Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day! On this day in 1867, Amos Canada drove the spike that completed the Canadian National Railway, thus paving the way for the welding of Lefter Canada and Righter Canada into the new nation of Belgium (we changed the name about a month later -- turns out it was already taken). And it is this railroad we celebrate today, for it is this railroad that brought the Canadian troops to Washington DC in 1812, there to burn down the White House and play street hockey on the Capitol Mall ("Car!"). Happy Canada day, everyone -- and remember, fireworks are not toys and should never be launched from between your clenched teeth, unless you're old enough and wise enough to do so safely. Link to the Arrogant Worms' "War of 1812"

• [jenjen]

  Gee, I was taught that Alexander Graham Bell drove in the last spike on the underground railroad that brought free American slaves to Halifax. The underground railroad we know today as the Metro. And that’s how the tiger got his stripes, from the railroad ties and the orange Metro seats. Bah, Montreal public school education. That’s what you get when you feed kids nothing but poutine in their school lunches. Happy Canada Day!

• [PatGund]

  The War of 1812 is NOT DONE BY THE ARROGANT WORMS!

  It’s done by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, (the people who did the infamous “Internet Help Desk” bit.

  From the Arrogant Worms site:

  http://www.arrogant-worms.com/discs.php

  “we do not sing, or have ever sung,
  The War of 1812,
  The Toronto Song,
  The Ontario Song,
  Toronto Sucks or
  Ontario Sucks.
  They are by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie.”

• [Robbo]

  I miss it being called “Dominion Day” but that’s just cuz I’m an old fart. Used to make us think that Canada was the Promised Land: “ye shall have Dominion from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the Earth.” Worked for me. And then I left Sunday schol and realized there was a “real” world out there waiting to be explored.

  We blew the crap out of our backyard this year – but with all store-bought pyro. There’s a tradition amongst my nutty group of northern habitues of fashioning our own gregarious explosive devices but the times being what they are we thought better of ratlling the neighbours windows and sending flaming shards of debris flying into the street the next block over. That sort of thing is better suited to the country and not Parkdale.

  And you could not buy a Burning Schoolhouse for love nor money. What’s up with that? We almost made a Burning Whitehouse but instead, as the leaves of the trees above us curled and blackened in shifting glare of incendiary assault, contented ourselves with re-telling the tale of how during the War of 1812, in retaliation for the failed American attempt to burn down our houses of Parliament, we sent our own hooligans south of the border and set fire to their President’s Mansion. It didn’t burn completely but it fucked it up pretty good and they had to work hard to fix it. Couldn’t seem to get all those scorch marks off the brickwork though and had to settle with covering it up and hiding it all under a thick coat of whitewash – and it’s been called the Whitehouse ever since.

  Happy Canada Day.

  Cheers and beers!

• [Brutish]

  I love your use of Canada Day, but mercy, you are all *so weird*.

  Happy Canada Day, alla youse.

• [DeuceMojo]

  Please change the name to CANADIA, which sounds way more exotic, and besides the name for Great White North inhabitants is already CANADIANS. It would only require require re-labeling a few cans of ginger ale and club soda “CANADIA DRY.”
  Can you pitch that to parliament or whatever? Thanks.

• [Juicy]

  Hey. Im a huge fan of BoingBoing. I have to also correct the above about the Arrogant Worms. It’s not only the Three Dead Trolls that wrote it, it was also my Improv group called Atomic Improv. Im one of the guys singing! Its from a musical we wrote called “The War of 1812.” I was a big Canadian history buff and thought it would be a funny idea for a show. We even managed to get Pierre Burton
  (fancy Canadian writer) to record an intro which we played to open the first act. It was a huge hit across western Canada, and the Internet.

  Happy Canada Day, and keep the great posts coming.

• [Mindpowered]

  Or as we say on the left coast.

  “Happy Carbon Tax day”

• [Myrcurial]

  I <3 Billy Van. He taught me about being scared and about computers.

  /me is such an ontario boy.

  I shall go log into QNX running on the ICON and imagine that it's half as cool as the stuff Billy Van was learning from Luba Goy on Bits and Bytes.

  < >

• [minamisan]

  it’s not even a real country, anyway…

• [Evil Jim]

  Also fans of the Arrogant Worms, Loading Ready Run has posted their annual Canada Day Tribute.

• [Ugly Canuck]

  This country is so beautiful…time for an Old Vienna and an Export ‘A’ out on the deck…Happy Canada Day!

• [mcwetboy]

  “The War of 1812″ is a great song, and is frequently attributed to the Worms (see bottom of page), but it’s actually by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie.

  Love the Hilarious House of Frightenstein clip.

• [squirrelgirl]

  Is this along the same lines of that “Canada’s National Igloo” thing? Make up something ridiculous about the country to see if we American’s notice?

• [squirrelgirl]

  on another note, I say “Canadia” all the time >__<

• [zuludaddy]

  Hoorah for the Eh Team!

  Anyone else remember when it was Dominion Day?

  (I’m an ooold man…)

• [MrsBug]

  “Game on!”

• [Anonymous]

  Haha nice story, and i’m certain lots of people fell for it!
  (for those who did fall for it, well, canada day in fact celebrates the constitution act of 1867. The canada national railways (there’s more than one) weren’t completed before 1923 and Amos Canada probably didn’t exist.)

• [acb]

  Dominion Day? Wasn’t that a Gary Numan song from his goth/industrial period?