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HERITAGE WEEK 2025 February 13, 2025
Vol. 13 No. 5
Celebrate Canadian Heritage 2025
This is not a staged photo by David Shanahan
Next week is Heritage Week in Ontario (February 17 - 23), but we’ve brought our annual Heritage issue forward a week so as to focus on the provincial election in the next issue. So, we thought, what image should go on the front page to encapsulate some aspect of Canadian Heritage? And then I found it: the image that sums up so much of what this country is about. Two guys in their Habs shirts, sitting in
February 13, 2025
an immigrant to Canada, lo, these many years ago, this image speaks loudly to me of Canada, rural Ontario, and Canadian identity. Even though I’ve never watched a complete game, nor do I understand completely the allure of this national sport, I do appreciate its power as a symbol of this land and its people. Heritage is such a huge concept, and it is more fully discussed elsewhere in this issue; but sometimes it comes down to a single picture: two guys in the snow on a pick-up. I
the back of a pick-up, drinking Canadian beer (with refills ready at their feet), a Canadian flag behind them, a hockey helmet on the ground in front of them. One of the lads (let’s call him Gerry, and we’ll call his buddy Frank) still has his skates on, and the snowblower they used to clear the rink earlier sits on the pick-up behind them. And, of course, the ground is covered in snow. Now, some might think that this is a lower form of “heritage”, but that’s just snobbery! As
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first understood the power of the game in grad school, watching men in their 20's playing intermural games at midnight (the only available ice time), hot, flushed, in danger of coronaries as they fell over the boards at the end of a shift, but still seeing themselves as another Gretzky, or whoever their individual hero might be. Hockey also shows that Canadians are not only the “nice, polite” people of popular belief. When challenged, Canadians can show a fierce competitive spirit, a determination to fight no matter what the situation. Hockey can be a little violent at times. Those who choose to challenge Canada and Canadians should remember this photograph and understand a little more of what being Canadian means. Oh yes, this is our Heritage issue, and we celebrate our past and present, our predecessors and their achievements. Celebrate Canada, Ontario, North Grenville, and all of us.
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