A tiny party for a huge country
Without malice to anyone, I’m glad we don’t rate countries by their birthday parties. Seriously. The noontime show out of the NCR was anemic.
Here we go, in no order. The highest ranking official in our country is beautiful. Unfortunately, her ride was a poor imitation of the original. Seems that the landau had a power malfunction, so there was a downsizing. Two horses instead of four. It makes sense in a time of economic restraint to use a smaller motor, but this was for a parade.
Our military may be brave, but the dress uniforms are so “carbon copy” of other countries. How many bears had to die to provide the red team with non-seasonal hats? I especially enjoyed the colour contrast with the blue team that was just behind them in the ribambelle. Out of curiousity, do all pipe bands sound the same? There were two, count’em, two different big gun salutes this afternoon. I guess if you have the noisy toys, and the public is present, then you might as well play.
The crowd lacked volume. Peter Mansbridge mentioned that an estimated 15,000 had gathered for the big show. Not bad for a small town, but the Ottawa/Gatineau area has an estimated 1.5 million inhabitants. Therefore 1 in 1o0 went to the Hill and the rest stayed home to drink beer, chew BBQ and remain Canadian-eh. Could they have been inside watching the TV show?
We have a lot of musical talent in Canada. For anyone tuned in (via satellite), we come across as a nation of drum players. The lad that did some very impressive arm swings around a vertical post showed that pole dancing à la Canadienne is not quite like in Vegas. Quebec may not have understood the joke where The Respectables played their hit song Sugar. I don’t remember anything else.
Maybe this evening will provide a better show. Else, the party will have to be judged on the quality of the fireworks display
