Land of the Lumberjack

Canada Day in Trafalgar Square

A quick search of UK media to try to get a little fact — how many people turned up at the Canada Day celebrations in Trafalgar Square — was frustrating. To us a big event of thousands. To London, an event not even worth alerting Londoners to possible traffic delays, according to Transport For London road users event alerts. What really happened on July 1 was that Mark Carney went to work, in “Mind the Gap” in The Independent: “The Bank of England’s new Governor took the London Underground to work on his first day in the job yesterday.”
On the subject of Canadians in the UK, The Independent says: “…Mark Carney, who starts tomorrow as the new Governor of the Bank of England, hails not from the US but from Canada: that vast expanse of icy nothingness more famous for lumberjacks and a fondness for red maple leaves than big City players.”
Before you get your knickers in a knot, let me point out that The Independent goes on to call that a stereotype, adding: “But there’s more going for The True North than back bacon and brawny hockey players. There are plenty more Canadians over here calling the shots than just Mr Carney – which could prove handy if he’s feeling homesick when he turns up for work on what is, after all, Canada’s national day (celebrating the foundation of the country by the British North America Act in 1867).”  Read on here.
And here is the elusive fact, in the Ottawa Citizen: “This year was perhaps the biggest Canada Day in London to date, there were early estimates of 50,000 attendees over the course of the day.”
Odd use of the comma. Never mind. Oh, and apparently we used to play baseball, not hockey, on the day, according to this Guardian time travel: “British baffled by baseball” in From the archive for 1 July 1918. “A baseball exhibition game between the US and Canadian army teams leaves some spectators struggling with the rules.”

Related articles

• Here’s your homework (wordpress.com)
• The Healing Walk (guardian.co.uk)
• And more on Mark’s first day: Good news as Mark Carney takes over as Bank of England Governor (thetimes.co.uk)