Canada Day Roundup

by Rob on June 30th, 2008

Canada Day Poster Winner, R. Petitpas. Photo: pch.gc.ca

July 1^st is fast upon us once again, and as usual, parties will be going off all over the country. Sharp rounds up some of the best:

Ottawa

If a party-lover is to be in Ottawa for one day a year, make sure that one day is Canada Day. Parliament Hill is home to July 1^st’s biggest party, with everyone from Blue Rodeo to Joel Plaskett to Paul Brandt, and Mr. Party Animal himself, Stephen Harper.

http://www.ncc.gc.ca

Toronto

Because it’s Canada’s largest city, Toronto has a huge amount of events across the city: fireworks at Kew Beaches; Elliott Brood at Mel Lastman square, etc. Sharp’s pick, though, are the all day festivities at the Harbourfront Centre. Plants and Animals, Basia Bulat, Jackie Robinson & The Cougars and the legendary Martha Wainwright will kick out the jams by Lake Ontario all night long, while there’s lots to do for the kids, too.

http://www.toronto.ca

Vancouver

Vancouver kicks off their Canada Day with a 10k run, HBC Run for Canada. The race raises money for Canadian athletes competing in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Afterwards, patriots can stay at First Canada Place and compete in the National Anthem Singing Contest, or just relax and take in a 54-40 concert plus fireworks.

http://www.canadaplace.ca/canadaday

Montreal

This year’s edition of Celafete includes professional soccer games (teams come from a far afield as Mexico), BMX biking showcase, salsa dancing lesson and the DJ Geneviève Borne hosted Mega Evening show.

http://www.celafete.ca

Calgary, Banff, Edmonton

Calgary’s Canada Day wins the Battle of Alberta in the entertainment sweeps: the awesome David Wilcox and Rachelle Van Zanten headline the Olympic Plaza Stage, Princes Island Park. But Banff enters the ring with free entry into Banff National Park, as well as their annual pancake breakfast and parade. Too tough to call: we’ll go see the fireworks in Edmonton instead.

http://www.banff.ca

http://www.calgary.ca

http://www.edmonton.ca

Charlottetown

Small town, big party. The home of Confederation isn’t just celebrating over one day, they’ve got an entire weekend of festivities planned. Billy Talent starts things off on June 28^th, then Hinder and Our Lady Peace rip things up the following night, and then The Tragically Hip and Collective Soul perform on the 30^th. For those who aren’t into ‘90s alternative rock, there’s Atlantic Canada’s largest fireworks display (July 1^st, 10:10pm).

http://www.walkandseacharlottetown.com/festival-of-lights

My Winnipeg is Better Then Yours

by Rob on June 27th, 2008

To those who’ve never been there, Winnipeg can seem like a forbidding place of freezing winters and mosquito infested summers. Not for me, thanks. It’s fair to say, though, that Guy Maddin thinks differently.

The famous Canadian director loves his hometown so much that he’s never lived anywhere else. Nor can he escape it in any conventional sense. He can only attempt to leave through cinema, and so his latest film, My Winnipeg, tries to reconcile his past in the hopes his future can move on.

So for the movie he rented the apartment he grew up in and hired actors to play his family. What transpires over the next 80 minutes of film is a surrealist documentary; fact and fiction blend together to tell a fantastic black-and-white history of Winnipeg. It’s a masterful, uproarious movie that’s fast changing the Winnipeg stereotype: it won an official selection at the Berlin International Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival, and at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival it was selected as the Best Canadian Feature.

My Winnipeg is now screening at Toronto’s Varsity Cinemas, 55 Bloor Street West, Manulife Centre.

For more about the film, visit:

http://www.ifcfilms.com

CFL Kicks Off Tonight

by Rob on June 26th, 2008

Can the Roughriders repeat this year? Photo: CFL.ca

Since the Stanley Cup Finals ended, Sharp has been living off of Euro 2008 and Blue Jays games, but tonight that’s about to change: the CFL returns for its 96^th season.

The opening games are the Hamilton Tiger-Cats face against the Montreal Alouettes, and the B.C. Lions vs. the Calgary Stampeders. Check TSN for local air times.

It’s going to be a big year for the league. TV ratings are solid and last year’s Grey Cup was wildly successful, but amid rumors of a Rogers-backed consortium starting a Toronto NFL team in the not-too-distant future there’s cautious optimism about the upcoming season. As such, CFL will be cheerleading its distinct Canadian heritage with the slogan ‘This is Our League.’ Old fashioned Canadiana? We’re not sure how that’ll fly in downtown Toronto.

What Toronto does understand, however, is winning. And this year it looks like they’ve got a good chance to go all the way to the Grey Cup. In the off season they nabbed last year’s CFL most outstanding player, quarterback Kerry Joseph, and that combined with a first rate defence makes them the team to beat this year. The seven other teams in the league, including last year’s champs, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, will have something to say about that, though, so expect a tough road to Montreal, host of the 96^th Grey Cup, November, 23^rd.

http://www.cfl.ca

Next Page »