I'm curious as to how many of my friends will recognize this:


Or if I say "giant flying bathtub", and play this song? In retrospect, the lyrics are rather trite and stereotypical, but then when you've only got just a few lines to talk about each part of the country, there's not much you can get across.

Growing up in Ontario in the late 1970s, my parents put me into bilingual education. I didn't always appreciate French as much as I could have; and it took me a long time to even begin to understand the separatist mindset in Quebec, but I'm glad that Pierre Trudeau tried to get the citizens of Canada to learn both languages. It's a pity (and kind of funny) that only New Brunswick has truly adopted bilingualism as a provincial policy.

Anyway, back around 1974-1975, someone in the government decided to release a bilingual language kit for schoolchildren called Oh! Canada, featuring a bird not native to Canada. I suspect schools must have received hundreds of these things and given them out to students like crazy. I distantly remember a board game, a thin record, and a comic book where a bunch of kids travel across Canada in a strange vehicle invented by one of their crazy relatives. There may have been other stuff included.

Of course, anything from the government that appears to encourage bilingualism in children might be propaganda, and so must be banned in Quebec. Well screw that, mes amis - Je te souhaite une joyeuse Fête du Canada, et je te donne une bise sur chaque joue!

Current Mood: amused