Canada Day down Canada Way

"Canada is the only country in the world that knows how to live without an identity" (Marshall McLuhan)

Note this post would have been from July 3rd 2013

Once again I have let months slip by while I let this blog remain dormant for many months. I am still attempting to keep it on a regular schedule but it is funny how easily it is for the weeks to slide by without much notice. I am still sticking to my September promise to update from when I stopped just before Canada Day so without further ado I shall post on my Canada Day Adventures.

It was funny because Canada Day was my first day off in quite a while, not because it was a holiday, but because it was my first day out of work after my contract expired without renewal at the Library. Normally I would work during holiday shifts for the delicious, delicious overtime time. Before I was working at the Library I was finishing my Master’s degree and when you’re a student an extra day off just doesn’t have the same flavour as it does to the working stiff. In any case, Sarah and I set out to enjoy ourselves on this National Birthday.

We started our day with a trip to the Seaport Market. If you live in Halifax and you haven’t been I encourage you to check it out. It has all sorts of goodies and the offerings change by the season, with a few anchor booths. So you can always find something new, while having some old standbys to fall back on (mine personally is Foxhill Farm’s Chocolate Milk). Normally the full market is only available on Saturday and Sunday, but being Canada Day it was open for a special occasion. At the same time there were also three massive cruise ships in so suffice to say it was packed.  

On our way down to the market I got to experience a bonus firing of the noon gun at Citadel Hill. For those not in the know, every lunch hour the Citadel fires a cannon to mark the time and (possibly) make sure the cannon still works? I’m not sure about the justification for it other than that they have probably been doing it since Halifax was actually a fort. Usually it’s just one loud boom and it’s gone, but because it was Canada Day it fired many, many times. It really gives you a feel for how powerful these guns were back in the day (and probably still are now with their modern equivalent). When the gun fired the windows on the bus shook, I was almost convinced Godzilla was approaching Halifax and/or the secret Jurassic Park labs had finally cloned a T-Rex. It was an experience for someone that usually doesn’t find himself downtown during lunch hour.

The ship might as well be its own market

The market, even when it is packed it still on its best form. The buzz of people as they mill about checking out all the things, to all the vendors competing for your attention to the smells and sounds of commerce in the air, it is quite something. While you could find a similar environment at any market, I find the Halifax Seaport Market balances the variety with not having so much of a crowd. I find markets are either pretty food-centric (Such as the Saint John Market) or are always crushed with people (such as the Kensington Market). The vendors also change pretty often so you never know what you are going to find.

Once we were sated with our market experience we went for a walk down the boardwalk. For an overcast day it was still pretty great. The grey steel sky often reflects very beautifully off the harbour. What was funny was that there were a greater number of American tourists from the cruise ships all decked out in Canada Day gear. I would say that 90% of people on the waterfront that had some sort of Canada Day paraphernalia were not from Canada. Which I found quintessentially Canadian, on our day, other people were celebrating more than we were.  

As we continued along our journey of the boardwalk we discovered Theodore the tugboat docked in his familiar berth. Theodore was the star of a CBC children’s show that ran from 1993 – 2001 and while being set in ‘Big Habour’ was secretly Halifax. It now spends its days as a tourist attraction at Murphy’s Cable wharf, offering trips around the harbour with its distinctive ‘toot toot’ horn for the right price. It was just leaving as we walked by.

Another Halifax tourist landmark is the Habour Hopper, a repurposed Russian amphibious APC that now spends its days driving around Halifax pointing out landmarks and surprising tourists as it drives straight into the harbour. I’ve been on that tour and it is really something to go from land to sea and back over the course of an hour.  

It didn't quite come to fisticuffs, but it came close

I mention the hopper because as we approached the end of the board walk, we were treated with the apex of Halifax harbour tourism, and intersection of the harbour hopper and Theodore the Tugboat. While there was no epic battle the broke out, it did make for a great picture before they parted ways. 

All the while, the Coast Guard/Navy were practicing flybys over the habour in the Sea King Helicopters. I don’t know if they were doing them in honour of Canada Day or it just happened to be what they decided to spend their Monday doing, it was still a pleasure to watch them. Several maneuvers brought them close enough to get a really good picture of them, which is how we closed off our day. Unfortunately there were no fireworks as the damp weather discouraged visibility. They were held the following day, but I did not have my camera.

Sadly they were not offering free helicopter rides in honour of Canada Day