Canada as Seen in our Neighbours’ Eyes

 

1. Canadian Secretary Syndrome

“In Barbados, female sex tourism has been dubbed ‘Canadian secretary syndrome.’ In Martinique, locals refer to incoming flights of Air Canada as ‘Air Coucoune’—French for ‘Air Pussy.’ ”

as reported in the Ottawa Citizen ( Jan. 8, 2007 ) in an article by Jeff Heinrich

 

2.The Canadian Ballet

“Dozens of strip clubs line the streets of the Canadian towns just across the Niagara River from Buffalo. These clubs were collectively known as ‘the Canadian Ballet,’ a euphemism I find terrifically amusing to this day.”

from “Oh, Canada !” in Comics Curmudgeon by Josh Fruhlinger, Sept 4, 2004

 

 

Alberta Place Names

Alberta place names have fascinating origins.

Hairy Hill, Alberta

It’s a town name that recalls the vast herds of buffalo that once roamed the softly undulant prairies of Alberta. Buffalo stopped at the place that came to be called Hairy Hill to scratch their hides on the rocks. The buffalo were rubbing ticks and fleas off their shaggy coats by scratching themselves on the many thorn bushes that grew abundantly in the vicinity. Settlers happened upon hairy thorn bushes and for a moment imagined in error that they had discovered a new species of shrub! But watching a buffalo have a good scratch, all soon became clear, and an Alberta place name was born.

Bluesky, Alberta

My favorite Alberta place name is a wee whistlestop on Highway 2 just east of Fairview, west of Peace River, northwest of Edmonton, the name given first to a post office opened in 1914 by Adam and Sarah Dodge, early settlers.

I had the good luck to come upon Bluesky on a fair summer day many years ago. The little place lay curled in the sun, panting like an old dog come home after a trot. Above the hamlet arched a dome of moonroad and starpath, the mild blue yonder, a prairie canopy spun of sun threads and noon-blue cloth. Had I suffered sun stroke, or was I perhaps victim of a dread CVSA? Cerebrovascular Sentimental Accident. Right there outside Bluesky, a poem memorized at school had suddenly popped back into my head. I stopped the car, stood on the roadside and said aloud these lines by Edna St. Vincent Millay from her 1917 poem “Renascence.”

“The world stands out on either side

No wider than the heart is wide;

Above the world is stretched the sky,—

No higher than the soul is high.”

 

Had I been overheard, I would have been branded a nutty easterner. Never mind. That poetic moment was long before true prosperity arrived in Bluesky. To check that out, visit the website of the BLUESKY OIL SANDS PROJECT.

 

 

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