Vimy Ridge: 360 with Peter Mansbridge (+ Myths and CounterMyths)

Explore Vimy Ridge 100 years after the historic First World War battle that helped define Canada as a nation.

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The Battle of Vimy Ridge's myths and countermyths

The Battle of Vimy Ridge was a great triumph for a young Canada—and it didn't take long for myths to form after the fight.

The New $10 Banknote from Bank of Canada Marking the Anniversary of Confederation (Video Playlist)

There will be 40 million of these commemorative bank notes issued, starting in June - a bit more than enough for all of us Canadians to have one...

Bank of Canada Governor Stephen S. Poloz and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance Ginette Petitpas Taylor today unveiled a commemorative $10 bank note celebrating the 150th anniversary of Confederation. This special note—showcasing our history, land and culture—was revealed during a ceremony at the Bank’s head office in Ottawa. It will enter into circulation on 1 June.

“This bank note is intended to captivate our imagination and instill pride in what we, as a nation, have accomplished,” said Governor Poloz. “It celebrates the natural beauty and majesty of our land and some of the important parliamentarians who helped shape our great country.”

The intricately designed note is unique in many ways. For the first time, four individuals are portrayed on the front of a Canadian bank note: Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir George-Étienne Cartier, Agnes Macphail and James Gladstone or Akay-na-muka—his Blackfoot name.

Unveil of the Canada 150 commemorative bank note - Speech 

Governor Stephen S. Poloz and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance Ginette Petitpas Taylor reveal a commemorative bank note that pays tribute to Canada’s 150th anniversary of confederation.

Source(s): bankofcanada

5 FAMILY DAY Facts

The first Family Day in Ontario was celebrated on February 18, 2008.  It was introduced in Saskatchewan in 2007 and in British Columbia in 2013. Although it was campaigned to make Family Day a federal holiday, it is still a civic holiday which means that some federal employees do not get the day off.
By the way, Family Day is also celebrated in South Africa, in the American states of Arizona and Nevada, in Vanuatu, in Vietnam, and in the Australian Capital Territory.

█ ♥ █ Canadian Bands: Frank Mills

Frank Mills (born June 27, 1942 in Montreal, Quebec), is a Canadian pianist and recording artist, best known for his solo instrumental hit "Music Box Dancer".

Mills grew up in Verdun, Quebec and started playing piano at the age of three. He attended McGill University for five years. He began with Engineering, switched to a B.Sc. programme, then Arts and finally studied in the Department of Music. He entertained his fraternity brothers (Delta Upsilon) with songs from ragtime to a new artist Bob Dylan. The fraternity piano had thumbtacks on every hammer and produced a unique sound. In the late 1960s Mills became a member of The Bells. He left the band in 1971 just before it had international success with the single "Stay Awhile."

Mills worked as a pianist for CBC-TV and recorded his first solo album, Seven Of My Songs, which produced the hit single "Love Me, Love Me Love". The song made its debut on the Canadian charts in October 1971 and early the following year peaked at number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 8 on Billboard′s Easy Listening chart. His follow-up single, a cover of Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" made Top 25 in Canada but stalled at number 106 in the U.S.

Mills released an album in 1974 that featured "Music Box Dancer", but it was not a hit initially. When he re-signed with Polydor Records Canada in 1978, the label released a new song as a single, with "Music Box Dancer" on the B-side. The single was sent to easy-listening stations in Canada, but a copy was sent in error to CFRA-AM, a pop station in Ottawa. The program director played the A-side and could not figure out why it had been sent to his station, so he played the B-side to see if the record was mistakenly marked. He liked "Music Box Dancer" and added it to his station's playlist, turning the record into a Canadian hit. Iconic Ottawa Valley radio personality Dave "50,000" Watts gave the record extensive airplay on the station. The album went gold in Canada, which prompted Polydor in the US to release the album and single.

In Nashville, news producer Bob Parker at WNGE-TV began playing the song over the closing credits of the newscast. Nashville DJs quickly latched on and both the single and album were hits. The million-selling Gold-certified single reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1979 as well as number 4 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart, while the album reached number 21 on the Billboard Top Album chart and also went gold. Polydor awarded a gold record to TV station WNGE for breaking the single in the U.S.


Source

10 INTERESTING CANADIAN FACTS YOU PROBABLY NEVER KNEW

We know there are many things Canadian that make us who we are, but here are more interesting Canadian-related facts you probably never knew!




1.  The Royal Canadian Mint have produced more than 52 billion coins for dozens of countries including Centavos for Cuba, kroner for Norway, and pesos for Colombia.  Their longest continuous contract for producing foreign coins is with Barbados – more than 30 years. The Winnipeg Mint is Canada's high-volume coin production powerhouse. Here, the industry's most technologically advanced processes and equipment produce up to 15 million plated coins each day for Canadian and foreign circulation.

Other TRCM Facts:

• Take a look in your wallet. You may find a coloured Poppy coin from 2004. If so, you're holding a piece of history because it is the first coloured circulation coin in the world!

It took a while for people to get used to it. In fact, it was mistaken as a spy coin. When American defence contractors first saw the poppy coin in 2007, they examined the coin's security features and incorrectly concluded that the protective coating was being used to hide a surveillance device!

• As most of us 'older' Canadians know, before the loonie and the toonie we used paper money for the 1 and 2 dollars.  But we bet you didn't know there is an interesting unsolved mystery... the original design for the loonie was of the voyageurs, the explorers in Canada but somehow, the mold was lost between Ottawa and Winnipeg and never recovered. Where is it? Did it fall off a truck? Nobody knows and so to prevent counterfeit money, The Royal Canadian Mint changed the design to the loonie.
• In another cool 'first', in 2012 the mint produced 'Glow in the Dark' dinosaur coins.