Mr. Obama Goes to Ottawa

You know you're going to have quite the day when you get an email from a friend and Canadian government bureaucrat entitled "Obama Day! Obama Day! Obama Day!" before 9 am. To make an understatement, President Barak Obama's trip to Ottawa was the talk of the town. Heck, it was the only talk in town since the trip was announced before the inauguration in January of this year. As I stated to my friend's email "This is so Ottawa...so small town-ish!" He very accurately responded "Actually it's so Canadian - we're so insecure! External Validation!"


Then again if you are a foreign leader such as Obama, and have an 82% approval rating in Canada, one might expect quite the reception.

Thanks to the internet kindly provided by my employer for "research purposes" I indulged in a day of live streams of the event via the CBC's website. I too reveled in hearing the lunch menu for the visit expertly read by Peter Mansbridge....I couldn't believe he was doing it either.

Reporters in Ottawa gushed about the American President and enjoyed the glow of Obama. "People are running across the lawn on Parliament Hill just to catch a glimpse of the President. I mean this is a politician! We just don't see this in this country!" CBC reporter Keith Boag exclaimed.

And he's right. We don't regularly see that sort of thing in Canada.

In fact, I have postulated that Stephen Harper's singular mission in life seems to prove true Marshall McLuhan's theory of Hot and Cool media. Harper is one Hot man, on the very Cool medium of TV. Obama...he's Cool - so the TV thing works out well. Thank goodness Obama had the smarts to tell Harper to go out and wave to the adoring crowd. Gawd, our leader is a dork (a Hot dork, in the McLuhan sense).

But I do really hope the Canadian media is taking notes on this whole Obama thing. As I have tried to make clear in every entry I write, both countries (and the two cities of this blog) have a lot to learn from one another.

And after a week in which I became embarrassed by editorials, appearing in the Globe and Mail, with such sexy titles as "Obamania is great, but Canadian prudence trumps political charisma everytime," I hope that today's showing of LUV toward the President will act as a reminder that Canadians should not be afraid to aspire to leadership (and yep, even charisma). I think an injection of personality is exactly what the doldrums of Canadian politics needs.

Now, considering the depths of despair that the US economy finds itself in, I too think greater regulation, careful planning and wise investing (including lower risk) is a wise move for a country and an economy. But really...can't we jazz it up a little too? The author of the article above equates charisma with economic failure...now that's a little much.

And we can see beginning elements of that. I have to give it to Harper today actually. He did end up looking the elder, experienced statesman today. Not so Hot. Slightly more Cool. His messaging about "Canadian security is American security" at the mutual press conference was...well...awesome. Really. Awesome. Messaging that was so good that Harper forced Obama to respond to him on it. It was highly responsible of Harper, and a reassuring message for Americans (in and out of government).

So it appears there is Hope after all. Just remember it took an American President in Ottawa to remind Canadians of that.

Boston: Get Your Drink On...or Die

Recently this piece appeared as part of the Boston Globe's boston.com site in the "Things to Do" section. I think its premise is most excellent - providing alternatives to the regular ream and roll of weekends, or (let's be honest this is Boston) weekdays, spent out drinking. I enjoy a drink as much as anyone else in the room, but am also well aware that there are many more things that one can do with their leisure time than spend it leaning over the bar.

I think my awareness of this is somewhat of a hyper-awareness. In college (yes, that's the same as university my little Canadian friend) I had a number of friends that chose not to drink for a variety of reasons. For some it was a familial decision - due to a history of alcoholism. For others it was religious reasons - not just the Bible Thumping Evangelicals you might suspect (actually in Canada I know of no Bible Thumpers, I think we are altogether too respectful of others for that), but also a number of Muslim friends. Then, there were those that simply chose not to drink for no specified reason. All of this was more than comprehensible and understandable to us. We were friends and friends accept all aspects of each other's personalities. That's what friendship is about.

Now contrast that to the American college experience. From what I understand from my US college graduate friends, and from the parties down the hallway, drinking is equivalent to the college experience itself. You can't have one without the other. Canadians, it's just like you saw on US TV shows growing up...I don't know when they study either.

And multiply that exponentially because of Boston. Whether it's all that "we're Irish, so we drink!" attitude coming out of Southie and multiple other towns, or the prevalence of traditional brew master recipes in the area, Boston is not short on drinking. Really. Not short.

So it seemed enlightening and truly innovative for boston.com to create a feature around activities to do that do not involve drinking.

But...take a closer look. Let me get you in on something here.

Of the 10 suggested activities, 6 (yeah, I said six) take place at bars! Are you kidding me! Of the other 4 - all (yeah, I said ALL) of the venues serve alcohol although they are not bars specifically. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

This is not the 'dry' fun I had expected. And God help the recovering alcoholic that happened upon this list with a degree of hope that they'd have something to do Friday night.

That's not to say, there aren't GREAT dry things to do. For example, Club Passim (Cambridge's original home for folk music) is a great dry location to hear some amazing acts. There are also book readings, lectures, GREAT coffee shops (such as the one lovingly featured here), museums, etc, etc.

Not to mention ice cream or tea. See, I have a particular affinity for both. With my non-alcohol consuming friends the BEST things we could do was trip down Bloor to Greg's Ice Cream (the best ice cream I have ever had to date) or go to one of the many local hotels for high tea. It was the best in social activities with the best of friends. Trust me, with the company I was keeping, I didn't know I was missing a thing in terms of alcohol. And Boston is hardly devoid of ice cream shops or settings for tea, as at least two alternatives to alcohol-inspired fun.

And I am sure there are many more awesome, alcohol free amounts of fun-ness to be had in Boston that does not take place in a bar or random other places that serve alcohol. Unfortunately, no one at boston.com got the memo on that one. Makes you wonder if the writers...well were just really "local-ized" or have a problem themselves.

Seriously Boston. Sober up.