Canada At Large

14/01/2024

Rescue boat in the freezing cold wind with Mount Baker in the background. Oak Bay, BC
Photo: Linda Guthrie

05/01/2024

02/01/2024

Heads or tails? Care for some “mint”-flavoured history today?

The Royal Mint on Sussex Drive (then Sussex “Street”) was officially declared open 116 years ago today — at 3 p.m. on January 2, 1908.

(It was not yet, however, the Royal “Canadian” Mint….)

The Governor General, Lord Grey, struck the first silver coin — a 50 cent piece.

Lady Grey then raised a lever to strike the first copper coin — and later in the day each of the 300 VIPs in attendance was presented with a brand new penny to take home.

From this point on, Canada’s coins would be minted in Canada — here in the capital — but the mint would start out as a branch of the main Royal Mint in London.

It was not until 1931 that connections to the mother country were fully severed and the Royal Canadian Mint was finally established, now under the direct control of the Canadian government.

The Sussex Drive mint continues to manufacture Canadian collector and commemorative coins (plus some coins for other countries).

Production of Canada’s circulating coins, however, shifted out west in 1976 when the Royal Canadian Mint opened a more modern facility in Winnipeg.

James Powell tells us more about the mint’s history:

https://todayinottawashistory.wordpress.com/2017/07/29/the-royal-canadian-mint

31/10/2023

25/10/2023

After the captain's death, the remains of this boat vanished a week later.

The M. P. Émelie was one of hundreds of schooners built along the St. Lawrence River in the mid 20th-century until steel-hulled boats took over the market in the late 1970s. After selling the M.P. Émelie in 1975, it changed hands several times, most recently renamed L'Accalmie only to sit vacant on the shores of a bay behind Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec in 2009.

In 2015, a fire accidentally set off by a thief destroyed most of it leaving only the frame. In Fall of 2017, JP Valery (www.jpvalery.photo) captured this picture of what remained.

In a twist of eerie coincidence, the ship's builder and captain Éloi Perron passed away the following February, only for what barely remained of the vessel to inexplicably vanish into the depths a week later.

17/10/2023

Behold the mighty Confederation Bridge, connecting Prince Edward Island to mainland Canada (and New Brunswick). Stretching over 12.9 kilometers (8 miles), this engineering marvel is the world's longest bridge over ice-covered water and Canada's longest bridge.

Photo: https://mkdrone.darkroom.com/

17/12/2021

Basketball, the new sport invented by the Ottawa Valley's James Naismith, was played for the very first time 130 years ago on December 15, 1891.

In a 1939 radio interview, Naismith described that first game and the initial rules that were used:

"I showed them two peach baskets I'd nailed up at each end of the gym, and I told them the idea was to throw the ball into the opposing team's peach basket."

"I blew a whistle, and the first game of basketball began. ... The boys began tackling, kicking, and punching in the clinches. They ended up in a free-for-all in the middle of the gym floor."

(The injury toll: several black eyes, one separated shoulder, and one player knocked unconscious.)

"It certainly was murder."

The sport's inventor, James Naismith of Almonte, Ontario, explains the rules during one of the first experimental games (1891).For more information about bas...

16/11/2021

There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada. The Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley are now completely cut off fr.