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|| BY JAMES RAFFAN
Happy Canoe Day!
THE TIME HAS COME FOR A NEW HOLIDAY
FOR THOSE OF YOU who’ve had your head in a bucket over the last few months, on June 7, 2007, the CBC named the canoe one of the seven wonders of Canada. Finally, the nation has acknowledged something dyed-in-the-Gore-Tex pad- dlers have known all along. Te canoe and Canada are indivisible. Like dirt is to fingernails, like blisters are to gnarly seats, like GPS units are to knowing ex- actly where you are when you die…the canoe and Canada are one, now in a won- drous way. Oh sure, the judges in the CBC’s Seven
Wonders project exercised their preroga- tive to jig the voting (the canoe would have tied for 12th if the number of votes on the CBC website were taken at face value) and some people, like Christie Blatchford at Te Globe and Mail, got bent right out of shape with the “geographical correctness” that prevailed in selecting the final seven. However, proving the essential rightness of the process and the ultimate wisdom of the judges, the canoe prevailed. Te canoe is a wonder of Canada. In the West we have massive dugouts
that define whole nations. In the North archaeologists have recently found ca- noe building sites along the Idaà Trail between Great Slave and Great Bear lakes. In the prairies there are bullboats and the legacy of the great freight canoes of the Hudson Bay Company. In central Canada there is Algonquin Elder William Commanda still building bark canoes in his 90s. And let’s not forget the Quebec
1 6 n C ANOE ROOT S fall 2007
legend of la Chasse Galerie, the flying ca- noe, which links to Glooscap in the East and so many other tales of canoes taking people from one world to another. In the things giant department, we’ve
got larger-than-life canoe sculptures in Baie Comeau, Quebec; Plaster Rock, New Brunswick; and in Longlac, Guelph and Mattice in Ontario. Tere is Canoe Radio at 100.9 on the FM dial in Haliburton. We’ve got canoe-themed, little-league sports teams packed into Voyager mini- vans. We’ve got canoes on our money (check out the $20 or $100 bills), our
ogy for which so many Canadians have genuine affection. It’s no accident that the canoe, in all its permutations of form and function, is still the best vehicle for access- ing large parts of this country. A person anywhere in the country can put a canoe into the nearest waterway and (with a bit of portaging) go almost anywhere else. To celebrate all this, the Canadian Ca-
noe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario, convened a “My Canoe is a Wonder” par- ty at the famous Trent-Severn Waterway liftlock on June 28, 2007. Hundreds of people came on a lovely Tursday eve-
A person anywhere in the count ry can put a canoe into the nearest waterway and (wi th a bi t of por taging) go almost anywhere else.
stamps, on licence plates, playing cards and T-shirts. Canoe imagery has been used in print advertising to sell every- thing from milk to whiskey, tampons to telecommunications, and underwear (Stanfield’s) to high-end house paint. And let’s not forget William and Jacques portaging across the prairies about 10 years ago to sell Labatt’s Blue beer in a series of television ads, or that the gaze- teer of Canada lists 142 rivers, lakes and other geographic features that have the word canoe attached somehow. Most wondrous of all, however, is the
essential connection between Canada and this enduring bit of floating technol-
ning, many with canoes, but many just to help celebrate. Tere was live canoe music—did I mention we have canoe music too? Tere was canoe cake and much ballyhoo as Paul Ayotte, the mayor of Peterborough, proclaimed that “the canoe is indeed a wonder of Canada and this indisputable fact must be marked and celebrated often and with the least possible provocation.” What a great excuse for a party! I think
we should make it an annual event. How about it Canada? Tursday, June 26, 2008, National Canoe Day?
JAMES RAFFAN refuses to disclose how often he voted in the CBC poll.
CANOE WONDER IN GUELPH PHOTO: SHERI-LYN ROY
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