Pull up a chair, grab a double-double or some caribou, have a Nanaimo bar or a butter tart. There’s poutine on the way, and a bit of tourtière still left…
This is the place for all things Canadian on the SDMB - news, sports, politics, arts, geography, gossip. Canucks, ex-pats, and those curious about Canada and Canadians are all welcome!
And my goodness! Does it ever look like there’s going to be a lot to talk about in the coming year!
So, how’s by you this fine New Years Eve?
(I’m starting this thread early this year - it’s about 6 hours until the New Year in St. John’s, but I’m going to be out this evening. I either start the new thread now, or wait until well after midnight when I’m back.)
I’m sitting out on a rooftop deck at our Airbnb in Mexico City where it is a beautiful sunny 21C. I’m not looking forward to our return to Toronto this weekend with a low of -8 and the probability of a winter election.
I’ll be invading a couple of times in the next few months–mid January north of Bella Coola and first week of March at Crescent Spur 250K E of Prince George, both for skiing. My wife ran my passport through the wash Sunday, so we’ll see how the friendly gendarmes at YVR feel about that.
Wasn’t sure whether to put this here or in the pit’s “Omnibus Stupid…” thread.
Clown-show and Trump lap-dog Kevin Leary wants the US and Canadain economies merged.
Half of all Canadians, Sparky?
Hope you don’t also get relegated to the cottage.
Happy New Year to our 51st state. Except, bringing you in as a single state doesn’t make sense. I think we’d have to respect the existing provinces. And do the territories become states, or do they get Puerto Rico-like territorial status? Not to mention Quebec and the French-speaking parts of the Maritimes probably wouldn’t mesh well with the folks who think that if you can’t speak English then you’re not really a part of our country.
I’m curious if Internet people are more outraged at Trump’s idiocy or Ford’s beer in corner stores? (This applies to parts of Canada where Doug Ford is relevant, of course, and not Dennis King.)
Honestly, I’m not trying to thread-shit! I have a special affinity for Canada (and have lived there!), and the OP did say: “…and those curious about Canada and Canadians are all welcome!”
Well, I had a very nice time the week before xmas in Cabo San Lucas with my Chinese “lady friend”, who lives most of the time in Toronto. Suffice to say, it was a successful time on the beach, and I will start testing out working remotely for a month at a time in Toronto starting in March or May.
Even before I cut back on carbohydrates, I found Nanaimo bars to be entirely too sweet. I had my first one in, or on my way to, Nanaimo (c. 2003). Didn’t need another one… although I did have one a couple/few years later just to make sure. Sorry, but *ick*.
Quiet evening at home after 6 solid days with extended family. Watched Infoman and Le Bye-Bye as is tradition. I’m not too picky about these, I enjoyed them.
Here’s to a safe, happy and healthy 2025 to you all!
I mean, I certainly would like it if my Canadian dollar was worth as much as a US dollar.
Having said that, if we were going to merge the economies, the US has got to make some changes. No more of that greasy paper money that is all the same color. We have polymer bills and they are both colorful and awesome. We also have dollar coins and two dollar coins and those have to stay. We did away with pennies and so should the US.
I’m from Nanaimo and I’d readily agree that they are an acquired taste.
There is no doubt that Ford is an idiot, it is in the family DNA. He spent how many millions to allow beer/ premixed drinks into corner stores instead of waiting a year or 2 for the contract to come up for renewal? Not to mention that the store owners are not happy that they will have to deal with the empties.
The Damage that Trump can inflict is orders of magnitude greater.
I don’t think anyone was actually “outraged” about beer in corner stores, they were mostly annoyed that he spent so much time and money on it, when there’s a lot more, more important issues, like our collapsing healthcare system, and our housing crisis.
Trump, on the other hand, has managed to even piss off a lot of people who would otherwise support him with his “51st state” nonsense.
Well… I mean, no one is forcing them to sell the beer in the first place. Returning the empties strikes me as being a reasonable ask for the privilege of making the money in the first place.
The only problem I have with this is the silliness of paying an exorbitant fee to do it years early. Otherwise it’s the way almost every other jurisdiction on this continent does it, and it’s working fine for them. Giving a foreign owned monopoly all that power over beer sales was stupid.
O’Leary has no legitimacy negotiating on behalf of Canadians. I don’t personally see merit in adopting the greenback. This is a ploy for attention and status, not much more. Reading his book, it becomes pretty clear he gave himself the nickname “Mr. Wonderful”. Who does that?
Even before I cut back on carbohydrates, I found Nanaimo bars to be entirely too sweet. I had my first one in, or on my way to, Nanaimo (c. 2003). Didn’t need another one… although I did have one a couple/few years later just to make sure. Sorry, but ick.> Blockquote
Sorry you feel that way, but to each their own. I don’t think I’d ever eat two in one sitting, but I have been known to indulge.
The strange discovery for me, since moving down to NYC in September - the mainstream ‘commercial’ peanut butter in the US is disgusting! There’s so much added sugar/high fructose corn syrup added, it tastes more like (bad) cake frosting than peanut butter. There may be health food stores in NYC that sell peanut butter that’s just ground peanuts, but they’re not in walking distance from my place. Whole Foods is about 30 blocks away, as is Trader Joe’s. I hate giving Jeff Bezos money, so until someone tells me who owns Trader Joe’s and why he’s a bastard as well, I walk down there and stock up.
Whereas in Canada, the Kraft “Only Peanuts” stuff is in every grocery store and corner store. Not available here, though…
AFAIK, Trader Joe’s is an ethical company. I’ve heard that they’re a good place to work, and that the pay is good. They did apparently try to stop unions from moving in.
Any grocery store should have peanut butter made only from peanuts (and salt). Not necessarily Kraft, though.
For whatever reason, anything made by Kraft foods is unavailable in the US. There’s plenty of Jif and Skippy available at my local C-town and Foodland, but for something made of crushed peanuts (no added salt, thanks), it’s a walk or an Instacart.
The amount of sugar in Canadian commercial peanut butter is something like 1g per 15g of peanut butter. That is not a massive hit - most people have more in their coffee - and while chacun à son gout it seems to be the subject of more whinging than necessary. I like the separated butters made without sugar, but I like the ones with sugar at least as much. Do American peanut butters contain more than that (listed above)?
I’ve been offline for a few days—my internet connection glitched, and it required some new equipment and a technician to install it. It also affected my cable TV, so I’m behind on news and events; as well as missing all the football on New Year’s Day.
But the tech was here about an hour ago, and everything works now. Hooray! Hope everyone had a great New Year’s!
