The British British Columbian: April 2010

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Welcome to the British British Columbian

Welcome to the British British Columbian.

This blog is the perspective of a typically eccentric British Canadian living in the beautiful British Columbia. Think of it as a virtual tea and crumpets with some rather racey stories to tell. Please excuse the gritty bits, they sometimes can't be helped when living in the wild Canadian West.

If you are looking to start with something filling may I suggest reaching down to the earliest posts such as "Serving the Meat before the Gravy." Appetizers will also be served.

Do enjoy!

Tea?

Should you wish to RSVP, please look to the introductory posting for the correct ways and means.

In Vancouver, we call this, The Grouse Grind

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0307/feature4/index.html

http://www.thethreepeakschallenge.co.uk/

I recently came across a great article in National Geographic called, "All in a days climb." It was an account of how a vertically challenged - in a an atypical sense - American reporter followed a one armed British climber and team of fire fighters up three mountain sides as a part of the Three Peaks Challenge.

In Vancouver we have something similar called "The Grouse Grind" which is a 45 min. to hour long hike straight up the side of the 3,000 foot or 1 km Grouse Mountain. It is as you can see, a beautiful hike and well worth it at the top. We are unfortunately, running a deficit of crazed one armed British Firefighters to challenge the public to hiking all three of the Vancouver City Mountains: Cypress, Grouse and Seymour.

I think thats just what we need.

http://www.grousemountain.com/Summer/summer-activities/vancouver-bc-hiking-trails-trips/grouse-grind.asp

Monday, April 5, 2010

Erasing Reality

Visions of Canada on PBS

Did any of you catch that? Right after the Olympics in Vancouver, the very reputable station PBS played a documentary on Canada called Visions of Canada. It promised to be a spectacular review of Canadian vistas, culture and history.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md6ooDSxHs8

They certainly did not have to work very hard, Canada is BEAUTIFUL.
And work very hard they didn't because right in the middle of the show, the rather weak voiced narrator reverses a critical piece of Canadian fact by announcing to us that Canada was previously a member of the British Commonwealth.

Hit re-wind
Canada, once a member of the British Commonwealth

Hit re-wind
Canada, once a member of the British Commonwealth

WOW.
One of the more significant facts about Canada reversed.
I could not help but wonder if it was another attempt at re-imagining Canada the way some people, particularly from out here on the west coast prefer as we discussed earlier in this blog.
"Oops, but thats just what I thought, tee hee. I imagined we had left that all behind and it was in our past." A pretty big error to make on a documentary representing the country.

Regardless of the reason for such a glaring error, Canada is in fact, the largest member of the British Comonwealth and some of us are darn proud of it!

If any of you want to remind the distributor of the video of this you can contact him at the following:

Visions:

Tom Koch, Vice President

PBS International

10 Guest Street

Boston, MA 02135 USA

TEL: 617-300-3893

FAX: 617-779-7900

jtkoch@pbs.org

pbsinternational.org

Go on, send him an email!
Please remind Mr Koch that Canada is a member of the Commonwealth of Countries as displayed below and that organization helps to spread the values of law, human rights and trade around the world.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

The British Canadian Pacific

This post is a working post entitled the British Canadian Pacific. It will grow over time.

While other groups seek to re-imagine British Columbia as a part of Asia, I believe that it is a Canadian region. While this includes many influences, it's root is it's strong British heritage that needs to be protected, cherished, renewed, re - imagined and made stronger than ever. Why? Because Britain and Canada from it are the countries that enshrines freedom and lead the world in human rights and protection of the environment and that is an influence Asia needs. For balance, the world needs a British Canadian Pacific.

It is not enough to just acknowledge this, this must be actively promoted along with the ties to Great Britain to keep this root strong and vital. Other cultures have institutions studying and promoting their perpectives in Canadian Culture but there are none to few supporting the British Canadian perspective and so in that light here is a small first step.

Here are some of the British and British Canadians of the Pacific Northwest of some particular note in forming our nation or culture. Enjoy.

The British Canadian Vancouverites:
Captain George Vancouver - Founder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Vancouver
Geoffry Kelly - Artist (Spirit of the West)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Kelly

Cecil Green - Geophysicist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Howard_Green

Alan Morely - Rugby Player

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Morley

The British British Colombians:
James Douglas - Governor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Douglas_(governor)

Robert Pim Butchart - Industrialist and founder of Butchart Gardens

http://www.victorialodging.com/butchart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butchart_Gardens

http://www.butchartgardens.com/the-gardens/our-history/our-history.html