Parity, eh?

Wow. Not since 1976 has the Canadian Dollar been at parity with the US dollar. It occurs to me that it may not stop there either... which is definitely bad for our export sector.

Canada in 1976

Incumbents
Monarch - Queen Elizabeth II
Governor General - Jules Léger
Prime Minister - Pierre Trudeau
Premier of Alberta - Peter Lougheed
Premier of British Columbia - W.R. Bennett
Premier of Manitoba - Edward Schreyer
Premier of New Brunswick - Richard Hatfield
Premier of Newfoundland - Frank Moores
Premier of Nova Scotia - Gerald Regan
Premier of Ontario - Bill Davis
Premier of Prince Edward Island - Alexander B. Campbell
Premier of Quebec - Robert Bourassa then René Lévesque
Premier of Saskatchewan - Allan Blakeney

[edit] Events
January 14 - The Eaton's catalogue is discontinued.
January 28 - The government of Saskatchewan takes over the provinces potash industry.
February 4 - The Supreme Court rules provinces cannot censor movies.
February 7 - Toronto Maple Leafs star Darryl Sittler scores ten points in one game.
February 7 - Joe Clark is elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada replacing Robert Stanfield.
April 1 - The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is given the power to regulate Canadian television and radio.
April 15 - Dome Petroleum is given approval to drill for oil in the Beaufort Sea.
May 2 - Time Magazine's Canadian edition is discontinued.
June 25 - The CN Tower opens in Toronto.
June 30 - Parliament votes to abolish the death penalty.
July 17 - The 1976 Summer Olympics open in Montreal.
October 14 - Over a million workers stage a one day strike to protest wage and price controls.
November 15 - In the Quebec election, René Lévesque's Parti Québécois wins a majority, defeating Robert Bourassa's Parti libéral du Québec.
November 25 - René Lévesque becomes premier of Quebec, replacing Robert Bourassa.
The Timbit is introduced.
News media: L'Express de Toronto created

[edit] Arts and literature
New Works
Marian Engel - Bear
Hugh Hood - Dark Glasses
Joy Fielding - The Transformation
Farley Mowat - Canada North Now: The Great Betrayal
Awards
See 1976 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
Stephen Leacock Award: Harry J. Boyle, The Luck of the Irish
Vicky Metcalf Award: Suzanne Martel
Film
The Man Who Skied Down Everest becomes the first Canadian film to win an Academy Award
Television
Second City Television premiers

[edit] Births
January 7 — Éric Gagné, baseball player
January 23 — Phillip Boudreault, boxer
January 25 — Mia Kirshner, actor
February 19 — Brian Price, Olympic rower
February 23 — Jeff O'Neill, hockey player
March 9 — Ben Mulroney, television personality
March 23 — Nolan Baumgartner, hockey player
May 10 — Kristen French, murder victim
May 13 — Jeff Powell, Olympic rower
May 13 – Bobbi Jo Steadward, field hockey defender
May 19 — Jason Botterill, hockey player
June 10 — James Moore, politician
June 13 — Mark Versfeld, backstroke swimmer
June 25 — Michelle Bowyer, field hockey foward
June 26 — Ed Jovanovski, hockey player
July 1 — Leslie Mahaffy, murder victim
July 3 — Wade Belak, hockey player
July 12 — Dan Boyle, hockey player
July 13 — Sheldon Souray, hockey player
August 5 — Jeff Friesen, hockey player
August 17 — Eric Boulton, hockey player
August 27 — Sarah Chalke, actor
September 13 — Jose Theodore, hockey goaltender
September 17 — Zac Bierk, hockey goalie
October 1 — Denis Gauthier, hockey player
October 7 — Rachel McAdams, actress
October 10 — Shane Doan, hockey player
November 6 — Catherine Clark, television host, daughter of Prime Minister Joe Clark and Maureen McTeer
November 20 — Laura Harris, actor
December 26 — Nadia Litz, actress
December 26 — Jake Wetzel, Olympic rower
Big Ben, race horse

[edit] Deaths
Roy Thomson, newspaper publisher
Olive Palmer, wife of John Diefenbaker
Réal Caouette, longtime leader of the créditistes, and leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_in_Canada"
Category: 1976 in Canada

Arrr, it be that time o' the year agin'...

Arrrr, that be talk like a pirate day, of course.

Arrr, if ye only have time for one link, then it should be the guide to pirate parenting.

Enjoy. Arrrr.

I wonder where this came from?

I remember receiving an email that shared a letter purportedly written by some clever student to the admissions office of a university that they wanted to attend.

While I enjoyed the letter, I always figured it was an urban myth.

Anyway, the power of the internet being what it is, I thought about this recently, and found it on a whim. Enjoy:

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.

But I have not yet attended your school.

Knock yourselves out.

An admission...

I always wanted the "black" Spy to win. I don't know why.