This is Canada! 1534-1867-2014

I found this song listening to the CBC Ben Heppner's show on Opera. Heppner is a famous Canadian Tenor now retired. Here we hear Canadian Soprano Terasa Stratas sing This is Canada, the images are  of Canada 1960. Things have changed, you can see Toronto skyline at 01:35 not like today at all. The last image is of the Royal Yacht Britannia sailing on the St-Lawrence Seaway. The song is a bit corny but fun nonetheless.

Calixa Lavallée, musician, composer, maestro, world traveller. 

The composer of the Canadian National Anthem is Calixa Lavallée (1842-1891) I learned today that he immigrated to Rhode Island and served as a Union Soldier with the rank of Lieutenant in the American Civil War. He died in Boston. He was one of 60,000 French Canadians who fought on the side of the Yankees. His anthem as first was composed for the Société Nationale des Canadiens Français which then became the Société St-Jean Baptiste. What was once since as a Patriotic anthem for French Canada became shortly thereafter the National Anthem of Canada.



We have put up our Canadian Flag on the balcony, the same flag which has travelled the world with me for the last 40 years. I originally got it from Parliament from my Member of Parliament, back then you wrote to them and they would send you a flag.



Because this is the Centennial of the Great War 1914-1918, I post here the Old Flag, known as the Red Ensign, which was replaced in 1965 by the new Maple Leaf Flag.

Canadian Flag in 1914.

Canadian Flag 1929-1965

Happy Dominion of Canada Day to all Canadians wherever you may be on this July 1. 

Chinese restaurants in Canada

Like many immigrant experiences in Canada, the Chinese who came to Canada 120 years ago in search of a better life while the Manchu dynasty in the Middle Kingdom was crumbling invented a new Chinese cuisine. The Chinese migrants were not cooks or chefs but poor migrants coming to Canada as labourers to work on the construction of the railway, often performing dangerous tasks. Chinese workers would cook for the crew and attracted the attention of non-Asian workers, it was exotic and looked good.  Thus the Chinese cuisine has a long history in Canada dating back to 1880 during the period of the National Dream, the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway spanning from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The first restaurants to appear were in Western Canada from the Yukon to British Columbia to Alberta. However though the restaurants had Chinese owners the dishes on the menu were not necessarily Chinese but dubbed Chinese, they were largely inventions of the Chinese owners to suit the palate of Canadians who had never heard nor seen Chinese food, thus Chow Mein, Chop Suey or General Tao's Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken balls and many other migrant Chinese cuisine dishes were invented. The Chinese restaurant is present in every Canadian town from the small village to the large metropolis. In fact there are more Chinese restaurants in Canada than fast food restaurants combined. Often one family will sell their restaurant to the next Chinese immigrant once they move upwards on the social ladder.

The restaurant like the laundry service common in cities like Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal became a way for the Chinese migrants to establish themselves and to allow the next generation to move up in society. Up to 1968 the total Chinese population of Canada was about 28,000 persons, today it stands at 1.5 million individuals. 


My grandfather who worked in Montreal in the 1930's, had in the Old Chinatown around rue St-Urbain and rue Clark his favourite Chinese restaurants, I remember going to them as a child, to my child eyes they were very exotic places, far removed from anything I knew. The food was good and it was always an adventure to go to such places. 

However when I lived in China I discovered real Chinese cuisine, which is different depending on the region and involves complex recipes, Cantonese, Mandarin, Szechuan and many others which are virtually unknown to us in the West. Beijing has its own dishes which are typical of the Capital, so now I have become very discerning and am not willing to put up with the Canadian Chinese dishes anymore, maybe I have been spoiled in a way. I find the Canadian Chinese dishes to be full of MSG and very bland tasting, lacking the subtle flavours I found in China.  It is probably true that each ethnic group who comes to Canada as migrants bring with them their food and tradition but will modify them to suit their new surroundings and conditions often creating new foods and dishes, it is certainly true of the French, the Irish, the Scots, the English, the Jews, the Italians and many other immigrant groups who have come to Canada since 1608.