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Battling Gout. One Canadian’s Story

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“People wish their enemies dead—but I do not; I say give them the gout, give them the stone!” (Thomas Sydenham, 1683)

OUCH!

It happened at the tender age of 61. In June 2013, at about 4:00 A.M., in a small hotel in Nordegg, Alberta, Canada. I suddenly awoke feeling the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced in the left toe joint. It was as if someone had taken a sledgehammer and smashed it down on my big toe. Every time the bed cover brushed against my toe, I almost hit the ceiling.

I was bewildered by what was happening. I finally did some reading and realized what was ailing me. These four letters stared back at me:

GOUT

This is my story of battling gout over the last ten years. Why do I write about it here, even though countless articles have been written about it? Because if I can help at least one person avoid or even alleviate the pain of this form of inflammatory arthritis, by telling my story of what measures I took to battle it, then writing this blog is well worth the effort.

A swollen toe from gout. Not a pretty sight. But even uglier on the inside. 2gNEDw&biw=1083&bih=504&dpr=1.22#imgrc=TPT7MxD4ERa3KM))

What is Gout?

Gout is a type of inflammatory arthritis that causes pain and swelling of the joints. In my case, it usually occurs in the big toe joint and occasionally in my ankles. Flareups can last for a week or two. Any longer and there would be a lot more suicides.

Gout is caused when high levels of serum urate build up in the body. If your kidneys do not flush these urates out then in some people they form needle-shaped crystals in and around the joint. Many people, however, have high levels of serum urate but never get gout.

Gout is a worldwide phenomenon. An estimated one million Canadians get it. And more men (about 4%) than women (about 1%) get gout. It is more common in older people. The highest prevalence of gout worldwide occurs in Taiwanese Aboriginals and Maori people. In these populations more than 10% have gout. Gout is rare in former Soviet Union regions, Guatemala, Iran, Malaysia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, rural Turkey and African countries. 3

What Causes Gout?

Purines 4 are the enemy. They are found in your body’s tissues and in many foods. When they break down, they become urate. Normally, urate is removed from your body in urine. However, if too little urate is removed, it builds up in your blood. And eventually, these needle-shaped crystals form in your joints, causing inflammation or gout flares that cause pain and swelling.

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The risk factors behind gout are complex and not always under our control. They include hyperuricemia, 6 genetics, dietary factors, medications, comorbidities, 7 and exposure to lead.

How I Battled Gout

When I had the first few gout ‘attacks’, I went to my doctor for help like most people. He recommended Colchicine, one of a number of drugs used to treat gout. Whenever I felt an attack coming on I took these pills which seemed to help but like many drugs, there were side effects.

Eventually, after some research, instead of just waiting for the next attack and then popping more pills, I decided to change three things in my diet that might help prevent or at least reduce the severity of gout attacks: 1) reduced intake of foods high in purines; 2) increased intake in foods containing vitamin C; and, 3) increase in foods with natural probiotics and probiotic supplements.

1. Foods High in Purines

Some foods are high in purines and should be avoided if you are suffering from gout. 8 Even some vegetables such as dried beans, peas, and lentils are high in purines.

I can live without or eat these foods in moderation. Yes, I like my seafood, steaks, or headcheese. But I don’t necessarily need them. Eating them occasionally doesn’t seem to be a problem.

But, I happen to really like beer and the occasional bottle of wine. And alcohol is high in purines. All alcohol — including beer, wine, and hard spirits — affect processes in the kidneys that in turn impact how uric acid is eliminated in urine. They substantially increase blood uric acid levels.

How do the different types of alcoholic beverages rate in terms of purine content? Wine and spirits have the lowest purine content. Beers contain the highest amount of purines. But not all beers are equal. According to some research, British beer, home-brewed beer, and lager beer each contain many different types of purines, such as adenine, hypoxanthine, adenosine, and guanosine. Japanese beer contains greater amounts of purines than other types of beer. 9

“Among the different types of alcohol, the strongest association to risk of gout is that of beer, followed by spirits, according to more recent literature. In a widely accepted study by Choi et al. wine was not associated with an increased risk of gout.” 10

After reading about purines in alcohol, I changed tactics. No, I didn’t become a teetotaler. Instead, I dropped my regular consumption of all beers, although occasionally I still drink some. I drank more spirits and wine.

I also drink considerable amounts of carbonated water daily with a chunk of lemon and lime in it. Water is thought to flush out uric acid in our bodies. Lemon and lime are high in Vitamin C.

2. Increased Intake of Vitamin C

Any foods high in Vitamin C lower uric acid levels in our bodies. Grapefruit, oranges, lemons, limes, pineapples, and strawberries are all great sources of Vitamin C.

I try to eat some of these foods every day, especially oranges, lemons and limes (in my carbonated water). I also take Vitamin C supplements every day. However, if you read the literature, the verdict is still out on whether Vitamin C helps reduce uric acid and therefore reduces or prevents gout attacks. 11 And according to some studies: “Fructose-rich fruit juices (especially orange juice) and sweet fruits (e.g. oranges or sweet apples) should be particularly avoided.” 12 These fruits and juices raise SUA 13 levels.

3. Increased Intake of Probiotics

Lastly, I increased my intake of probiotics found in natural foods and taken as supplements. Probiotics are live microorganisms found in yogurt and other fermented foods. Fermented foods are a type of food that is preserved with the help of these microorganisms. Foods high in probiotics include yogurt, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, pickles, miso, tempeh, kimchi, sourdough bread and some cheeses.

Probiotics influence how purine is absorbed by the body. This in turn helps reduce inflammation. 14

I regularly eat yogurt, sourdough bread and occasionally kimchi, sauerkraut, miso and pickles. And I take probiotic supplements every day. There’s a mind-boggling number of probiotic supplement brands to choose from. However, most research suggests that probiotics derived from natural fermented foods are the most effective.

My Results

After changing my diet in these three basic ways for two years, I have suffered no major gout attacks and only several minor flareups. After what I’ve experienced before changing my dietary intake, I consider this a large victory.

I don’t know which of the three changes helped. If it was only one or a combination of all three? I care only about the outcome. I’m virtually gout-free. Nor can I say with any certainty that some other factor, than these, was responsible for the reduction in gout attacks. I can’t think of any. But, it seems highly coincidental that as soon as I did these three things, my gout attacks decreased and then virtually disappeared.

Are my remedies to get rid of gout for you? I don’t know. We’re all different and what works for me may not for others. But, one thing I would strongly advise. If you’re suffering from this terrible malady, don’t just sit there and do nothing. Read about the subject. Educate yourself. Experiment with foods and safe products. Get professional advice. Sitting there, waiting for the inevitable, and then popping pills will rarely change things.

The literature on gout is enormous. Often you will find contradictions. That’s the nature of research. For example, my orange-a-day intake supposedly raises SUA levels (a no-no) but adds Vitamin C (a good thing). Trial and error is the only way forward.

Here is a recent 2022 update on the latest research about gout and gout-related issues. It is science-based and cites the most recent research about gout. It ends with ten basic recommendations to battle gout. If you’re suffering from gout, it is well worth reading:

Judith Sautner, Gabriela Eichbauer-Sturm, Johann Gruber, Raimund Lunzer, Rudolf Johannes. 2022. 2022 update of the Austrian Society of Rheumatology and Rehabilitation nutrition and lifestyle recommendations for patients with gout and hyperuricemia. In Wien Klin Wochenschr (2022) 134:546–554. Puchnehttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00508-022-02054-7

According to the Sautner et. al 2022 study cited above, these are the ten basic recommendations to deal with gout.

Gout is an ancient disease as witnessed by the many poems and words of wisdom, or gloom, written about it for centuries. I’ll leave you with one of many I believe sums up how to deal with this dreadful ‘Hell on Earth:

“Be persuaded, then, of one invaluable truth: even if you begin to weary of Gout’s society, the only safe way of dismissing him is by allowing him to dismiss himself. Inscribe in letters of gold on the cornice of your chamber, “Gout is the only cure for Gout.” You may turn yourself inside out, like a glove, with purgatives; you may deaden your nerves with quack narcotics, without advancing a step in the right direction.” Charles Dickens, 1858 15

Footnotes:
  1. courtesy of: https://creakyjoints.org/about-arthritis/gout/gout-symptoms/what-gout-pain-feels-like/[↩]
  2. From: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=557642428&sxsrf=AB5stBhmbTbFeLzZQt3B7Pt1_okL4KqUOA:1692235305019&q=images+of+gout+in+big+toe&tbm=ischsource=univfir=Ui3PzDLJcK4GM%252CHoXFzIc3ozlbM%252C_%253BDnUDk_9u3bYuPM%252CrQBJoG83fLD2JM%252C_%253BPyLj7FiMxFJBEM%252CsYf8_yXyq6HCKM%252C_%253BMvvM21gjZBrDGM%252CMeAhZe4xi4Z0MM%252C_%253BbaY8pd8Au1U0VM%252C7fJXlZBF9L3fnM%252C_%253BddgM-LXW_9kyLM%252CHj0KWjj7WGd1M%252C_%253BYdbWIgCSlb8HM%252CTqD4qZ_NTjJm9M%252C_%253BVw0Xf3YRSBR_dM%252Coxhov8kP5WXmzM%252C_%253BTPT7MxD4ERa3KM%252CcFemDm3RZDPeuM%252C_%253Bn3EjEnJJ_1RxM%252Crv4VSehWhxnVM%252C_%253ByZxye5P6MHwZYM%252CMeAhZe4xi4Z0MM%252C_%253BJFna0Vc98PzFM%252CYz3Uft_5w7yqBM%252C_usg=AI4_kQY5w_tUPKYRQZWMxC6Ca3DvoRDpg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiBoe3hw-KAAxWvATQIHegbC84Q7Al6BA[↩]
  3. From HPC Live Network, Mark L. Fuerst. 2015. How Common is Gaut in the United States, Really? https://www.hcplive.com/view/how-common-gout-united-states-really[↩]
  4. a colourless crystalline compound with basic properties, forming uric acid on oxidation[↩]
  5. from: https://www.google.com/search?q=images+of+uric+acid+crystals+in+human+joints&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjNueepwuKAAxXhIzQIHdNxBWYQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=images+of+uric+acid+crystals+in+human+joints&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoECCMQJzoFCAAQgARQnxZYxz5g-EZoA3AAeACAAXKIAYAMkgEEMTYuMpgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1nwAEB&sclient=img&ei=p3TdZI3KAuHH0PEP0-OVsAY&bih=504&biw=1083&client=firefox-b-d#imgrc=JobhjEpLUBrcWM[↩]
  6. Hyperuricemia is an elevated uric acid level in the blood. This elevated level is the result of increased production, decreased excretion of uric acid, or a combination of both processes.[↩]
  7. Comorbidity occurs when a person has more than one disease or condition at the same time. Conditions described as comorbidities are often chronic or long-term conditions.[↩]
  8. Sugary drinks and sweets; high fructose corn syrup; alcohol; organ meats; game meats; certain seafood, including herring, scallops, mussels, codfish, tuna, trout and haddock; red meats, including beef, lamb pork and bacon; turkey.[↩]
  9. Gibson, T, A. V. Rogers, H. A. Simmonds, P. Toseland. 1984. Beer Drinking and Its Effect on Uric Acid. Rheumatology 23:203-09.[↩]
  10. From Judith Sautner, Gabriela Eichbauer-Sturm, Johann Gruber, Raimund Lunzer, Rudolf Johannes. 2022. 2022 update of the Austrian Society of Rheumatology and Rehabilitation nutrition and lifestyle recommendations for patients with gout and hyperuricemia. In Wien Klin Wochenschr (2022) 134:546–554. [Puchnehttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00508-022-02054-7][↩]
  11. For more information about the Vitamin C controversy, consult this article: https://www.healthline.com/health/vitamin-c-gout.[↩]
  12. Ayoub-Charette S, Liu Q, Khan TA, et al. Important food sources of fructose-containing sugars and incident gout: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. BMJ Open. 2019;9(5):e24171.

    Ebrahimpour-Koujan S, Saneei P, Larijani B, Esmaillzadeh A. Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and dietary fructose in relation to risk of gout and hyperuricemia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2020;60(1):1–1.[↩]

  13. Serum Urate Level[↩]
  14. The effectiveness of probiotics to reduce gout attacks is no longer merely anecdotal. It’s science-based. For more information about the subject, read this article: Rodríguez JM, Garranzo M, Segura J, et al. 2023. A randomized pilot trial assessing the reduction of gout episodes in hyperuricemic patients by oral administration of Ligilactobacillus salivarius CECT 30632, a strain with the ability to degrade purines. Front Microbiol. 2023;14:1111652. https://www.hcplive.com/view/probiotic-linked-reduced-gout-episodes-need-treatment[↩]
  15. Good Qualities of Gout. In All the Year Round: A Weekly Journal, conducted by Charles Dickens, 1859 May 28th.[↩]
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Here’s A Truly Canadian Gem – The CKUA Radio Network, Alberta, Canada

Some of the best kept secrets are often hidden under our very noses. I didn’t start listening to this wonderful radio station until the late 1990s. Why not earlier? I couldn’t say. I’m just glad that I finally started to listen. CKUA is one of the most unusual and renowned radio stations in the world. (Image courtesy of CKUA: https://www.liveradioplayer.com/ckua-radio-network/)

Like many of you I love music. I used to play it but now I just enjoy listening to a whole range of musical genres – Country, Rock, Jazz, Blues, Folk, and just about everything in between. But, where on earth does one find such a range of music without spending a small fortune buying it?

Early control room at CKUA. The station first started at the University of Alberta and then moved downtown to Jasper Avenue in Edmonton. (Image courtesy of CKUA: http://www.verdifestivaledmonton.ca/ckuaradionetwork.html)

The answer – tune into the CKUA Radio Network, right here in Alberta, Canada. This is truly a Canadian story. I’m certain many of you from Alberta have already heard about this great radio station. As a matter of fact CKUA is so renowned in Alberta, we even dedicated a display to it in our new Royal Alberta Museum here in Edmonton.

However, there are many people out there who have not heard about this powerful little radio station. So, I’m going to act as the messenger through this website to give Canada’s first public broadcaster (yes, you read right, ‘first public broadcaster’) a plug.

This post will be short and sweet. For more information about CKUA, and how you can tune in, wherever you are in the world, go to their website: https://ckua.com/. Once there you will find more information about the station, its history, hosts, upcoming events, and record library (one of the best in Canada, if not the world).

Here are a few highlights about this amazing radio station to get you started.

CKUA’s first announcer, H. P. Brown. (Image courtesy of CKUA: http://www.verdifestivaledmonton.ca/ckuaradionetwork.html

Did You Know:

  • CKUA was the first public broadcaster in Canada, starting at the University of Alberta with a lecture series, in 1927.
  • Before the internet got going you could only tune into the station in certain places in Alberta (and nowhere else in Canada). Eventually the network built fourteen transmitters around the province so that all Albertans could enjoy their broadcasts. And now you can live-stream their broadcasts from anywhere in the world.
  • CKUA is donor-supported relying primarily on money acquired by fund-raising twice a year and from their regular subscribers. Their fundraiser this fall raised over one million dollars in about ten days.
  • CKUA’s music library one of the largest and most diverse in Canada. It contains more than 250,000 CDs and LPs. The collection represents 140 years of recorded music.
  • CKUA has over thirty-five hosts who, as the CKUA website claims, ‘plan and curate their playlists to their tastes, unencumbered by genre, decade or ‘hit’ lists.’ Each host usually comes from some sort of musical background. And folks, they know their stuff. I’ve learned more about music and the history of music by listening to CKUA than from anywhere else. And, you will hear music on this station that you will rarely, if ever, hear anywhere else. Many of CKUA’s hosts are on a first name basis with some familiar names in each music genre. And the personal interviews of musical celebrities by hosts such as Holger Petersen (a host for over 50 years of his Natch’l Blues show) and Terry David Mulligan (Mulligan’s Stew Show), are off the charts.
  • CKUA promotes local Alberta and Canadian talent. They give new Canadian artists a chance to be heard and hone their skills. The list of musicians they promoted is extensive: Jan Arden, K.D. Lang, Robert Goulet, Tommy Banks, Corb Lund, to name a few. (I seem to recall that Robert Goulet grew up in Edmonton and was once a host on the station).
CKUA’s extensive music library. I remember on some of the early fundraisers, volunteers used to run down to the library and pull out requests from donators who called in. A bit of a daunting task, given the size of the collections, and the building. (Image courtesy of CKUA: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mastermaq/16698895761/in/photostream/)

CKUA is ‘Community’ Oriented

Perhaps one of the things that struck me most about the station is the involvement of the community in CKUA, and the involvement of CKUA in the community. That relationship has grown stronger since 1997 when the station shut down but was revived by a new board. Along with their 35 or more hosts, they have over 40 support staff and 500 volunteers. And to date about 12,000 donors, who provide 60 per cent of the radio station’s funding.

And the station supports some pretty awesome music events in Alberta. They often broadcast live at many of the folk festivals in Alberta – the Calgary and Edmonton Folk Festivals, for example, and many more. And bring in renowned musical acts from all over the world. If the JUNO awards are being hosted by an Alberta City, you can be sure CKUA will be there to do some live interviews.

I’ll end with a few personal notes about the radio station. In 1992, I was interviewed by CKUA regarding my work at the HBC Fort Edmonton archaeological site. They support community events. Somewhere in those CKUA library vaults there’s probably a tape of that interview.

In July, 2021 I turned seventy. My wife asked Terry David Mulligan to wish me a happy birthday on his show. Terry had already pre-recorded his show, but despite that he went out of his way to get another host to wish me a happy birthday. Terry didn’t have to do that, but that’s what he’s all about.

Two very popular hosts at CKUA, Terry David Mulligan (Mulligan’s Stew) and Allison Brock (Wide-Cut Country). (Image courtesy of CKUA: https://www.mulliganstew.ca/2021/05/07/mulligan-stew-may-8th-2021-i-million-raised-for-ckua-we-celebrate-with-2-hours-of-music/)

So, for those of you out there who love music and haven’t given this radio station a try, tune in and find out what it’s all about. I’m sure you’ll find something on their eclectic playlist and programs you like. And I guarantee there will be some surprises. I’ve been listening for over twenty years and am still entertained and learning. I hope you will be too.

Jack, Worthington Hagerman, also known as the ‘The ‘Old Disc Jockey’, who is no longer with us, started as a host at CKUA in 1949. Jack left behind an incredible legacy. His shows still air every Sunday on CKUA. For more information on this remarkable man go to: https://ckua.com/read/how-john-worthington-hagerman-became-the-very-essence-of-ckua/. (Image courtesy of CKUA: https://ckua.com/read/how-john-worthington-hagerman-became-the-very-essence-of-ckua/)
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COFFEE ROW IN A SMALL CANADIAN TOWN

Where do you go if you want to get to the heart of any small Canadian prairie town? Coffee Row is where it’s at.

A Small Town In Trouble

You can take the pulse of a town by the number and vintage of vehicles parked in front of the local restaurant. If coffee row is healthy, then so is the town.

They gathered at Frank’s restaurant across the street from the local Co-op grocery store. There was no set time. Just a steady stream of people all day long. Some even came twice a day, if gossip was brisk. Some came so often they had preassigned seats. No one sat in Jim’s place.

Coffee row was where people discussed and sorted out things. Exchanged information. Solved the world’s problems. Well, at least in the minds of those sitting there.

Frank, owner of the small prairie restaurant, slowly glided around serving coffee, saying little. What was there to say? No one ever asked him what he thought.

Stan, Erna, Jim, Mary, Sarah and Bill were already there. Slowly drinking their coffee, as if they had all the time in the world. But this morning they had troubled looks on their faces, gazing at the scene across the street.

Erna finally spoke up. “Well, I’ll be darned. Shame that Jackson’s hardware is shutting down. That was a good business once. Bought all my stuff there. I don’t know what ever happened to the place.”

Bill thought he knew. “Old man Jackson was a good businessman. His kid ran it into the ground. Everyone supported the store. Where did the money go?”

Mary, sitting beside Bill, knew better. “I don’t buy that, Bill. The kid parties a little. A lot less than your kid.” This got a rise out of Bill. And a snicker or two from coffee row.

She went on. “But he’s not showy, spending all his money on toys. Fact of the matter is people are shopping more in the big cities. And slowly leaving our town, Bill. Nothing to do. No work here.”

Bill, now a little huffy after Mary’s comment, shot back. “We should do something about it, instead of just sitting here drinking our coffee.”

“And what are we going to do, Bill? Strike a committee? Maybe order people not to leave town, or go to the city to shop? You got a plan, buddy? Let’s hear it.”

Bill was silent. He had no plan. No one did. Instead, he turned and watched intently as the Jackson kid cleaned out the store and boarded up the front windows. Was this a sign of rot and gloom setting into their small town?

Sarah was beginning to tear up. “Fifty years and suddenly it’s all gone. Who’s next? When’s the bleeding going to stop?” Everyone looked on in silence as the kid continued to board up a lifetime of work and memories. Usually coffee row could solve the hardest problems. But this was a tough one.

Frank glided down coffee row behind a now solemn looking bunch on coffee row. “More coffee anyone. Made fresh pot just a few minutes ago. Maybe some fresh apple pie?”

Everyone absently nodded for a refill. As if Frank didn’t exist. Some ordered pie. Heck, no sense leaving now. There was still the weather and politics to sort out. And then the Thornton girl’s unwanted pregnancy, the local hockey team’s recent poor play, and Harry’s drinking problem. The list was long this morning.

Then Harry came in. Looking slightly tired and smelling of gin. Well, stroke Harry off today’s agenda. There was still lots to talk about though.

Talking about these matters could take time. A person might even have to stay for lunch if Frank offered one of his specials. Often coffee row turned into lunch row.

Across the street the young boy watched his father board up their store. He was crying, not letting his mother console him. Young Everett loved the store. The town. His friends. He didn’t want to leave. So, he screamed even louder. Hoping to convince mom and dad to stay. It didn’t help.

A Big Gamble

They were older now. And professing to be wiser. They sat in silence on coffee row. Slowly stirring their coffee. Hoping that with enough stirring, things would improve. Staring out the window at the boarded up Jackson’s store. Over the years a few other businesses had joined Jackson’s fate. Jim noticed a few weeds growing out of the town pavement.

Jim spoke first. As he looked over at the Jackson building, he slowly shook his head. “Jeez, Jackson’s closing was bad enough. But this? This is a hopeless disaster. What’s the town going to do now?”

“You mean what are WE going to do, Jim? It’s OUR bloody town.” Mary felt a slight headache coming on. Sometimes it was hard to listen to this pain in the ass sitting across from her.

“Don’t get me involved in this. I don’t live in town. I farm.”

“Farm. Ha!,” snorted Sarah. “You call that farming? You’re in town more often than on the farm, Jim. I don’t know who farms out there. But it’s sure not you.”

Jim said nothing. They had no idea how hard it was to farm. Occasionally he needed a break. To get away from it all.

Frank, a fresh white apron wrapped around him, jumped in. “More coffee anyone? Trying out new brand. Nice aroma, very tasty.” Hopefully more coffee would stop a fight from breaking out. Coffee row occasionally became a testy place. Tempers flared. Solving other peoples’ problems did that to a person.

Just about everybody ignored him. The tension grew. Frank worried. He tried his last and best gambit. “Today’s lunch special, everyone. My specialty, Chop Suey. All fresh. Very tasty. Only five-ninety-five, with dessert.” This usually calmed them down. Today it had no effect whatsoever. Frank worried even more.

“I heard the town invested over a hundred grand in infrastructure, hoping the Company workers would live here. But they didn’t come. Everyone from the new mill settled up the road in Morton instead. Kind of stupid. A much further commute to work than if they lived here.”

“I didn’t know the town had a hundred grand.”

“Well, where do you think our taxes go, Sarah? Of course the town has a hundred grand. We’re not dead yet.” Then they all looked out across the street at the boarded up store-fronts. Wondering about the truth of those words.

“But, how could our town council be so naive? To even think that was a good idea? Morton’s bigger. It even has a Tim Horton’s. Hard to compete with that.” Jim, now sounded as if he were living in town again. This gained him a few haughty looks.

And a chewing-out. Sarah had enough. “First of all, Jim. It’s not your town council. You live on the farm. You really got no say in this matter. This is town peoples’ business. Don’t you have some cattle to feed? Crops to harvest? That sort of stuff.”

Jim stood up in a huff and flung his quarters onto the table. And left quickly. Swearing never to return. He would. They always did. Frank glided by and deftly picked up the coins. Dropping them safely into his big brass cash register till behind the counter. Smiling at everyone. As if nothing had happened.

“Well, I’ll tell you why the town got bamboozled and took that gamble. It’s our mayor and council. They don’t tell anyone what they’re up to. There’s no oversight. They’re desperate. The town’s hurting. Anything that comes along that sounds half good, they jump at it. That’s what happened.” Stan usually said little on coffee row. But, when he did, people listened. That’s what eight sections of farmland and money in the bank could buy you on coffee row. Respect. Lots of it.

And Stan, unlike Jim, now lived in town.

Just then, Randy, their mayor stepped through the restaurant door. He badly needed a pack of cigarettes to get him through the day. As he nervously looked around, he realized everyone on coffee row was staring at him. ‘Probably not the best time to stop at Frank’s,’ realized Randy a little too late.

“Morning everyone. How are we all this morning?” Silence greeted him. Randy put on his best smile as he looked down coffee row. What he saw wasn’t good. Randy didn’t take official polls in town. He just needed to stop at coffee row occasionally to see how his political future fared. This morning it looked very bleak. Hopeless in fact.

Frank got Randy his cigarettes and looked on. “Randy, maybe you stay for lunch. Nice special today. Chop Suey. And I think maybe a side of fried rice with it.” Randy paid for his cigarettes, mumbled something about not feeling that hungry, and quickly left.

The others on coffee row continued arguing about one of the biggest screw-ups the town had ever seen. Frank worried about Randy. He was trying to save the little town. Frank had watched the careers of many mayors over the years. Through the eyes and ears of coffee row. Coffee row was a finely tuned machine in predicting their political futures. It wasn’t just Frank’s rice that was frying. Randy’s political future was also taking a little heat.

Salvation

Virtually the same people sat on coffee row. But now, more stooped, older and white-haired. Canes rested by chairs. A wheel chair stood in the corner. A few regulars were missing. Maybe watching over coffee row from above. Or below. There were some new faces. That was promising.

They all stared across the street where a young man was working diligently taking the boards off the windows of the old Jackson Hardware Store. There was hammering and sawing and a bunch of other stuff going on inside. But no one knew what. And that wore on coffee row. Not knowing what was going on in town was the worst thing that could happen to a person on coffee row.

Sarah was itching to find out. If she could break this story there would be free coffee for her. She was first to arrive, so she got in the first question. “I heard he’s setting up some kind of video and gambling center. Is this another one of town council’s lame brain schemes at revitalizing our town?”

Sarah was an expert at getting people talking. Just ask a simple, even a dumb question that people could react to. She’d learned that from watching certain reporters on TV.

“Don’t know. But that guy looks familiar. Isn’t that the Jackson boy’s oldest son? Sure looks like it from here.” They all squinted harder through watery eyes and thick glasses.

“Well, he’s sure busy and it looks like he’s throwing a lot of money into that building. You must have made some money with that sale, Stan, after buying it years ago.”

“Yeh, that’s Jackson’s oldest. Don’t know what he’s doing back here. I made a bit of money off that sale. Enough to buy everyone coffee this morning.” They all thought this very good of Stan. Some were hoping Frank would have a lunch special today. Maybe Stan would spring for lunch too.

They all looked back out the window across the street. A sign was going up on the store front. In big bold letters it read: MUSTANG ENTERPRISES.

“What? He gonna sell horses? I don’t think that will get him very far.” Jim knew. He’d tried horses years ago on his farm. Fancy ones. Not mustangs. That didn’t work out too well. Jim never seemed to have enough time to properly train and work them.

The young man across the street stepped back and looked at his handiwork. Then he put down his hammer, took his son by the hand, and walked across the street to Frank’s restaurant.

A dozen pairs of eyes followed him across the street and through the restaurant door. Jackson’s father would never have come to coffee row. And, according to experts on coffee row, that was one of the problems. Maybe even why the business failed. You had to talk to people in the community. Get to know them. Especially those on coffee row.

As he stepped through the door, Everett looked around. Some things never changed. He still recognized a few faces. Now older with whiter hair, if they had any. But the alert, inquisitive eyes told him everything. They wanted to know what he was doing here. They could barely contain themselves.

“Morning everyone. Mind if I join you. Could use a little more caffeine this morning.” Without waiting for an answer Everett plunked himself down on a chair at the end of the table. His son sat down beside him.

His greetings were returned by a few polite, cautious responses. Couldn’t trust these outsiders anymore. Especially after that last town debacle. Frank glided up, coffee pot in hand. A little more stooped and not walking quite as smoothly as years ago.

“Coffee, Everett? And for the young guy? A coke maybe?”

“That’d be great, Fan. How’s your family, your wife, Feng?”

“Oh, everyone good, Everett. Children move away. Nothing here for them. Feng cook, still put up with me.”

There was shock and silence up and down coffee row. Fan? They all thought he was just Frank. Few bothered to find out his real name. And how did Fan know Jackson so well? It would be hard finding the answers on coffee row. Without Fan listening in. Well, maybe they could just ask him.

“Nice sign, Mr. Jackson. You now sell Mustang cars, right? You get me a bright yellow one. With big motor. I pay cash.” Everyone wondered how Fan could afford a fancy new car running a restaurant. The fact that he worked sixteen – eighteen hours a day hadn’t crossed their minds.

“No, Fan. I don’t sell real mustangs, or cars.” Jim the horse expert, and Bert, who owned a small car dealership, were relieved to hear that.

Mary couldn’t hold back any longer. She just had to know. “Well, if not cars or horses, what do you sell, or do, Mr. Jackson? What does that sign mean anyway?”

“You know what mustangs are, Mary. Wild, free and a bit of an independent bunch. They do as they please and make their own way in the world. That’s us.”

Everett was just about to continue when the mayor walked in. He quickly gazed around taking the pulse of the town down coffee row. Looked safe enough. So he sat down beside Everett.

“Morning everyone. Dad, how you keeping?” Stan just nodded and waved.

“So, how’s it going over there, Everett? Lot of banging and sawing. Where did you learn how to do that?”

Some of the members of coffee row looked concerned. Everett and the mayor knew one another? The newcomer seemed to know everyone. If he joined coffee row it could upset the delicate balance established over many years. He could be a real threat in the gossip department.

“Going well, Jason. Learned a little carpentry by renovating my house in the city. Only way to learn anything.”

Everyone on coffee row thought those words exceedingly wise. A few wished they’d learned that lesson long ago.

Everett idly scratched the back of his neck, as if something was irritating him. “That refit’s not my biggest problem, Jason. I need to hire three or four really good computer tech people and two secretaries. Seems to be a shortage of those around here.”

Stan, or Fan, overheard Jason. “Seriously, Everett? First son, Fook, looking around for different job. Want to get out of city. Too big, too expensive.”

“Actually, Fan, that might work. I remember Fook. What’s he do? I need one person specializing in computer machine and assembly languages. Another one in algorithmic languages. FORTRAN. ALGOL. C. I could use someone who knows BASIC, Pascal, Logo, or Hypertalk. Or someone with a background in C++ C# Ada, Java, Visual Basic or Python.”

Fan casually took in Everett’s words. The rest of coffee row only gaped. As if Fan and Everett had just invented some sort of new language? “I text him immediately and see what he specialize in.” Fan left in a hurry, forgetting the coffee pot on the table.

Everett looked around. There was silence on coffee row. No one knew what to say. Even Mary was afraid to ask again what Everett did.

“Well, time to go. Nothing ever got done sitting around here. Let me know if there are any town folks that might need jobs.” That was an understatement thought Mary. She’d help if only she knew what the jobs were for.

Everett was about to get up and leave when he thought of something else. “Oh, and we’re going to need houses. I saw a few boarded up driving around town. Anyone know who owns them?”

All eyes turned towards Stan. Some of them now not in a too friendly manner. Fully knowing that Stan bought those places almost for nothing years back. Another great real estate opportunity squandered.

Stan gave a nervous cough. “I could probably help you out, Mr. Jackson. Heard prices for housing were going up though in these little towns. Seems a lot of people are moving out of the city and need homes.”

“Now dad. Everett needs some houses for his people at a fair price. To get his business going.” Everyone on coffee row fully supported their mayor on this point, and gave Stan a withering look to show it.

“Well, got to get back to my coffee row.” Everett stood and poured his unfinished coffee into his thermos.

“But, this is coffee row, Mr. Jackson. You know of another one around here? You opening up a restaurant or something? Maybe one of those fancy internet cafes?” Fan, who rarely ever showed any emotion, now had a worried look on his face.

Everett only grinned. “I collect information. Just like you folks. My coffee row sits on six big computer screens, connected to the rest of the world. Last time I looked there were 22.5 million of us, sipping coffee, collecting and exchanging information. But the information we collect is valuable to the right people. We repackage and sell it.” Only stunned silence greeted his words. Had they known, they could have made millions off coffee row over the years. Even Jim would have fared better, than farming.

As Everett walked across the street he looked around the small town. There were fewer ‘For Sale’ signs and more ‘Sold’ signs on homes and businesses than when he first had checked it out. Always a good omen.

Even coffee row was recruiting, it seemed. And with a healthy coffee row there was always hope for a small town in Canada.

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk03ckD6wRIvbZxX2lLhPfBmeTaQeYQ:1620237559689&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=images+small+town+restaurants+canada&client=firefox-b-d&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj4qsmhj7PwAhVDpZ4KHWO-A5oQ7Al6BAgEEFw&biw=1288&bih=722#imgrc=0DK-ymv3D2sLZM

…………………………

EndNote

I grew up around or in small towns on the Canadian prairies. As a grocery boy working part-time at the Co-op store through high school, right across from the local restaurant, I watched the proceedings at coffee row quite often. This is where people gathered to casually socialize, exchange information, or barbs, and just generally be part of the community. It was an important institution. And, not just in my home town. It was common across the Canadian prairies. And elsewhere too, I’m sure.

I also saw first-hand how small towns struggled to stay afloat. And how hard people worked to keep them going. But eventually over the years, ever so slowly, they dwindled away as more people left, businesses closed and infrastructure couldn’t keep up. One author in a recent magazine called this the Slow Burn.

In a recent article in Maclean’s Magazine (https://www.macleans.ca/killing-rural-canada/), that same author, journalist, Aaron Hutchins asked the big question: What’s Killing Rural Canada? There were multiple reasons. I touched on a few in this story. But there were few solutions on how to fix the problem.

I’m an optimist. Perhaps a bit of a dreamer. I don’t know if all small Canadian towns can be saved. Do we need one every eight or ten miles along a stretch of highway in rural Saskatchewan? Perhaps long ago we did. Even in the 1950s, when I first arrived in Canada, some of those towns were already struggling. But I think some might be saved. Computers and the internet are changing where many Canadians work or run a business. The pandemic has also helped the process along, as more people work from home.

Of course, this method doesn’t work for all businesses or industry. Virtual baking can’t replace the real thing.

“It’s not just families seeing the appeal either. Businesses, both startups and large organizations, are making the move (think Amazon considering Kitchener-Waterloo over Toronto’s downtown) for the same reason the average Joe is. Lower cost of operation, more room to grow.” https://www.empirecommunities.com/blog/rural-renaissance-how-a-new-generation-is-embracing-small-town-living/

In Alberta, the shift to smaller towns outside the large urban centers is underway. The recent Covid pandemic is partly responsible, as people try to isolate in the less densely populated rural communities. But there are other reasons as well:

“Another driving factor is that people can work from home since remote working is still being encouraged by many employers. Some businesses are offering more flexible working environments such as work from home at least a few days a week, with a requirement of going to the office occasionally. This allows home buyers considerably more flexibility when looking for a new home, no longer bound by the requirement of being in close proximity to the office. This explains the surge of families exploring quieter, more remote areas that traditionally only attracted retirees.” https://blog.remax.ca/canadian-real-estate-alberta-an-ideal-buyers-market/

On British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, where I live part-time, the local real estate market in the community of Powell River is going bonkers. For many of the reasons listed above. Plus, a lot of baby boomers in the large urban centers are cashing in on their multi-million dollar properties in the city and moving where living is slower and cheaper.

“Grand totals show 40 units, valued at $13,572,800, sold in December 2020, compared to 25 units, valued at $8,872,700, in December 2019.” https://www.prpeak.com/real-estate-news/strong-real-estate-sales-continue-in-powell-river-3418406

No one currently knows where this will all end. But the signs are encouraging. So, maybe there’s still hope for that small town and coffee row in Canada. Or, perhaps I’m just dreaming and being overly optimistic. But, that’s usually what writing fiction is all about.

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CA-NA-DA’S Pied Piper Visits Small Town Saskatchewan

Canada’s Pied Piper, Bobby Gimby, somewhere in Canada, 1967, leading a group of children in one of the many parades he marched in that year. http://www.bobbygimby.com/#gallery_1-8

I grew up in Cabri, Saskatchewan. A community in southwestern Saskatchewan, so small some said the trains didn’t stop there, only slowed down.

Like most prairie kids, I lived hockey, curling and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Fishing and hunting were on the top of the list too. But unlike many Canadian kids I was fortunate enough to play in a real brass band. The Cabri Brass Band. Formed in 1917 and disbanded in 2007.

You won’t find much information on this rather iconic band if you google it. In 1967, it was one of the few true brass bands in Canada. None of those reedy-sounding clarinets or squawky saxophones. Flutes? Are you kidding. Only brass instruments and drums. Majorettes, marching and lots of parades.

I was about ten years old when I started in the band. I played the trombone. Or should I say, blew into it and occasionally the right notes came out.

The year 1967 was an important year for Canada and for the Cabri Brass Band. The band turned fifty years old and Canada one-hundred. It was time to celebrate. In style. Like never before. We needed something special for this occasion.

And that something special turned out to be none other than Canada’s Pied Piper, Bobby Gimby. Author and arranger of the famous Canada Song. He was invited to come to Cabri, Saskatchewan to play his song with the Cabri Brass Band that started his career many years earlier. And rumor had it we might get to play with him.

Bobby Gimby

A teenage Bobby Gimby (left) smoking cigars with his buddies in Cabri, Saskatchewan. On the far right is Cliff Peterson. Next to Cliff might be Tom Lyster. The fellow next to Gimby has not been identified. http://www.bobbygimby.com/#gallery_1-1

Born on October 25, 1918 in Cabri, Saskatchewan, Bobby Gimby went on to become a successful professional musician and songwriter in Eastern Canada. But deep down Bobby was a prairie boy. Honest, humble and pretty down to earth.

A story in the Cabri Herald described the Gimby family as very talented musicians. Bobby in particular. Bobby joined the Cabri Brass Band at age ten and played until 1935 when the family moved to Chilliwack, British Columbia. As his neighbor Harvey Peacock recalls, Bobby honed his skills with his trumpet often practicing in his back yard. Why the back yard? Harvey thought because his mom threw him out of the house whenever he practiced.

Photo courtesy of the Cabri Herald. The Cabri Brass Band, c.1933. Bobby and his brother are seated in the first row.

“His big break came in 1941 when he joined Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen as lead trumpeter and toured the country. That was followed in 1945 by a starring role in CBC radio’s “Happy Gang,” a gig that lasted through the 1950s. He capped the decade as musical director for the popular “Juliette” show on CBC television.” (from the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, July 4, 2017 )

Bobby Gimby, lead trumpet and his orchestra on board the S. S. Brant. http://www.bobbygimby.com/#gallery_1-4
Bobby Gimby (middle row, far right) and the Happy Gang. A long-time item on CBC radio. http://www.bobbygimby.com/#gallery_1-6

Bobby was asked to write a song for Canada’s centennial. And boy did he deliver. “I was terribly worried, because I knew the government was taking a gamble by going into show business,” Gimby recalls. “But after we’d marched in the rain to the train and given our performance, I saw a little old lady wiping tears from her eyes and she was saying, ‘I’m so proud to be a Canadian.’ I thought to myself, ‘Holy cow! We’ve scored a bull’s-eye.” http://expo67.ncf.ca/expo_gimby.html

“I’ve never seen anything like it during my 20 years in the Canadian music publishing business,” says Thompson president John Bird. “Three-year-old kids are dancing to it. High school swimming classes want to swim to it. Bike riders want to cycle to it, and drum corps want arrangements so they can beat a tattoo to it. By the end of 1967, I predict every school choir, every school band, every family with a piano in the parlor, will be playing it.” http://expo67.ncf.ca/expo_gimby.html

Bobby Gimby went on to record the largest selling recording in Canadian history. Secretary of State, Judy LaMarsh presenting Bobby with the award for his efforts. http://www.bobbygimby.com/#gallery_1-23

Bobby Gimby Comes Home

The Cabri Brass Band, around 1967. I’m in that trombone section somewhere. Probably in the back, because I played too loud.

The question was, if invited, would he come? Fortunately he still had many friends and acquaintances in Cabri, including our then band leader, Albert (Bert) Culham.

Albert (Bert) Culham my band leader throughout my time with the Cabri Brass Band. (Courtesy Michelle Culham)
Bobby Gimby playing his Canada song with the Cabri Brass Band, c.1967. (Courtesy Cabri Herald)

But Bobby didn’t forget his Saskatchewan roots. In March, 1967 he returned to Cabri to play with the Cabri Brass Band. He also marched with us at the Moose Jaw Kinsman Band Festival. Band majorette, Nancy Scott, recalls that Bobby, when offered a car to ride in for the parade, refused, marched and played with us instead.

Bobby wasn’t just an excellent musician, he was a superb entertainer. That infectious smile never left his face. He was a natural with those kids.

Bobby Gimby gave each member of the Cabri Brass Band a signed brochure of his Canada song. (Courtesy Michelle Culham)

The one thing I remember about him, when he played he was having a good time. He marched proudly with us, his old brass band, as we wound our way around the streets of Cabri and in the Moose Jaw Band Festival parade. I played that Canada song so many times that day, my lips turned purple and numb.

Bobby Gimby’s comments about the Canada Song: “The idea first came to me when I was playing an orchestra date at Manoir Richelieu in La Malbaie, Que., back in the summer of 1964,” he replies. “On St. Jean Baptiste Day I saw about 50 kids parading through the streets. The boys were dressed in quaint sacking material, and the girls had flowers in their hair, and they were all singing some delightful folk song in French.” http://expo67.ncf.ca/expo_gimby.html

Bobby said he was thrilled at how he was received in Cabri. The people of Cabri, “…spread the red carpet for me down on the gumbo mud and – oh, boy! – actually presented me with the key to the city.” http://expo67.ncf.ca/expo_gimby.html

The ever-humble Bobby Gimby thanking Bert Culham for the opportunity to visit Cabri and play with the band. (Courtesy Michelle Culham.)
Perhaps my favorite photograph of Bobby Gimby surrounded by young Canadians. A truly an iconic moment in Canadian history. (Courtesy Getty Images).

In 1967, in recognition for his work for Canada’s centennial, Bobby Gimby was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and was named Broadcaster of the Year. In 1968, he was awarded two Lloyd E. Moffat Memorial Awards, for Best Middle-of-the-Road Record and Best Example of Canadian Originality and Creativity.

Bobby left us on June 20th, 1998, at age 79.

Here’s to you Bobby, and your great legacy. And personally, I’ve had some wonderful Canadian moments. Few surpass those few days playing with the Cabri Brass Band, and Canada’s Pied Piper, Bobby Gimby.

EndNote

It’s been over fifty years ago since we marched and played with Bobby Gimby. As someone interested in how our collective histories are passed on, this story was a bit of an eyeopener. I asked over half-dozen people, who experienced those few days with Bobby, to give me a few of their personal thoughts on the event. Only one person recalled some personal stuff not written in the newspapers. The rest of us, myself included, had trouble recalling some of our own experiences with this man. Without a strong oral history, if not written down during the moment, it’s hard to reconstruct the smaller aspects of that time.

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Let’s Fight Fire, With Fire

In memory of:

Dr. Henry (Hank) Lewis, University of Alberta

Dr. William Pruitt, University of Manitoba

Walls of smoke and flames approaching the City of Slave Lake, Alberta, Canada, 2011. https://news-ca.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/640×360/017.jpg

High Level (2019), Fort McMurray (2016), Slave Lake (2011), Alberta, Canada! On fire, or nearly so. Fires so hot, I’m told by first-hand witnesses, that the flames jumped across the Athabasca River at Fort McMurray. A distance of more than 200 metres. A scenario which repeats itself in many parts of Canada.

And also in other parts of the world. In 2019 we witnessed horrendous fires in New South Wales, Australia. The Blue Mountains turned grey.

Katoomba, New South Wales, Blue Mountains on fire, December 2019. A few new fires broke out in less than one hour while we were there.

Yes, granted. Climate change is partially responsible for more intense, frequent fires. But, not totally. It’s way more complex than that. It’s also a result of precedence – in this case, economics over ecology. Canada’s policy of fire suppression, for well over a century, is one of the worst mistakes made in managing our forests.

Whenever I drive through Slave Lake, up to Fort Vermilion on Highway 88, I go by the burned-out area of trees on the east side of the highway. And there on the west side sit the houses of the City. The City starts where the forest stops. How can that be a good idea?

Burned down houses near the edges of Slave Lake, Alberta. https://static.theglobeandmail.ca/b72/news/alberta/article24593293.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/web-fire-0525.JPG

How could this happen? The answer to that question requires a lesson in Canadian history. Yes, as you will see, history can teach us important lessons to apply to the future. There’s no doubt about that. But first to learn from history, we have to read it. Too little of that in Canada.

And then, the people reading it have to be empowered to turn what they learned into policy. Too little of that too from our policymakers in Canada.

Fire, Fire: The Warning Cries

In the early 1970s, I attended lectures by Henry Lewis, Professor of Anthropology. Dr. Lewis was studying the use of fire by the Dene and Cree of northern Alberta, Canada. He just finished researching the use of fire by Indigenous people in California.

Lewis’s message was clear. The northern Dene and Cree used fire regularly to clear areas in the boreal forest to create meadows and other habitat more suitable for a diversity of game animals. And they had likely done this for centuries. The boreal forest we see today was nothing like it was centuries ago before White settlement.

And by doing so, Indigenous people, not only in Canada but throughout the world, lessened the intensity of natural forest fires. Controlled burning decreased the amount of dead vegetation, or fuel, and opened up the forests, reducing large-scale spread.

In 1976 I studied Boreal Ecology under the late Professor William Pruitt, University of Manitoba. Pruitt was a quiet man with the looks and demeanour more like Santa Claus than some ‘political shit-disturber’ which he was labelled as at the University of Alaska (for standing up against the US government’s nuclear policies). The good Dr. Pruitt repeatedly told us that government fire prevention policies in the boreal forests of North America would lead to disaster. Unfortunately, Dr. Pruitt’s words turned out to be prophetic.

Massive wall of flame and smoke near High Level, Alberta, Canada. https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/05-30-highleveltrevor2.jpg?quality=85&strip=all

The Historic Evidence of Human Use of Fire

High Prairie, Grande Prairie, Prairie Point, Jon D’Or Prairie, Buffalo Head Prairie, Clear Prairie, Meadow Lake. These are the names of a few settlements in today’s northern boreal forest in Alberta and Saskatchewan. There are more prairie names of settlements in the boreal forest than on the Northern Great Plains. Where did these names come from? Surely not because some nostalgic folks living in the woods, yearning for the prairies, named them.

No. These areas in the northern boreal forest, at the beginning of White settlement, contained vast prairies, kept open and maintained by First Nations people using fire.

Let’s go back and look at some of the evidence for deliberate burning practices by Indigenous peoples throughout the world.

Indigenous Use of Fire, Australia

“The “virgin lands” first observed by Europeans in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries were not an untouched wilderness. As several writers
have noted, the “forest primeval” was a later, romanticized creation of the
Euro-American imagination.” (Henry Lewis and Theresa Ferguson, 1988)

Historic painting of Australian Aborigines hunting in a park-like landscape. http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201205/r949404_10117814.jpg

The Australian Aborigines used fires to create a park-like vista on the Australian landscape at the time of contact with Whites. Their activities were misunderstood and regarded with suspicion by early settlers. This created considerable strife between settlers and aborigines, as documented in a series of letters between the governor and settlers:

“I fear His Excellency will find it a very difficult subject to deal with, and impossible wholly to prevent, it has always been the custom of the Natives to fire the country during the summer season for a variety of purposes, first to assist them in hunting, it also clears the country of underwood, which if not occasionally burnt, would become an impenetrable jungle, infested with snakes and reptiles. “ (Letter to Peter Broun, Secretary to the Governor, New South Wales from Revett Henry Bland, Protector of Natives at York, 1846)

“If so – they burn for their food, whereas the existence of our Flocks and Herds depends on what to us is thus annually irretrievably destroyed and the whole district is now groaning under the ruinous spoliation…” (Richard G. Meares, Resident, 1846)

The outcome eventually favoured the settlers. As it would in many other parts of the world. Indigenous peoples were banned from burning and the dense bush began to encroach eventually creating the situations we saw last year in the Blue Mountains. Over the years fire suppression created more problems than it solved.

While driving through the outback of New South Wales of Australia in 2019, I noticed many goats along the roadsides. Feral goats are everywhere. Eating up the shrubbery and weeds. Keeping them at bay. Turns out in some communities goats are Australia’s new ‘fire’ to control bush and prevent major fires.

Goats, in some parts of Australia, are now the new ‘fire’, keeping dense vegetation and undergrowth under control. “On the edge of Daylesford, a town on Dja Dja Wurrung country in Victoria, Australia prone to massive bushfires, a small group of community-minded folk have pulled together to work towards restoring the ecology of their commons forest – in order to stop the future need for controlled burn-offs by the local fire authority.” Goats, it seems are the new fire. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_goats_in_Australia#/media/File:Goats_-_Wilpena_Pound.JPG)

Indigenous Use of Fire, California

Virtually the same circumstances took place in what was to become California when the Spanish arrived. They tried to suppress the use of fire by the Indigenous people, calling it “primitive” and wasteful. In 1850, the US government passed the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians, which outlawed intentional burning. According to fire historian Stephen Pyne:

“They said if we suppress all these fires, we end light burning, we will have great new forests. And we did – we had so much great new forest that we created a problem.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/21/wildfire-prescribed-burns-california-native-americans. Rick O’Rourke, Yurok fire practitioner during the prescribed burn in Weitchpec, California.

In the late 1960s, the US government rethought its fire policies but is still paying the price today. Indigenous groups, such as the Yurok are again beginning to actively use fire, as they had traditionally for many centuries, to open up the forests:

“Our first agreement with our creator was to tend the land. It was taken away from us, and now we’re trying to reclaim it.” (Rick O’Rourke, Yurok fire manager, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/21/wildfire-prescribed-burns-california-native-americans)

Indigenous Use of Fire, Boreal Forest, Northern Alberta

In Alberta, northern Canada, at the time of contact Dene used fire to manage the forest and keep it from clogging up. According to surveyor George M. Dawson in 1879, when in northern Alberta:

“…the origin of the prairies of the Peace River is sufficiently obvious. There can be no doubt that they have been produced and are maintained by fires. The country is naturally a wooded one, and where fires have not run for a few years, young trees begin rapidly to spring up.” (Macoun 1882:125)

In the early 1970s, Dr. Henry Lewis argued that places in northern Alberta:

“…prescribed fires were once part of the Indian’s own pattern of ‘landscape management’.….their selective employment of modern fire for boreal forest adaptations indicated an understanding of both the general principles and the local specific environmental relationships that are the subject of modern fire ecology….They understood and practiced controlled burning as a part of hunting-gathering subsistence activities.” (from Lewis 1982)

By the use of fire, the people kept meadows and other areas open and refurbished:

“Why the bushes so thick is because…they stop burning—the Indians stopped burning…Did you ever see them prairies? My goodness, I even remember. It was really prairie…just prairie, you know, (and) here and there you see little specks of woods….” (Beaver woman, 69, High Level, Alberta area; from Lewis 1982:24)

Such open meadows would have attracted many large game animals, including the once-abundant woodland bison:

“Until the mid-eighteenth century bison ranged throughout much of the boreal forest, as far north as Great Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories….it seems unlikely that either the Athapaskans or later Algonkians would have overlooked the possibilities of providing and maintaining better habitat for woodland buffalo [through use of fire].” (from Lewis 1982; brackets mine)

“People know where to hunt. Our people have a name for those burned places in the forest called go-ley-day. They tell one another about those places and when to hunt there.” (Slavey, 69, Meander River area; from Lewis, 1982)

When asked why this practice stopped, the responses were consistent and similar to other areas of the world:

“But it is years ago they did that. Nowadays you can’t burn on the trap line because it’s against the law, and it’s not so good as before.” (Slavey 73, Meander River area; from Lewis, 1982)

Indigenous people also knew that camping and living among the trees was dangerous:

“What is that name? Maskuta? Muskotaw! Yea, that’s a prairie like place. There used to be lots of places around here. Nobody built their house in the woods like they do now. If we get a forest fire now it could be really bad. All the houses would get burned up. It’s a lot safer if you got open places…you just your teepee up there.” (Cree, 78, Trout Lake [Alberta] area; from Lewis 1982)

Obviously, that lesson, learned long ago, has yet to trickle down to today’s generation.

Anthropogenic Burning and the Historic Record, Alberta

Both Indigenous people and academics have voiced these ideas for years now. But, still not enough people are listening. Recently, however, more action has been taken to better manage the world’s forests. Including Canada’s forests.

For example, ecologists working in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains demonstrated that restoring forest areas to a pre-European landscape “resulted in dramatically lower mean probability… [of high-intensity fires] …and a smaller reduction in the mean fire size” (from Poletto 2019)

My interest in anthropogenic burning lies in how long it was used. The Fort Vermilion region contained ‘prairies’ at contact and was an important place for the acquisition of meat in the fur trade. In 1987 we found one of the largest prehistoric sites in the region, which we think might have been used intermittently for the last 9,000 years. Was this place always important historically and a prairie?

Throughout northern Alberta, archaeologists and paleo-ecologists are looking at these relationships more closely. Did these historically documented prairies have a long history of human use?

During the late 18th – early 19th centuries, traders and explorers noted several places where large game, especially wood bison, were plentiful in areas with prairies or more open parkland. Here are a few of the areas shown in the map below:

These are a few of the places, circled in yellow, described by traders and explorers as containing ‘prairies’ and abundant large game animals, including wood bison. 1. Fort McKay area; 2. Lake Athabasca delta; 3. Salt Plains, NWT; 4) Fort Vermilion -High Level area; 5) Whitemud River near Peace River; and, 6) the Grande Prairie.
The Salt Plains, NWT, west of Fort Smith. An open parkland area with natural salt outcroppings. Important wood bison grounds historically and today’s herds.
Buffalo Head Prairie, just south of La Crete, Alberta, looking south towards the Buffalo Head Hills in the distance. Historically a vast, flat, wide open prairie, likely maintained by burning. Today it has some of the best farmland in the region. In some parts of northern Alberta, early settlers stated that they would not have cleared the land so easily had it not been for the already open prairie areas such as these south of La Crete.
Our large, ancient archaeological site near Fort Vermilion, Alberta, Canada, is now mostly in a cultivated field. One of the still-standing Metis log houses was built at the turn of the 20th century.

These places contain both a high frequency and some very large archaeological sites, thousands of years old. Unfortunately we do not have sufficient evidence to connect the long Indigenous land use directly to deliberate burning and the formation of prairies and parkland in the forest.

It will take years of research to better understand this association. However, it has already begun. Paleo-ecologists are examining lake sediments in some areas of the province. They reveal a long history of deliberate burning before contact. The task is difficult as one researcher recently noted:

“Although anthropogenic fires cannot be distinguished in Sharkbite Lake’s record, the charcoal record indicates that on average, every 155 years there was a major fire episode close to Sharkbite Lake. More recent regional fire studies indicate that some areas are prone to burn every 10 years.” (Christina Potello, Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta)

Back to the ‘Old Ways’

Massive wall of flames approaching Fort McMurray. https://ca.images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=images+of+burned+area+near+Fort+McMurrayl+alberta&fr=yhs-trp-001&type=Y143_F163_201897_102620&hspart=trp&hsimp=yhs-001&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fs-i.huffpost.com%2Fgen%2F4285976%2Fthumbs%2Fo-FORT-MCMURRAY-900.jpg%3F16#id=6&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fs-i.huffpost.com%2Fgen%2F4285976%2Fthumbs%2Fo-FORT-MCMURRAY-900.jpg%3F16&action=click

With the incorporation of the Dominion Lands Act in 1872, Canada engaged in a war against fire. Good or bad. Elizabeth Ramsey’s (2015) article on the history of forest fire management in Alberta documents the views and policies that have led to today’s crisis. As one fire expert succinctly put it, by the second half of the 19th century conflicting interests about Alberta’s resources collided, “…a new logic of economics smashed against an older logic of ecology.” (Stephen J. Pyne, 2007).

While our perceptions and actions are slowly changing toward fire, in the words of one Indigenous informant, back in the 1970s:

“It would take a long time to make the country like it was before we stopped burning…maybe fifty years to get the country back (to what it was). It would take a lot of work.” (Slavey, 73, High Level [Alberta] area; from Lewis 1982)

While it’s never too late to change course, it would take a herculean effort to take our forests back to the pre-contact days. And, does it conflict with today’s economics? Perhaps. But surely our current forest policies are not the answer.

Today’s northern boreal forests are often choked with dense underbrush making travel through them almost impossible. And also finding archaeological sites. Boyer River, 2018. Somewhere in there is a late 18th-century fur trade post.

As I walked across the ancient prehistoric site near Fort Vermilion and gazed towards the Caribou Mountains in the distance I envisioned a vast prairie – parkland centuries ago, with grazing herds of wood bison and elk, stretching for miles in either direction, in what is now Canada’s northern boreal forest.

Now only open fields or dense forests appear before me. But no flocks of feral goats. We haven’t got that desperate yet.

……………………….

References

Lewis, H.T., 1982. A Time for burning. Boreal Institute for Northern Studies. Edmonton, Alberta.

 Lewis, Henry T., and Theresa A. Ferguson, 1988. Yards, Corridors, and Mosaics: How to Burn a Boreal Forest. Human Ecology 16:57-77.

Macoun, John, 1882. Manitoba and the great North-West. Guelph, Ontario. World Publishing Company.

Poletto, Christina Livia, 2019. Postglacial Human and Environment Landscapes of Northeastern Alberta: An Analysis of Late Holocene Sediment Record from Sharkbite Lake, Alberta. M. A. Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta.

Pyne, Stephen J., 2007. Awful Splendour: A Fire History of Canada. University of British Columbia Press.

Ramsey, Elizabeth, 2015. Ecology or Economy. A History of Forest Fire Management in Alberta. Alberta History:16-20.

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Our Canadian Pets: Love Them, or, Leave Them?

My wife and I, like many Canadians, own a pet. Well, pets actually. Four cats, three dogs and a horse. Two of our four cats come from animal shelters; the other two were strays. My wife, Gabriella, likes to collect them. Our cats, and my aging three English Springer Spaniels (I like to collect them) cost a lot of money for care. (Above photograph, front to back: Laser, Keagan, Ceili, and Pepsi; We re-homed Keagan.)

Canadians love their pets. Over fifty percent of Canadian households own at least one pet. We spend nearly seven billion dollars annually on our pets.

But when it comes to the proper care of pets, there’s often a downside. It’s the cost of providing for them. When does it become just too costly to own one? And do the benefits of owning one outweigh those costs?

Gabriella with Bandit. Adequate food, regular hoof trimming, fencing and shelter, and the occasional medications have kept this guy healthy for thirty years.

Pets and Your Well-Being

I couldn’t agree more with a recent post in Reader’s Digest, on the benefits of owning a pet. They’re great companions in a sometimes lonely world. They help increase our activity levels, and reduce our stress levels in a sometimes all too stressful world.

Dogs can also detect early signs of cancer. Pets help reduce heart disease. Having dogs or cats around your kids will decrease their sensitivity to allergies. And perhaps build some compassion for the animal world out there. Pets also help ease our pain when we’re sick and keep our brains sharp. This last benefit caught my aging eye (that’s why I own three dogs).

The Cost of Pet Ownership

But are those cuddly fur balls worth doling out nearly seven billion dollars a year in Canada? As Canadians, have we taken the pet thing too far? Well, if we have, we’re not alone. Most of the more prosperous countries in the world are either close behind, or ahead of us, when it comes to spending on pets:

CountryAmount Spent on Pets/year (billions of dollars)Percent Households with PetsAmount Spent by Person/YearAmount Spent by Household/Year
Canada6.6 38$175$1,234.4
USA7039$213.3$1,402.2
UK541$74$424.9
Australia12.242$610$3,458
We’re not the leaders, when compared to these three countries, on how much we spend on our pets. According to international statistics, Norway spends the most per capita on pets than any other country.
Poly, our six-toed wonder. She wandered onto our property. Dwarfed size because of early health issues. Enlarged heart and hip issues (probably from being hit by a car). Life expectancy – months.

Health Costs for Pets in Canada

In Canada the average amount spent on either a puppy or kitten during its first year of life is $710.00 and $621.00 respectively. But that’s only the beginning.

Then comes care and the medical bills. Here are parts of a table from the Canadian Veterinary Journal, March, 2016. It lists the fees for a few basic veterinary procedures across Canada:

TreatmentNFLPEINBNSQCONMBSKABBC
Companion animal examination$66.11$68.13$84.03$84.21$63.67$74.67$73.51$71.79$62.59$70.13
Canine examination and vaccines$106.17$110.62$123.33$111.29$136.57$110.02$115.34$101.72$95.87$109.39
Feline ovariohysterectomy$309.12$227.68$270.99$264.49$191.00$327.49$249.13$232.47$242.99$234.38
Average cost of living adjusted fee for bellwether companion and large animal treatments in 2015.

Even when adjusted to average cost of living in each province, these veterinarian fees are highly variable across the Country. But what caught my eye was how this variability then justified raising treatment fees:

“In an economically ideal situation, once the cost-of-living adjustment is applied, each treatment should have a very similar, if not identical, average fee in all provinces. For provinces that are lagging their neighbors, this investigation can serve as evidence for those veterinarians that there is indeed room to increase their fees.”

Interesting. The authors, instead of suggesting that veterinarians in some provinces might consider lowering their fees, they suggest raising fees instead.

Pepsi. Eleven year old springer spaniel. Recently, growth on toe removed. Teeth cleaned and worn teeth removed.
Should Veterinary Costs Be Regulated?

Is it time to starting thinking about regulating and standardizing fees in the veterinary industry in Canada? Is it even legally possible?

According to the Canadian Veterinary Association, the average income for a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 2010 was $67,000. In 2017, their income was higher, as reported in IM: The Canadian Magazine of Immigration:

VETERINARIANS (NOC 3114-A)
2017Wages ($/yr)
Province/TerritoryLowMedianHigh
Canada30,07981,640147,954
Québec35,68280,857185,774
Ontario24,12683,175160,808
Alberta33,04086,620145,471
British Columbia32,76478,026139,403
Manitoba59,91594,922131,548
Saskatchewan23,96972,178128,002
Nova Scotia22,10170,254124,281
New Brunswick45,92482,914104,141
Newfoundland and LabradorN/AN/AN/A
Northwest TerritoriesN/AN/AN/A
NunavutN/AN/AN/A
Prince Edward IslandN/AN/AN/A
YukonN/AN/AN/A
Source: Job Bank. September 2017*
These median wages for veterinarians, in my opinion, don’t seem out of line. Given what these people have to deal with on a daily basis, and the service they provide. This would suggest that overhead costs are mainly responsible for the high cost of veterinary care.

I tinkered some more with these numbers. I compared the median wages of veterinarians to the sum-average costs of the procedures mentioned above for each province. The correlation was very poor. In other words, higher median wages aren’t related to higher cost of procedures.

Then I made the same comparison between the highest mean wages per province to the mean costs of the procedures in each province. The results were a little surprising:

With the exception of Ontario, there is a weak inverse relationship between average cost of procedure and veterinarians’ wages. In other words, the provinces with some of the highest veterinary wages had the lowest costs for procedures. Keep in mind, the number of plot points is small (data not available for all provinces).

Occasionally there’s an outcry in the media and the public about the high costs of veterinary services. Many of us assume that the reason for those high costs are veterinarians’ high salaries. Check out this post by Dr. Debora Lichtenberg, VMD. There’s anger on both sides of the debate. But, it certainly isn’t exorbitant wages that are driving up those costs in Canada.

So, when one of my dogs or cats gets really sick and I have to fork out a lot of money, what’s really to blame? In one year alone, I spent nearly five-thousand dollars on my thirteen year old springier spaniel, Ceili. And I have two more aging dogs to go. That’s a lot of money to spend to keep my mind ‘sharp’! (I’m debating whether it’s even working.)

Like our human health care system in Canada, veterinarians have a lot of bills to pay. It’s likely the high overhead (rent, cost of equipment and procedures, staff, etc.) that’s driving up those costs for pet owners.

Laser. Twelve year old springer spaniel. In the last year, neutered, teeth cleaned and surgery to remove worn and broken teeth.

Operating a Dog Pound in Canada

Our dog boarding and pound facility near Leduc, Alberta.

Does the high cost of keeping an animal lead to more abandonment of animals in Canada? Because their owners couldn’t keep up with the bills? Part of the answer lies in the many shelters where these animals end up.

My wife and I ran a dog boarding business (Blackgold Kennels) near Leduc, Alberta for about ten years. We also operated the local pound for the County of Leduc, City of Leduc, and nearby Beaumont. It was a great experience but also a bit of a reality check.

What we saw in those ten years was occasionally quite horrifying and heart-breaking. And, when an owner picked up their lost pet, or we re-homed an abandoned animal, there was a short period of satisfaction. At least until the next lost or abandoned animal arrived.

The number of owners who reclaimed their pets was on average about sixty-percent for dogs and less than twenty-percent for cats (we have yet to come up with an adequate explanation for the differences in the reclaim rates of these two animals).

For ten years we fought a mini-war trying to re-home or adopt out the abandoned animals in our shelter. Instead of euthanizing them. Fortunately, we teamed up with a number of great dog and cat rescue groups and managed to save most of the ones not reclaimed.

Smoky’s story. Abandoned in our pound in c.2014. We kept him as a kennel cat for four years. Then he was re-homed twice and eventually returned to the pet rescue group. So, Smoky became our number four.

But the reality is that tens of thousands of sound animals are euthanized every year in Canada. Here are some sobering statistics from SPCA organizations in Canada and a few other countries:

CountryTotal Animals Sheltered per Year% Animals Surrendered per CapitaReclaimed
(Percent)		Re-homed (Percent)Euthanized (Percent)
Canada110,0000.29115814
USA6,500,0000.20114923
Australia124,1460.627.24012.9
UK102,9000.15—40—
Germany15,0000.02—90+—
Some national statistics on numbers of animals sheltered, reclaimed, re-homed and euthanized in SPCA facilities of four other countries. Statistics are from the last two – three years. Canada ranks right up there with animals re-homed, and a relatively low percentage euthanized. From what I’ve been able to determine, Germany has one of the best animal protection and care systems in the world. And one of the worst Countries, where over 82% of animals ending up in shelters were euthanized. Japan. According to this article, “More than 204,000 pets — 82 percent of the total taken into public “animal shelters” that year — were euthanized in 2010, according to the latest available government figures. Just under 52,000 of these animals were dogs; the majority were cats.”

Here’s how our pound stacked up the National and International numbers:

Clearly, we were ahead of the curve in many categories. But it took an almost herculean effort to accomplish this. In the process we managed to convince one of our clients that it was in their best interests to promote their shelter as a ‘zero-kill’ facility.

Were we the norm when it comes to other animal shelters across the country (aside from the SPCA)? We wish it was. We believe not. And the reason for thinking so is the wording and interpretation of various provincial animal protection acts.

Do the SPCA Figures Represent the True Reality of Abandoned Pets in Canada?

Keep in mind that the SPCA represents only a small fraction of shelters taking in animals across the country. Every town, City and local municipality, much like our facility, has their own shelter to deal with abandoned animals. And there are many animal rescue groups working out there as well. This means that the total number of dogs and cats abandoned across Canada is essentially unknown. And what’s done with those animals is also mostly a mystery.

All those shelters and pounds operate under provincial government legislation guidelines regarding the care and protection of domestic animals. Once the animal is brought to our facility, then what? Here’s where things get a little murky and are open to interpretation. For example, under Section Eight of the Alberta Animal Protection Act:

“Destruction of animal 8. A humane society, in respect of an animal that has been delivered to it, or a peace officer, in respect of an animal that has been delivered to a caretaker, may destroy the animal or cause the animal to be destroyed if it has not been claimed by its owner and in the opinion of the humane society or peace officer, as the case may be, the animal is not suitable to be sold or given away in accordance with section 7.”

The exact intent of this clause is rarely followed in Alberta. It clearly states that if an animal is not claimed by its owner and “is not suitable to be sold or given away…”, it can be destroyed within a certain number of days. In Alberta, this last part of this clause is mostly ignored. After a certain number of days, if the owner is not found, the animal is destroyed. When we first started the pound, that was generally the method of operation one of our clients had previously adopted. Little effort was made to re-home animals who, for the most part, were once peoples’ loving pets. Most certainly were quite ‘suitable’ to be sold or given away.

Wording in the Animal Protection Acts of other provinces are relatively similar to ours. This clause should be rewritten emphasizing re-homing first: “every effort should be made to sell or give away a suitable animal, before it can be destroyed.”

The truth of the matter is no one really knows what other towns, cities and municipalities in the country are doing with abandoned animals. Hopefully it’s not along the lines of what a former Alberta premier once said when faced with mad cow disease in the province: ‘Shoot, Shovel, and Shut-up.’

Why Do People Abandon Their Pets?

I read an interesting article by Lisa Towell who lists five reasons people abandon their animals. They range from having to move, to allergies, or a new landlord that doesn’t allow pets. There are also those troublesome behavioral problems (aggression, cleanliness, etc.).

However, in a recent article in the Dodo, according to a major study in the US, a major reason for pet abandonment:

” A major reason? Economics….But, if there is a villain in all of this, the study suggests, it’s economics. According to the study, people with income below $50,000 were significantly more likely to re-home due to cost and housing issues.”

Is the major culprit for pet abandonment also economics in Canada? I don’t know. I’m not aware of any similar Canadian studies to the one conducted by the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).

Ceili. My thirteen-year old springer. In the last year, spayed, recent kidney infection requiring considerable blood work,
ex-rays, ultrasound, and medication. Was near death but pulled through.

Another Possible Reason for Low Pet Reclaim Rates in Canada

We found one contributing culprit that potentially leads to abandonment. No proper I.D. on the animal. And when it did have a tattoo or micro-chip, often the owner’s personal information (address and phone number) was out of date.

Please I.D. your animals properly and keep your personal information up to date if you move or change phone numbers. You’re protecting your pet by doing so.

After our animal pound experience, we feel it should be law to have every animal properly I.D.’d. Thousands more animals would be reclaimed. And the cost of dealing with lost or abandoned animals would decrease.

Any Good News?

In Canada’s 2018 SPCA annual report, over 80,000 cats and approximately 30,000 dogs were sheltered. A lot of animals are still being abandoned, that we know of. Even more that we don’t know of. But here’s the good news. Over the last decade these figures have steadily dropped:

Data from the Canadian 2018 SPCA annual report.

Are they also dropping in the many local pounds across the country? There’s no way of telling. The only thing we noticed over the years was a slow change in attitude and perhaps more care for animals. Also, more pets have proper I.D’s. What about the ones that still enter a pound or shelter? Over the years we noticed it was becoming more popular to say to your general public that you are a zero-kill facility. Meaning, every effort is made to try first to re-home abandoned animals, before destroying them. Hopefully that attitude has caught on across Canada.

Life with Our Pets

Visiting outside Lac La Biche Post. Dogs were an integral part of Canadian life in the nineteenth century. In some parts of Canada, they were more important than horses as a means of travel or moving goods in the winter. (Painting by Frederick Remington, courtesy Glenbow Archives)

Humanity’s relationship with animals goes back tens of thousands of years. Horses and dogs, for example, played invaluable roles in Canadians society.

Over the last one-hundred years, our relationship with animals has gradually changed. They are no longer primarily work animals. They are our loved companions, who bring a lot of joy and completeness to our lives. The cost of keeping them, however, continues to grow. In fairness, so does the quality of health care for them.

Should it be the right of every Canadian to enjoy a pet if they choose, regardless of their income level? Perhaps. But that may no longer be possible. The high cost of owning and caring for an animal is no longer within financial reach of many Canadians.

If this current trend continues, in the future will we see history repeat itself? Will ownership of pets will be solely for a select few in society with the means to properly care for them? Is pet insurance the new future for Canadian pet owners? Or will many Canadians be forced to make some very hard ethical decisions about where to draw the line with the cost of caring for their pets?

…………………….

To end on the lighter side of pet ownership. A friend of mine recently just sent me this cartoon.

STAY SAFE

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So, What’s in, or on, a Pierogi?

The Short Answer: In Canada, Just About Anything

Pierogies (Poland); varenyky, pyrohy (Ukraine); bryndzové pirohy (Slovakia); Ajdovi krapi (Slovenia); vareniki (Russia); derelye (Hungary); colțunași (Romania/Moldavia); piroggen, Kurländer Speckkuchen, Schlutzkrapfen (Germany); prairie pillows (Canada).

In this article, I’ll use the Polish spelling: pierogi, pierogies. Generically pierogi means ‘filled dumplings.’ It derives from Old East Slavic, пиръ (pirŭ) and further from Proto-Slavic *pirъ, ‘feast’.

These are just some of the countries where this popular food is made and eaten. Its many different names speak highly to its popularity around the world. In Canada, where we have such a diverse mix of peoples from all over the world, it’s not too surprising that our pierogies come in many sizes, shapes and tastes, even when made by people from the same country. Canadians have given them at least one unique name that I’m aware of – ‘Prairie Pillows.’

Yum. Everyone’s eaten them. Or even made them. Those oversized doughy dumplings with fillings ranging from assorted meats, cheeses, potatoes, cabbage, onions and sauerkraut. Even fruits. Then boiled, and fried, if desirable. And topped with a variety of ingredients such as the ever-popular sour cream.

After doing some research on this tasty food, and making my own pierogies for many years, I realized people have put just about anything in a pierogi. And, on it. And Eastern Europeans, where it’s so popular, have been creating different varieties of pierogies for centuries. The most popular commercial frozen pierogies in Canada are the mashed potato and cheddar cheese varieties. Specialty shops in larger Canadian centers will likely have a much larger assortment to choose from.

For more history on the pierogi in Canada, read Gabby Peyton’s article on some iconic foods in Canada.

Our Family Background

As a small child, I watched my mother make pierogies for hours on end. A very time-consuming undertaking, if you’ve ever tried it. She made them the Polish way. Both our families (Pyszczyk and Kleister) come from Poland. My mother’s side (Kleister) farmed along the Vistula River, north of Warsaw, where they had lived for over three-hundred years, after immigrating from there fro western Germany. And my father’s side (Pyszczyk), moved from the western Ukraine, and farmed south of Krakow, closer to the Czechoslovakian border. Both families considered themselves Germans. But, they made and ate Polish-style pierogies.

Growing up, I wasn’t always sure what I was. German? Polish? Or Ukrainian? It wasn’t too long before it was pretty obvious. Canadian. Regardless of my ethnic background(s).

Polish Pierogies

In Poland the pierogi is of considerable significance. In fact, it is one of the country’s national dishes. In the thirteenth century it was peasant food and a staple of the Polish diet. It soon spread through all the social classes. By the seventeenth century, special kinds of pierogies, each with different shapes or fillings, were being created for each of the many Polish holidays. And also for everything from weddings to wakes.

My Mom’s Pierogies

Mom’s pierogies were pretty simple. As are many traditional pierogi recipes. She always filled them with quark (milk curd, similar to cottage cheese), made from fresh milk. I always marveled at the process. Mom would take a small flour sack, fill it with milk, and then hang it up in the kitchen. Then she put a pail under it and let the liquid slowly drain out of it for a couple of days. And before you knew it. Quark. (Note: I wish I had paid more attention to this process. Can’t remember now if she used buttermilk or just raw milk, or both.) She added a little salt to the quark along with chopped onions, and the filling was ready.

Mom’s dough was quite simple too. White flour, water, maybe an egg or two, and a little milk. Mix it all up and knead it. Using her hands, mom would roll and stretch the dough into a long, thick rope, and then cut it into approximately one-inch sections. Then came the time-consuming part. Roll out each section of dough. Then make each individual pierogi by hand, boil them, and then fry them in bacon fat and onions. Mom’s pierogies were bigger than what I see in stores and restaurants today. We would add a dollop of sour cream on top, and they were ready to eat.

My Pierogies

I began helping mom make pierogies when I was pretty young and then eventually started making my own. Soon I was developing my own style and tastes, experimenting with different fillings. Even today, I’m still dabbling with new fillings and spices. And when I did a little research on Canadian pierogies, I realized when it comes to pierogi fillings and toppings, the sky’s the limit.

Like my writing style, I cook ‘by the seat of my pants’. My batches of pierogies are rarely ever the same size, shape, or taste. Sometimes, I add a certain spice or ingredient I haven’t tried before. There’s no written down, detailed recipe of specific measurements of ingredients. Occasionally when I make a real good batch, I think, ‘maybe I should write this one down.’ But, I never seem to get around to it.

Here are the three main varieties of pierogies I make. I’ll just briefly describe and summarize the first one. I’ll go into a little more detail on the last two varieties which I made recently (and took a few photographs while making them). I created these two types out of more traditional recipes over the years. I won’t bore you with the proportions of the ingredients. It all depends how many pierogies you want to make and what your tastes are like.

Dough

I use only white flour, water, and salt for my dough. I’ve tried egg dough and find it gets too rubbery and hard when boiled. I’ve tried milk in my dough’s and find the dough gets too flaccid and is not elastic enough. (Maybe I should try the two together?) Don’t make the dough too dry. It has to be slightly sticky so you can seal the filling inside.

Large ball of dough ready to be made into pierogies. A lot of ingredients were added to pierogi dough over the centuries. Mashed potatoes, creating a smoother texture. The Czechs and Slovaks add curds and eggs to their dough. The Ukrainians add fermented milk products to bind the dough together. In Slovenia, they make the dough out of buckwheat, instead of wheat flour.
Cabbage and Mushroom Pierogies

I found this recipe in a Ukrainian cookbook years ago and adapted it slightly to my tastes. It consists of boiled, chopped cabbage, with sauteed mushrooms, and onions. Mix the cabbage in with the mushrooms and onions. Add salt and pepper according to your tastes. Add enough lemon juice to the mixture so it tastes slightly tangy. Or, add more lemon juice for a more sour, stronger taste. These pierogies go well with a meat or cottage cheese pierogi. In Poland and the Ukraine, sauerkraut is often used instead of the cabbage and lemon.

Ground Beef Pierogies

First, break up and fry about a pound and a half of lean ground beef in a skillet. I add finely chopped onions, salt and pepper to the mixture. Occasionally I add some thyme and oregano for extra flavor. Once the mixture is thoroughly cooked and browned, drain away as much of the grease as possible. Set aside and let cool before filling the pierogi.

Grease is the enemy when making pierogies. If it gets on your hands or on the edges of the dough, the dough won’t stick together very well. And you’ll end up with ‘sinkers‘ (pierogies that leak when being boiled and sink to the bottom of the pot).

Preparing the ground beef and onions in a large frying pan. I use salt and pepper liberally, and some oregano and thyme. Season as you see fit. The more seasoning, the stronger the taste.
I spread out a ball of dough with a roller for each pierogi. No cooky cutter approach here. Then I add two heaping tablespoons of meat filling, fold and close the dough up by pinching the ends together. Don’t get grease on the edges, anywhere, or there will be trouble when you boil the pierogies. I’ve made a tomato paste and ground beef filling before. Although they tasted great, I found these pierogies were even harder to seal than just a ground beef mixture.
Cottage Cheese and Cheddar Cheese Pierogies

These are my favorites and truly a hybrid of what my mom used to make. I like spices and strong tastes. I always found mom’s pierogies a little bland. Dad didn’t like spices very much. So, over the years I spiced my pierogies up a bit.

Ingredients include dry cottage cheese, the strongest cheddar cheese you can lay your hands on, a bundle of green onions, salt and lots of pepper. Dump the cottage cheese into a large bowl. Then shred the strong cheddar cheese into it, and mix well. About one-third cheddar to the cottage cheese. Or more, if you want a cheesier, stronger taste. Sometimes I pop in an egg and mix it all up. Sometimes I forget…

Note: There’s one thing I have noticed about pierogi fillings. When you boil the pierogies, it seems to suck a lot of he flavor out of the filling. That’s why I make the fillings really strong-tasting. By the time they’re boiled, then fried, they mellow out.

Dried cottage cheese, strong/old cheddar cheese, and green onion filled pierogies. As with the meat-filled pierogies, I put two heaping tablespoons of filling onto a rolled out dough ball. Then seal it. This variety of pierogi is not as difficult to seal as the greasier meat-filled pierogies.
The finished product. Ready to boil.
I’ll make anywhere from three to six dozen pierogies at a time. It may take hours of work, but then I have many meals. Divide the pierogies into meal-sized portions and freeze. With the size of my pierogies, I find three pierogies per person is usually enough.
Place the pierogies in low boiling water for about three to four minutes. Boiling them too hard might burst them. Oh, I think I see a ‘sinker.’ Once boiled, fry the pierogies on low heat in a large frying pan with a bit of oil or bacon grease. I like to slice in a third to a half of a medium onion when frying them.

Pierogies in Canada

I’m betting there aren’t many places in Canada where you can’t find pierogies on the restaurant menu. Here in Edmonton, with its high Ukrainian, Polish, and German populations, many restaurants make and serve them. I selected two restaurants in Edmonton, and a few more across the country to see what they put in, and on top, of their pierogies. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, I didn’t personally check out the two restaurants in Edmonton. But I will.

Wendy’s Gourmet Perogies

Located on 4532 – 99 Street NW in Edmonton, this small diner specializes in Eastern European cuisine. It has very good ratings and lists a variety of pierogies on its menu. In fact, Eastern Europeans probably wouldn’t recognize some of the varieties. Like Jalapeno & Old Cheddar.

Wendy’s lists ten different varieties of pierogies (spelled ‘perogies’ on her sign). It’s pretty obvious from her menu, that there’s a wide variety, including fillings adapted more for the Canadian palate. Restaurants are experimenting with different fillings, as they probably have for centuries.
Loaded Pierogi, Edmonton

Located on 10815 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, this small restaurant really loads up their pierogies with all kinds of toppings. From the few photographs I looked at, it was often hard to find the pierogies under all that topping. This establishment receives very high reviews, including some from Polish folks who claimed they were excellent.

The Loaded Pierogi restaurant in Edmonton lists a variety of toppings on its pierogies, which you can pick and choose from. Like Wendy’s Perogies, this restaurateur is experimenting with a variety of new fillings and toppings. Including: Roast Chicken and Avocado Club Pierogi; Wild Mushroom and Truffle Pierogi; and, Montreal Smoked Meat Pierogi, just to name a few. Always looking for that great Canadian pierogi experience.

A-R Perogies in Saskatoon lists seventeen different varieties on their menu, including ‘Beef Tortellini.’ In Winnipeg at the Fusion Grill you can order pierogies with duck sausage in a thick creamy sauce. The Marion Street Eatery, Winnipeg, occasionally serves sweet potato pierogies with chicken apple sausage. In Toronto at the European Delight, you can order veal pierogies, among others. When in Montreal, check out the MTL Blog, for a list of restaurants serving great pierogies. The Euro Polonia restaurant in Montreal serves pierogies filled with bacon or kasha (porridge made usually from buckwheat groats). In St. John’s, Newfoundland, the Pyrohy Kitchen offers a variety of pierogi fillings.

‘Canadianizing’ the Pierogi

Of all the Canadian restaurant menus I researched, my favorite turned up in Victoria, British Columbia. It speaks loudly to what I’m talking about: Pierogies, and other foods, are constantly changing. The Sult (umlaut over the U) Pierogi Bar in Victoria takes ‘Canadianizing’ their food to a whole other level. And the ‘Pierogi Poutine’ on their menu wins first prize.

Pierogi Poutine. Where else but in Canada. This restaurant is working hard at making a genuine Canadian pierogi.
The restaurant’s mission statement. I changed their dark writing to white so you can read it easier here. Besides feeding Canadians, this restaurant has a purpose.

The Pierogi Has Risen to Great Heights

If monuments speak to the popularity of a person, animal or food, then the pierogi has surely arrived in some places in the world.

This varenyky statue near the village of Synky, Cherkasy region, Ukraine. Image from Wikipedia.
Some places in Canada, not to be outdone, have erected monuments to their foods. In Alberta you can combine these statues to make an entire giant meal: The Vegreville Easter egg, Mundare sausage, and the Glendon pierogi. I’ve often wondered what future Canadians might make of all these giant statues standing in the Canadian countryside.
Pierogi on a Rope soap, anyone? Only in Pennsylvania, where pierogies are popular. Wonder what the favorite scents would be? Onion? Maybe a little bacon and cheddar…
And, you can’t have too many pierogi ornaments hanging around.

Some Final Thoughts

In all seriousness, the pierogi has had a long and storied history among many peoples in the world. Although its origins in eastern Europe are somewhat obscure, I see a connection to far eastern dumplings made in China, Korea, Japan, southeast Asia and India. It’s not too far of a stretch to imagine these dumpling spreading from Asia into Russia and eastern Europe. And then slowly changing in composition. However, sometimes, like other innovations in history, the pierogi could have developed independently in eastern Europe.

In Canada, there is an incredible variety of pierogi fillings and toppings to choose from. Some, very traditional. Others, more exploratory, looking for that balance between traditional and Canadian experience. And then there are those pierogies that are right off the charts.

No matter what your tastes, I’m sure you will find a pierogi filling or topping out there that suits your palate.

Note: Next Blog

Now that I’ve got everyone hungry and in the food mood, I’m going to go turn the clock back a few hundred years and see what people were eating in Canada. In particular western Canada. And, how did this diet affect the their health and welfare?

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In Search of the Great Canadian Food Experience: Edmonton’s Green Onion Cakes

Outside of Edmonton’s Green Onion Cake Man restaurant, which opened in 2018, located on 118th Ave and 91st Street.

I was surfing the web reading about all the great Canadian cuisine. And then I thought of green onion cakes, made right here in Edmonton. So famous that there is an exhibit about them at the new Royal Alberta Museum. And so popular, it was suggested they be named the City’s official food. Then I checked Wikipedia only to find that green onion cakes were not listed on its Canadian Cuisine web page. How can that be?

I texted the recently opened Green Onion Cake Man restaurant in Edmonton and asked them for an interview. Maybe they knew why their highly popular Edmonton food, now found in many major cities in North America, was not on Wiki list of Canadian cuisine? Cuisine, from East Indian to Scottish food, and everything in between, was on those lists. Why not green onion cakes?

Fresh green onion cake, from the Green Onion Cake Man restaurant. When I tasted them, I wasn’t disappointed.

Green Onion Cakes: A Little History First

Chinese green onion pancakes, or Chong Yao Beng (green onion, oil pancake) is a unleavened flatbread folded with oil and finely minced green onion. It varies somewhat in ingredients and production, depending on where it is made. Traditionally a street food, it is now served in many restaurants in North America.

There are many green onion cake recipes and cakes out there to choose from. But I had to try the ones at the Green Onion Cake Man, and ask restaurant owner, Mr. Siu To, about their Edmonton origins. And, why wasn’t this cake adopted earlier in other North American cities as more Chinese people immigrated to Canada? It wasn’t long before I got some answers.

The Green Onion Cake Man Restaurant

Current research suggests that Siu To and his wife Yeenar were the founders of green onion cakes in Canada. They started making them soon after immigrating from Shandong Province, northern China in 1975. In northern China, traditional Mandarin cooking differs from southern Cantonese cooking. ‘More simple, less ingredients’, Mr. To explained to me. But Mr. To’s cooking has caught on. Recently the green onion cake story has been covered by many news outlets, especially after the opening the Green Onion Cake Man restaurant (CBC, Edmonton Sun, The Star, Jennifer Bain).

Siu To, now 79 years old, opened the Happy Garden and the Mongolian Food Experience restaurants in the late 1970s and 80s in Edmonton. His first customers were mostly Taiwanese who really liked his cakes, even though this was not typical southern Chinese fare. According to Edmonton’s historian laureate, Chris Chang-Yen Phillips, “It represents a bit of a shift in Chinese cuisine in Alberta from being a Cantonese-style cuisine to sort of experimenting with other food traditions in China.”

But it was Edmonton’s major festivals in the 1980s, Taste of Edmonton, Edmonton Folk Fest and the Fringe, that really put green onion cakes on the map. They were great festival food favorites and Siu cooked them right there.

My interview with Mr. Siu To, showing me two of his frozen products. Read on for more details below.

One of the first questions I asked Mr. To: ‘Why all the media attention in the last few years?’ He thought it was because people like genuine food being made fresh, right in front of them. That also explains why his cakes caught on at the festivals. Because he fried them right there. And they tasted great.

I entered the restaurant. It was a small, neat place, seating about twenty people, and the emphasis was all on food, not decor. Once in the door, you looked right into the kitchen and watched the cooks preparing your dishes. It reminded me of the original The Only restaurant on East Hastings Street, Vancouver, in the 1980s. Straightforward and simple. But, some of the best seafood I have ever tasted, anywhere.

Standing at the counter of the Green Onion Cake Man, I watched as Linda made fresh green onion cakes for me to take home.

I sat down with Mr. To, hoping to find out a little more about this simple, but delightful food. After only a few minutes of chatting, I already knew one reason why his cakes were so popular. This man was passionate about his cooking. And sharing it with other Canadians. As we talked, he explained that cooking was more than throwing a bunch of ingredients into a frying pan. It was an art and had to come from the heart. I couldn’t agree more.

I asked Mr. To whether the cakes he makes are like the traditional ones in northern China? Mostly, he said. But there was one major difference (which I had not read about before). He said, traditionally green onion cakes were leavened. He explained that he uses baking powder in his cakes, instead of yeast. With baking powder it was easier to control how high the dough rose.

We got around to talking about Edmonton’s numerous festivals. I asked why he choose green onion cakes for festival food, and not something more familiar to Canadians? Like Chow Mein, for example? And not surprisingly, one reason was, practicality. By preparing the green onion cake dough beforehand, he could then quickly flatten the dough balls into cakes and fry them on site. There were fewer ingredients to prepare, fewer pots and pans to carry, than cooking Chow Mein.

My last questions dealt with the popularity and origins of green onion cakes in Canada. Mr. To explained that most Chinese immigrants to Canada came from southeast China, including Taiwan and Hong Kong. Many Chinese Canadian restaurants focused on Cantonese cooking, and not so much northern Chinese cuisine. Lucky for us, Mr. To ended up in Edmonton.

And the reason for its almost instant popularity. Simple – easy to make, easy to cook, inexpensive, and very tasty. A hard combination to beat.

Have Green Onion Cakes Spread Beyond Edmonton?

After my interview, one question remained: After over forty years of existence in Edmonton, do all areas in Canada now have those yummy green onion cakes on their menus? (I asked my wife if we could do a road trip to all major North America cities to do the research. Still waiting for an answer.)

The faster, easier way to find answers was to check the web. I typed in “green onion cake restaurants in…..,” and then the name of the city. Before I get to Canada, surprisingly the few major American cities I checked some restaurants had green onion cakes listed on their menus (New York, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Diego, Los Vegas). And also, London, England and Paris, France. Certainly not like Mr. To’s originals, but something similar.

Next, I checked the major Canadian cities, especially the capitals of every province, and a few extras (i.e., Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, Saskatoon). Did any of their Chinese restaurant menus list green onion cakes? Restaurants in seven provinces (Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia) listed green onion cakes. No green onion cakes on menus of any restaurants in the other six provinces (Newfoundland/Labrador, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nunavut, Yukon and North West Territories). The four other cities listed above had at least one restaurant that served green onion cakes (a few had over ten).

Along with these facts, and further chats with some Facebook friends, living in less populated areas of Canada, two things became apparent: 1) restaurants in the provinces with the top seven highest Chinese populations listed green onion cakes; and, 2) once you leave the high population centers, even in Alberta, green onion cakes are still a relatively unknown fare for many Canadians. I really feel for you people.

But we still don’t know whether the green onion cake idea spread from Edmonton where it originated, or, was independently conceived by new Chinese arrivals in other cities. Which ever way they spread, it required a sufficiently high Chinese population first to support this food. And that only occurred in major Canadian cities.

And like many other foods and fashions, green onion cakes are being modified according to the tastes in a particular area. In one Toronto restaurant, you can order a folded green onion cake with a chive filling. In another, the green onion cakes are thinner, flatter and flakier than what Mr. To makes.

Called ‘Chive Pockets’ on their menu, these filled pancakes from the Golden Dumpling restaurant, Toronto, look like folded green onion cakes with a filling.
These thinner, flaky green onion cakes, from the Juicy Dumpling restaurant, Toronto, are similar to Mr. To’s, but with perhaps less baking powder in them.

What’s Next for the Green Onion Cake Man?

Although Mr. To isn’t exactly a spring chicken, he is still thinking of new ways to share his knowledge of northern Chinese cuisine with fellow Canadians. Now he has developed dishes for Edmontonians to cook at home.

During our interview, he brought out two samples of his frozen Chinese dishes: 1) Singapore Noodles; and, 2) Yaung Chow Fried Rice. Take them home, thaw them, cook briefly and enjoy. I can’t wait to try them.

Singapore Noodles with shrimp and a sauce to pour over the ingredients.
Yaung Chow Fried Rice bowl, frozen. Just warm it up and you’re ready for a great eating experience.

Siu has now developed six frozen dishes and three frozen soups that you can cook at home. But, it wouldn’t surprise me if there is more to come.

Nothing Like the Real Thing

I had to ask Siu whether he tried green onion cakes at other restaurants. Yes, he had, but they weren’t like his. Did other restaurant owners call him for advice or for his recipe? He said, very few had but he knew they came in and tried his cakes, without talking to him.

If you are ever in Edmonton, or somewhere near 118th Avenue, go grab some green onion cakes and those new frozen dishes that you can cook at home. Even though there may be other green onion cakes out there, there’s nothing like the real thing. Made by Canada’s original Green Onion Cake Man. Mr. Siu To.

Siu To, at the Green Onion Cake Man restaurant talking to his customers.

Note: My ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ research in this article is hardly state of the art. But, it’s the best I could do on short notice, without extensively traveling. There may be other places in Canada where you might find green onion cakes, that I missed. If so, please let me know.

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A Little Winter Humor: Signs You Will, and Will Not, See in Canada

I thought a little winter humor, with all the snow and cold we’re getting, is in order. And also, a few more thoughts about signage in Canada.

Signs In Canada? – Turtle Crossing

When I took a picture of this sign, I thought I was being quite clever. I posted it on Face Book thinking there can’t be another sign like it in Canada. Wrong. One of my Facebook friends posted back, saying there was another one out there. And, if there are two, maybe there are more?…..

I saw this sign at Ruby Lake, British Columbia, Canada, on our way to Powell River. I can picture it all now. Lines of cars backed up for miles in either direction, patiently waiting for the painted turtle to cross the highway. Finally, someone gets out of a car, picks it up and carries it to the other side.

Not In Canada – Beware of Snakes

While visiting the Australian outback in Mungo Mungo National Park, New South Wales, I was just about to enter the men’s washroom when I saw this sign. Needless to say all desire to go to the bathroom left me. Maybe the staff wanted to humor us ‘Canucks’ a little. Not funny.

Never in Canada? I won’t fall for that one again. I thought I saw a rattlesnake crossing sign somewhere near Empress, Alberta. But maybe it was just my imagination.

Sprinting Moose

Beware of the bipedal patriotic Canadian Moose. A new species – Alces alces bipedia. Found only in Canada.

What?

Only a foreigner or a Canadian who visited Europe would get this one. I remember walking into a washroom in Paris in 1971, looking for the toilet. All I found was a hole in the ground where the toilet should have been.

And if I were the French I would put an equally obscure sign up in the washrooms for Canadians only, that the French wouldn’t understand. It would look something like this:

The Sign of My Dreams

Wherever this is, I’m going.

Which Way?

Maybe that last sign is located in one of these directions.
Way better than the last one. Only two choices. Probably designed by a computer programmer.

I’m So Relieved

Well, if war ever starts, I know where I’m heading.

The Signs, ‘They Are A Changin’

‘We Don’t Care’ What? If you’re lopsided?

No Way This is a Canadian Sign

No way a Canadian made this sign. We know who you are though.

Equality in Canadian Signs

After reading my post on Indigenous signs in Alberta, my better half reminded me that further north and in the Canadian Arctic its not unusual to see a lot of Inuit signage and place names. And, she’s right. Ivvavik, Akiavik, Kittigazuit, Tuktoyaktuk, Aklavik, Inuvik…..

In the Yukon and British Columbia, you might see Indigenous signs such as this one at Kathleen Lake and other places.

But, Where’s the Balance?

Recognizing Indigenous places or bilingualism in Canada is all fine, to a point. But where do we stop? We are a pluralistic society in many parts of Canada. Maybe this sign below is our future (designed by the author)?

Is this Canada’s future? On the other side you might find Mandarin, Japanese, and some middle eastern languages as well. No matter, as soon as we start down this path who knows where it will end. And its not who we include on the sign, its who we leave out that could be considered insulting.
Somehow marine signs managed to avoided getting loaded with cultural baggage. No words of any kind here. Totally neutral. You are expected to know what this symbol means when boating.