Ma mère me l’a dit "I can smell burnt toast!" to get her baskets back.
July 28, 2017 8:58 AM   Subscribe

Rebecca and Jim are really, really into Heritage Minutes. Follow along on their website or Instagram as they roadtrip around Canada visiting various sites related to these 87 little slices of Canadiana.
posted by jacquilynne (17 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
I have the sneaking suspicion I should watch these when my citizenship test comes due!
posted by Kitteh at 9:37 AM on July 28, 2017 [5 favorites]


Six stops in Winnipeg, and not one of them related to Winnie the Pooh's origin story? Citizenship revoked!

(Harry Colbourn is buried at Brookside Cemetery under a regulation grave stone.)
posted by Sys Rq at 9:40 AM on July 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


They're going to White River, where the bear was originally purchased. Apparently there's a statue there.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:46 AM on July 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


Oh hey! This is me.

We're going to Brookside for the Tommy Prince minute, so we'll probably visit Mr. Colbourn's grave too while we're there. We figured that we'd focus on the bear since that's the point of the minute. Also, sometimes we picked spots to spread things out a bit!
posted by lumberbaron at 10:06 AM on July 28, 2017 [22 favorites]


It means the trees, the village.
posted by Yowser at 10:07 AM on July 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


Well I misquoted a Canadian Heritage Minute, so I guess I have to give back my Canada badge.
posted by Yowser at 10:08 AM on July 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


Well hi! If I'd known, I would have put a Mefi's Own notation in the post!
posted by jacquilynne at 10:08 AM on July 28, 2017 [2 favorites]


When I was 24, I did a cross-country hitchhiking trip and tried to hit as many of these as I could. I got to maybe 50 - some are really challenging, particularly if you're carless. Kudos to you lumberbaron for going the full way!

It is incredibly difficult to explain to Americans and Europeans (two groups I have tried to explain this to) what Heritage Minutes are and how deeply they're ingrained in our country's experience. I have been at literally dozens of college parties in multiple provinces where a drinking game breaks out where the rules are - you must perfectly quote a line from a Heritage Minute one-by-one (no repeats - there are multiple quotes from many of them.) The person who breaks the chain has to chug their beer or do a shot.

It's kind of a bad drinking game, though, because Canadians are so good at it sometimes you have to wait 30-40 quotes and subsequent cheering to actually drink.
posted by notorious medium at 10:19 AM on July 28, 2017 [5 favorites]


Kudos, lumberbaron - this seems like an awesomely fun thing to do.

Maybe, once you are done, they'll make a Heritage Minute about you & Rebecca.
posted by nubs at 10:25 AM on July 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


This is nifty.

I have the sneaking suspicion I should watch these when my citizenship test comes due!

Just be careful not to study using any of the parody versions:

The Donair

The CN Tower
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:48 AM on July 28, 2017


And hey - my city isn't part of your planned tour, lumberbaron, but if a Calgary mefite can be of some assistance to you in reaching the spots in southern AB (or even just buy you a beer if you're in the area) - let me know.
posted by nubs at 11:02 AM on July 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


Hey, thanks nubs! I was kinda surprised there aren't any in Calgary, but there are quite a few in the area I guess. We're hoping to hit up Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump too, if we have time.

That's cool, notorious medium! So far you're the only person we've heard of that has attempted anything like this before.
posted by lumberbaron at 11:43 AM on July 28, 2017


It does feel a little bit like Historica could use your map to help figure out where they are missing some stories. Like, all of BC gets four stories and two of those you had to really stretch to set them in BC at all?
posted by jacquilynne at 11:58 AM on July 28, 2017


Yeah, Emily Carr and the post-war housing one are legit BC ones but the other two are marginal, at best.

Speaking of those, if anyone has any ideas for where we could go for the Inukshuk minute that would be greatly appreciated! We've basically painted ourselves in a corner with that one by having a rule that we have to be able to drive to the location. Though to be fair that's mainly to keep costs to a reasonable level (we'd *love* to visit Nunavut, if we could.)
posted by lumberbaron at 12:05 PM on July 28, 2017


The Grand Assembly in Quebec City has/had a huge one.
posted by notorious medium at 12:11 PM on July 28, 2017


What a fun project. Parks Canada has an "xplorer" program for kids where they get a dogtag representing the park or site they've visited after completing an activity book. Your project is like the grown up version of this. I really like the simplicity of the website.

I think you ought to hold out and go north for the Inukshuk. Keep doing this and surely somehow the flight will present itself!
posted by Cuke at 12:33 PM on July 28, 2017 [1 favorite]




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