Posts from — March 2007

From today’s Globe and Mail:

Although I still really miss getting my Big Rock Traditional Ale back in Alberta (have you ever heard of another brewery offering such a great university lecture series?!) , I live in a state filled with great breweries like Switchback, Otter Creek, and Magic Hat. I’ve not actually had any Molson Canadian since I’ve been here, but it is nevertheless cool to see it and Labatt’s beer everywhere out here. Just another thing that makes me feel like I’m not too far from home…

I can’t say that this has happened to me here either… yet

This is a fascinating and frustrating story. As someone who was once refused entry into the US by Homeland Security for no good reason (I was coming to look for a house before we moved here…), I know exactly what they’re talking about. I’d like to see the Canadian government investigate this case further.

Very interesting data is starting to emerge from the 2006 census. One of the more surprising revelations, at least to me, is that Canada had the highest population growth of all G8 countries and most of this growth has come from immigration, to Alberta and Ontario in particular. Edmonton and Calgary now officially have populations exceeding one million people and Alberta’s overall population has grown by 10% in the last five years. 1.2 million immigrants have settled in Canada between 2001 and 2006, which I think is pretty great to see.

Here are a few more interesting stats from the Statistics Canada 2006 census highlights page:

– Two-thirds of Canada’s population growth was attributable to net international migration, while the U.S. population growth resulted mostly from natural increase, as fertility was higher in the United States than in Canada.

– Alberta and Ontario were responsible for two-thirds of Canada’s population increase. Nearly all of the remaining third occurred in British Columbia and Quebec.

– Alberta is the Canadian province with the highest growth rate since 2001. Alberta’s growth rate (+10.6%) was twice the national average (+5.4%).

– In the 2006 Census, Canada had six metropolitan areas with more than 1 million people: Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa – Gatineau and, for the first time, Calgary and Edmonton. Together, this “millionaire’s club” had a total of 13.6 million residents, or 45% of Canada’s population.

Nothing I can see there, yet, on how many Canadians are currently living outside of Canada, but there are a lot of us as well… It would be interesting to see some sort of international census about where we all live.

Caught this article today about students producing podcasts as part of Heather Schell‘s freshman writing class at George Washington University and in Nanette Levinson‘s International Relations courses at American University.

I’ve had great success over the last couple of years with my English 005 students’ podcasts and group blogs and I’m looking forward to doing more of this next fall. You can hear my Fall 2006 English 005 students’ podcasts at our test UVM iTunes University page. Just follow the links until you wind up in iTunes.

If you also look at the Canadian Studies lecture links in iTunes U, you can also download a video of Eden Robinson’s terrific reading she gave here in October. Her book Blood Sports has just come out in paperback in Canada and my English 182 course will be reading it about a month from now.

you could do worse than root for the Islanders, the new home of Ryan Smyth and, of course, Ted Nolan. Great to see him back in the NHL where he belongs.

Got a nice e-mail recently from Matthew Reider, who runs the website Canuck Abroad. It’s a great resource for Canucks missing the homeland. The message board has a great section on the dumbest questions people have ever asked about Canada. I’m not going to out anyone here on my blog, but many of those questions were pretty familiar to me….

Yesterday was Town Meeting Day, when most people get the day off and many show up to their town meetings. Now this is democracy in action. Very cool.

I’ve not read anything close to all of Jean Baudrillard‘s considerable oeuvre, but I find it nearly impossible to teach almost any course without referring at some point to his work, in particular his notions of the simulacra and hyperreality. Still feeling like a stranger in a strange land, I also find his various looks at the USA to be especially compelling.

The news of his death yesterday saddened me, as it’s rare that we find such an original thinker, someone whose work is truly, as Le Figaro referred to it in their headline about his death, “inclassable.”

Discovered the great blog Imagining Toronto today. This list of books is a perfect starting point for students in my Canadian lit classes wanting to know more about Toronto (you know who you are…).

A good story on The Arcade Fire in this past Sunday’s NY Times. I’ve heard the CD and it’s really good. Definitely worth picking up.