So it comes down to this.
The Montreal Canadiens have gone home for the summer. (They played well.)
The Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals are looking to next year.
We're down to the Stanley Cup finals.
The second seed in the Western Conference against the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Chicago Blackhawks, one of the "Original Six" teams, who haven't won the Cup since 1961, when Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita led them to victory. The Blackhawks are a very good team, led by Winnipeg native Jonathan Toews (pronounced "Taves") and Thunder Bay's Patrick Sharp. Not to jinx them, but I'm rooting for these guys.
The Philadelphia Flyers, one of six teams brought into the league with the 1967 expansion, who won the Cup in 1974 and 1975. The "Broad Street Bullies", a team with a .576 lifetime winning percentage (second only to Montreal). They barely made it into the playoffs this year, but have outlasted New York Islanders, Boston Bruins and Montreal in their quest for the Lord Stanley's prize. Led by Ontario natives Mike Richards and Chris Pronger, we would be foolish to count these guys out.
Which team is being cheered on by the most Canadians? I'd like to know!
The Gentle Island.
Thats how Tourism PEI describes it.
Canada's smallest province.
About the size of Delaware, with a population less than Delaware's least populous county.
I love to go there when I'm in Atlantic Canada!
Located in eastern Canada, about a day's drive from Boston, Prince Edward Island is the place to come for a gentle vacation. No professional sports teams. No skyscrapers. No commuter traffic. Charlottetown, the largest "city", has a population of about 32,000 persons.
But if you like beaches, P.E.I. is a great summer destination. If you like country roads and ocean, this is the place to come. It's great for golfing and beach-combing and dining. If you like friendly, laid-back people who will engage you in leisurely conversation, this is your place. If you like folk music, you'll find plenty of it here.
The province's main industries are agriculture, tourism and fishing. You'll see plenty of Japanese tourists if you go to Green Gables in July. (Green Gables is the beautiful old house that provided the setting for Lucy Maud Montgomery's literary classic Anne of Green Gables. The Green Gables theme permeates P.E.I. tourism.) Cavendish Beach is perhaps the most tourist-y place you'll find, but Atlantic City it ain't. (There is a nudist colony near there somewhere, I've read.)
Since 1997, the Confederation Bridge connects P.E.I. to the rest of North America. Nearly 13 kilometers long, this toll bridge itself will become one of your vacation memories.
Maybe this summer, maybe next. Or maybe by 2015. But whenever you finally get to P.E.I., it will be a gentle vacation that you'll remember fondly.
This first (short) video gives you the flavour of the Islanders. The second video reveals the beauty of the Island itself.
The beaver.
The moose.
The Mountie.
And "Stompin' Tom" Connors.
Canadian icons all.
Since his 1969 hit "Bud the Spud" (a paeon to Prince Edward Island potatoes), Charles Thomas Connors has been a fixture on the Canadian cultural scene. At first he was a comic figure to many of us, a man with a voice like a wood rasp, dressed in black, with a cowboy hat and a piece of plywood on which he stomped his left foot.
He's not a comic figure any more.
In 1993 he received a Doctor of Laws degree from Saint Thomas University.
In 1996 he was made an officer of the Order of Canada.
In 2004 he ranked 13th in The Greatest Canadian list, determined by popular vote. Higher than Anne Murray or Gordon Lightfoot or any other Canadian artist or musician.
In 2009, Canada issued a postage stamp in his honour. A POSTAGE STAMP!
Born in 1936 in Saint John, New Brunswick, adopted by a family in Prince Edward Island, and a long-time resident of rural Ontario, "Stompin' Tom" has the public image of a tough, street-smart hustler. He is that, but he's also a fierce Canadian patriot with very good songwriting skills. His songs beat in perfect time with the Canadian heartbeat.
Since 1967, Connors has released more than 25 albums and had at least 20 singles on the charts in Canada, everything from "Tillsonburg" (about tobacco faming in Ontario) to "The Hockey Song" to "The Don Messer Story".
And who can resist a good lyric? "It's Bud the Spud from the bright red mud
Goin down the Hiway smiling-
The Spuds are big on the back of Bud's rig
And they're from Prince Edward Island -- they're from PEI
Now from Charlottetown or from Summerside
They load him down for the big long ride
He jumps in the cab and he's off with the pride Sobagos
He's gotta catch the boat to make Tormentine & he heads up that old New B. line
Through Montreal he comes just a flyin with another big load a badadoes..."
"Excuse me while I pick up my jaw from off the floor."
I'm borrowing that comment, but it's about right.
("Shadowfox 84" left those words at the YouTube page for this video.)
Original fiddle music at blazing speed. Super-impressive tap-dancing beginning at about 4:25 into the video.
Donnell Leahy and his talented brothers and sisters are one of Canada's great gifts to Celtic music in this generation. If you're new to them, you may want to learn more here. Their website is here.
I was profoundly moved. Not by Bono. Not by George W. Bush. Not by Rick Warren or Tony Campolo. I was moved to weeping by ordinary Christians helping homeless people under a bridge in Portland, Oregon. And I realized that I need to pay more attention, every day, to the marginalized -- homeless people, persons with disabilities, elderly people on the fringes of our society. Last night I watched Dan Merchant's movie Lord, Save Us From Your Followers, not really knowing what to expect. (You can watch it on Instant Download at Netflix.com.) You've got to see it. Watch the trailer here. Or buy the DVD here. It's not enough to teach and preach good doctrine -- though I hope to continue doing that. But I must do much more as a Christ-follower to love, to help, to serve others. I want to be -- I need to be -- more action-oriented, more "Jesus with skin on". A few of my Christian friends may have a reservation or two about the film. They may say, "There's more to the story than this. Being a Christ-follower involves more than this." And I think they're right. But mostly, I think we'll all say, "Ouch!" You can buy the accompanying book from Amazon through the box below:
