Canadian Crises; Pennies, Poutine, Maple Syrup, Hockey

This is no time for Canadians to hide behind a wall of false security. Bankers are forever heaping praise on the high quality of the country’s financial affairs. Resource exporters cannot pass a microphone without a speech about an ever expanding Chinese demand.  Now the technology world is on Canada’s side as Blackberry goes through a renewal.

Beware; complacency can be a greater evil

The Canadian penny is a case in point. With the demise of the penny match, no one needs the currency any more. The result is the reduction of the maple leaf as one symbol of the Canadian identity.

Thieves drove another nail into the Canadian psyche with the theft of a huge amount of maple syrup. The stage was set because a marketing board saw fit to store excess product to stabilize the price. Unfortunately crooks  drained the storage tanks.  Imagine Canada without maple syrup or worse to have to buy it on the black market. An ancillary caution is to protect the national supply of pancakes, particularly as Shrove Tuesday approaches.

A recent news item reports that fire destroyed an Eastern Ontario factory which produced a very high quality cheese used for poutine production. Headlines screamed “Factory fire means poutine lovers facing withdrawal”. Further into the article is found “Once French fries and gravy are mixed with the cheese, poutine,  the Quebec-born signature dish is created”. Suppose Ontario now needs to embargo the export of the special cheese in order to protect domestic markets? This places the pipeline crisis into second place as a national issue

An under appreciated part of the hockey world is the traditional use of alley ways for hockey rinks. Winter time in Montreal releases these byways for other purposes. With winter’s arrival roughly 475 kilometers of back alleys which have inspired writers and artists over decades, become snow covered and deserted.  What better use than man made outdoor rinks? Authorities want to end this tradition. The extended hockey strike was bad enough, now practice rinks face elimination.

Poutine, maple syrup, pennies and hockey are bastions of the Canadian way of life. Dramatic headlines may herald good times; however the fine print spells out a different story.