‘Canadian’ corresponds to theirs. I also have no idea if their conception of being Canadian has any correspondence to reality. So, I stammered and staggered and came up with things like “I’ve gone winter camping in a quinzee.” (only to have to explain what a quinzee is), played broomball, sang the anthems at a Maple Leafs game, been to every province for at least a day over the course of a year. I don’t think I ever hit the definitive jackpot with them, though. So of course, I thought I’d ask the Canadopers (and those folks from outside Canada who drop in from time to time) - what do you think is the most ‘Canadian’ thing you’ve ever done, or what would you expect someone else to think is the most Canadian thing anyone can do? ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/348 "2024-10-04T17:59:28Z")
Well there was that one time . . . > **[GG eats seal to show support for Inuit](https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/gg_eats_seal_to_show_support_for_inuit/)** > > ALEX PANETTA, THE CANADIAN PRESS RANKIN INLET – First she gutted it. Then she had the bleeding heart pulled out of its furry, flabby carcass. Finally, she swallowed a slice of the mammal’s oozing organ. And when it was all over Gov. Gen. The question is, what did she wash it down with? > **[The history of the Sourtoe Cocktail: a shot of whiskey garnished with a human...](https://www.cbc.ca/shortdocs/features/the-story-of-the-sourtoe-cocktail-a-shot-of-whiskey-garnished-with-a-human)** > > How did the Sourtoe cocktail come to be? It all started during prohibition, with a nasty case of frostbite. Other than that, I got nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/349 "2024-10-04T18:15:49Z")
I doubt I am in the top 5% of Canadian-ness, but here is my Canadiana checklist. 1. Spent more than five hours tobogganing. 2. Built an igloo 3. Built a snow fort kind of looking like an igloo 4. Walked to school in -40C temperature 5. Walked to school in -40F temperature 6. Played road hockey 50 consecutive days 7. Played ice hockey 8. Played pond hockey 9. Played hockey on rollerblades 10. Played broomball 11. Played broomball on rollerblades 12. Saw Habs win 1993 Stanley Cup 13. Ate fish ‘n brewis, screech, cod tongue 14. Ate dulce, fiddleheads, “boiled dinner” 15. Ate dutchie, beavertails, pettes des soeurs 16. Ate perogi, poutine, bannock, smoked fish 17. Gone camping in every season 18. Jumped off cliffs into lake 19. Know words to “Land of the Silver Birch” 20. Have Paddled-By-The-Sea 21. Worked in five provinces 22. Been to nine provinces 23. Been to fifty-plus provincial parks 24. Can canoe 25. Have made love in a canoe 26. Can draw a maple leaf 27. Have seen the Northern Lights 28. Know a Canadian PM 29. Remember Wayne and Shuster 30. Know most songs of (Cdn.) David Wilcox 31. Know old-school Muchmusic VJs 32. Ate a hippopotamus for lunch 33. Went to a cabine à sucre 34. Hung out at the Pop Shoppe 35. Rode a snowmobile 36. Met Super Dave Osborne 37. Gone fishing for muskie 38. Have read the Constitution 39. Have read A Handmaid’s Tale 40. Have read Sunshine Sketches 41. Know people still angry at Leacock 100 yrs. later for Sunshine Sketches 42. Know Acadians still angry 269 yrs. later 43. Know words to “I am Canadian” beer ad 44. “Did you ever have to make up your mind?… It’s not always easy”; Pleasure Pack; “A town can die if it ain’t got protection…” 45. Have eaten Pablum 46. Have eaten maple syrup with coffee, squash, pastry, flapjacks, as candy, as rum 47. Seen funny “Canadian tobacco products” ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/350 "2024-10-04T18:50:52Z")
These lists often devolve into hockey and Timmy Hoho’s. but you might enjoy this. > **[Calling All Canadians, I'm Curious To Know About The Most Stereotypically...](https://www.buzzfeed.com/tori_honore/your-most-canadian-moment)** > > Maple syrup in coffee is just a must at this point. ---
**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:** [October 4, 2024, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/351 "2024-10-04T18:57:20Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > At a dinner party in NYC the other day, and when they found out I’m Canadian, they asked the question “What’s the most Canadian thing you’ve ever done?”. Well, hasn’t that question just been running around in my head ever since! > > I didn’t exactly know how to answer, largely because I have no idea if my conception of being ‘Canadian’ corresponds to theirs. I also have no idea if their conception of being Canadian has any correspondence to reality. What an interesting question! I think, though, it would be good to find out exactly what they consider to be “Canadian things.” They could be sensible (“Gone hiking in the Rockies”) or outlandish (“Cheered on a hockey team in French while drinking a Molson and eating Tim Hortons”). Any chance you could get them to be more specific? In my case, the first thing that comes to mind is that I’ve driven from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia. Not all at once, but I’ve driven from Toronto to St. John’s (and back, of course), between Toronto and Calgary and Lethbridge numerous times, and from Calgary to Victoria. Not sure if that would count for your dinner companions, but it is certainly Canadian. ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/352 "2024-10-04T19:28:56Z")
Yeah but did you do it on a Zamboni? (not Canadian, I know) ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/353 "2024-10-04T23:51:14Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > I doubt I am in the top 5% of Canadian-ness, but here is my Canadiana checklist. Inspired by @Dr_Paprika, I’ll go with: 1. Spent more than five hours tobogganing. 2. Built snow forts 3. Walked to work in -40C temperature 4. Biked to work in -60 C (windchill) temperature 5. Played road hockey a fair bit as a kid (can’t say if it equals 50 consecutive days😃) 6. Played ice hockey 7. Played pond hockey 8. Played broomball 9. My team of naval instructors were in Montreal during the 1993 Stanley Cup riot 10. Been screeched in 11. Ate fiddleheads 12. Ate beavertails 13. Ate perogi, poutine, smoked fish 14. Gone camping in every season (winter camping a few times with the army reserves in Petawawa 15. Jumped off a warship into ocean 16. Never heard of “Land of the Silver Birch” 17. Worked in four provinces 18. Been to ten provinces 19. Drove from Victoria to Nova Scotia 20. Have canoed 21. Can draw a maple leaf 22. Have seen the Northern Lights 23. Have seen two former PMs - PET and Joe Clark 24. Seen Brian Mulroney and Stephen Harper 25. Attended a luncheon with Queen Elizabeth as guest of honour 26. Got nudged out of the way of then GG Adrienne Clarkson by security in an army mess 27. Remember Wayne and Shuster 28. Seen Bruce Cockburn in concert three different times 29. Met and conversed with Bruce Cockburn in chance meeting 30. Went to a cabine à sucre a number of times (lived in Quebec several years) 31. Saw the relaunch of Bluenose II in Lunenburg 32. One of my bicycles is retrofitted for winter cycling, which I have been doing regularly since 1990. 33. Saw Gordon Lightfoot in concert 34. Have worn two different scarlet uniforms - GGFG and RMC 35. Seen Rush twice ---
**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:** [October 5, 2024, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/354 "2024-10-05T00:09:49Z")
I’ve told this before. Back when I was a university student, and the provincial government would do a mini-census to enroll all voters before each election, I signed up as an enumerator to earn a bit of money. My partner and I were assigned a specific area, and we were told to enroll as many people as we could, knocking on doors on three different days, at different time of day, to make sure everyone had a chance to get enrolled. If we didn’t get any response the first time at a house, we were told to go back two more times, at different times, to make every effort to ensure every voter got enrolled. One night we knocked on a door and a woman, probably east Asian, answered it. Her English was poor, and she looked a bit worried about these two tall guys trying to talk to her in the evening, when it was getting dark. We had trouble explaining what we were doing. Then one of us said the magic words: “Are you a Canadian citizen?” She got a big smile on her face, and said “Canadian! Yes!” Then she went off to a back room and came back with her citizenship card, and her husband’s. They were both new Canadians, judging from the dates. We enrolled her on the spot. We gave her two voter cards, one for her, and one for her husband. We showed her on the card the address where they should go to vote. And she smiled and said: “Vote! Yes!” As we left, my partner and I talked about it and wondered if that was the first time she was voting, in Canada, or maybe in her life. And we did all that because the government wanted to make sure that every Canadian got a chance to vote, new Canadian or old Canadian. That was my most Canadian moment. ---
**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:** [October 5, 2024, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/355 "2024-10-05T08:36:27Z")
Thought of a couple of more. Attended my ex-wife’s Canadian citizenship ceremony. She was a proud American, but she knew that her future lay in Canada. So after a number of years as a landed immigrant here, she became naturalized. Yes, there was the oath, and “O Canada,” and photos with the judge and the red-uniformed Mountie, but what she went through to become a citizen and the solemnity of the whole thing hit home to me what it really meant to be Canadian. It is a privilege. I was lucky enough to be born here; but she had to _earn_ that privilege. Volunteered at a maple syrup sugar shack. It was up in the Caledon Hills, northwest of Toronto, and every year, we had a “Maple Syrup Festival.” Lots of pancakes, hash browns, and bacon. If there was enough clean snow on the ground, we’d also make maple taffy. Even though I was a volunteer who could explain the process of gathering sap and boiling it down, I usually got a liter of homemade maple syrup. And that stuff was great! ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/356 "2024-10-05T13:30:36Z")
I think when dumb Americans (a tribe I’m a member of) talk about “most Canadian,” they more mean the perceived national personality rather than cultural touchstones like ice hockey. Stuff like apologizing to inanimate objects and other cliches. We like the stereotype of the simultaneously tough and hyper-nice/polite Canadian. The guy who’s happy to punch you in the jaw if you’re asking for it, but who apologizes when you step on his toe. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2024, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/357 "2024-10-05T22:41:35Z")
Speaking of enrolling voters - back to the days when the voter’s lists would be stapled to telephone poles in their neighbourhood so you could check if your name was there. Name, address, and occupation were displayed publicly to everyone. (and why am I humming “Land of the Silver Birch”?) ---
**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:** [October 6, 2024, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/358 "2024-10-06T02:47:06Z")
For the first time since 1945, there will not be an Alberta team in the CFL playoffs. Last coffin nail driven by the Riders tonight: Riders 38, Elks 24. BC Lions come to Mosaic next week to decide if Riders or Lions will have a western home playoff game. ---
**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:** [October 6, 2024, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/359 "2024-10-06T04:15:11Z")
typo - should be Riders 28, Elks 24 ---
**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:** [October 6, 2024, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432/360 "2024-10-06T19:09:59Z")
One time I was outside drinking Tim Horton’s coffee next to a skating rink, and thinking it was a Canadian thing to do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadoper-cafe-2024-is-now-open/995432.md?page=19)