Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Cafe

"We may not be big, but we're small."
This is the motto of the vinyl cafe, hosted and written by Stuart Mclean. The Vinyl Cafe is a staple of Canadian literature that can be heard twice a week on CBC radio, and can also be found in any bookstore on disc or paperback. The vinyl cafe stories are written about a Canadian family that is originally from the Maritimes but now lives in Toronto. Dave, the husband and father of the family, owns a store named the Vinyl Cafe. The stories are a combination of knee-splitting humour about Dave's antics and mixups, as well as more serious notes about the importance of family values and culture.
The author, Stuart Mclean, was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1948. He was originally a host on the CBC radio show, Morningside, with another famous broadcaster, Peter Gzowski. Mclean teaches at the Ryerson School of Journalism and was the former director of the broadcast division at the school. He has also been honoured by Trent University, Nipissing University, and the University of Windsor.
Mclean's books about the Vinyl Cafe have won him the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour three times, which puts him in the top position for most wins of the award. Over 700 000 people listen to the show each week, not including those who attend the live shows across the country.

Stuart Mclean is noted by some to only be a jokester, with his real contribution to Canadian literature being minimal. However, I disagree. Mclean brings people around the country together with his show. Not only can it be heard all across the country, but Mclean incorporates stories from across the country with his story exchange. People can send in their stories about Canadian life and their interpretations, and every week Mclean will read a story on the air. This gives insight into the different ways in which Canadians live their lives, and how they interpret different events.
As I mentioned before, he also tours across Canada, doing shows from coast to coast. While he is on tour, he keeps a blog to update his fans on how everything is going. On his shows, he reads one of his stories, but he also incorporates a Canadian music artist who comes on the show and performs each week. This, along with the Vinyl Cafe Story Exchange, makes for a very diverse and interesting show on Canadian culture every week.
As for his novels, Mclean has tackled many issues within each story. The family is usually grappling with a simple story, but more often than not, the significance behind it is quite large. For example, in a story in which the main character, Dave, returns home to Newfoundland when his mother gets sick, he is forced to deal with memories from his past within Newfoundland, and the ways in which his life had been different. This story links the maritimes with the metropolitan of Toronto, as Dave struggles to see the similarities and embrace the differences between his two very different ways of life. This is a struggle for many Canadians, and Stuart Mclean recognizes this.
Overall, I feel as though Stuart Mclean and his Vinyl Cafe stories are very important for Canadian culture. I feel as though far too often people only view serious and reflective novels and poetry as important when it comes to Canadian literature, however I think that the majority of the Canadian population would be more inclined to read or listen to stories from the Vinyl Cafe. Not only are they interesting and approachable, but they also give a view of our culture from a humorous standpoint. Considering the grim view that we have discovered this semester of the state in which our culture is in, who wouldn't enjoy a good laugh abuot it?

Lucy Maud Montgomery and Avonlea

L.M. Montgomery

Lucy Maud Montgomery was a Canadian author born in Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island in 1874. She was raised by her grandparents in PEI, attending grade school in Cavendish, Prince of Wales College in Charlotte town, and in 1895-6 she studied literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax. She taught at various schools in PEI and worked in Halifax for newspapers. In 1908, while living in PEI she published her first book, Anne of Green Gables. She eventually married and moved to Ontario. Of her many works , Anne of Green Gables is probably the most well known.


Anne of Green Gables (100th anniversary!!)
-Series: 8 novels
-2 novels in which the character Anne plays a lesser part

Anne in the Media
-5 TV movies
-3 animated television series
-2 musicals

Tourism
-Setting: Green gables, haunted forest
-Musical
-Gifts and merchandise

Emily of New Moon

-Series: 3 Novels
-TV series

Road to Avonlea

-Aired between 1990 and 1996 in Canada and the United States.
-Took place in Avonlea, a fictional town in Prince Edward Island using characters and plots based out of books by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
-(Next series on CBC was Wind at My Back)

Avonlea Culture
- Family
oFamily content
oEqual focus on child and adult characters
oPart of many family traditions (Sunday night)
-Broad Canadian culture (popular in most provinces)

"The Colony of Unrequited Dreams" by Wayne Johnston

Newfoundland can be considered as a distinct region due to its existing rare culture that is separate from the rest of Canada. Newfoundland's culture is not contrived or artificial. James Overton proposes in his article, "A Newfoundland Culture" the idea that Newfoundland's culture revival rests on certain essential ideological foundations. The key assumption here is that there is a distinctive Newfoundland culture, way of life character, soul and ethnic identity. Overton further goes on to suggest that at the core of regionalist thinking lies the notion that there are distinctive, indigenous, popular regional cultures or ways of life in Canada and that these cultures should be the basis for the nation's future political and economic organization.
Newfoundland's history is known to fall under the whiggish history in that it is a triumphant account of a nation's colony. One that leads to progress and ultimate victory despite its failures. The Canadian Confederation plays a key role in establishing Newfoundland's culture and identity because it was the last province to join confederation in 1949. The Canadian Confederation website explains the reasoning behind Newfoundland’s late entry stating that, “union with Canada was often regarded as a solution to existing problems rather than as a desirable end in and of itself, and so support for the idea was never very strong“.
British influences also assists in creating a Newfoundland culture and identity. The Canadian Confederation website explains that by the beginning of the 1930s, Newfoundland’s debts was at nearly 100 million. Combined with the advent Great Depression, the colony was facing a desperate situation both economically and socially. As a result, an appeal was made to Britain for assistance. This further lead to the establishment of a commission which ran Newfoundland’s day-to-day affairs. The Canadian Confederation website also notes that the Commission of Government took office on February 16, 1934. The commission was responsible for administrative duties, but actual decision-making rested with the British Parliament.
“The Colony of Unrequited Dreams” by Wayne Johnston provides an excellent depiction of Newfoundland’s culture and identity. The main themes of the novel deals with a sense of self defecation, constant struggle and conflict, a lack of accomplishment, and a sense of loss associated with the people of Newfoundland. Although Johnson’s novel provides a negative depiction of Newfoundland, the majority of its contents are fairly accurate. Johnston succeeds in establishing the fact that Newfoundland experiment a great depression and a lack of money during the 1900s indicating its debts reaching nearly $100 million. Johnston also mentions that since all members of the commission was to be appointed by Britain, Britain underwrote Newfoundland of its debts thus coming to its assistance. Furthermore, the novel illustrated the fact that the referendum was a very divisive issue for Newfoundlanders which caused the separation of many families including that of Joe Smallwood’s. Lastly, Johnston’s novel did an excellent job demonstrating how Newfoundlanders have their own sense of culture and identity in which they always return to. This is illustrated through Joe Smallwood’s frequent returns to Newfoundland.
Overall, “The Colony of Unrequited Dreams” by Wayne Johnston is an excellent source of literature which provides a fairly accurate depiction of Newfoundland’s culture and identity. It illustrates the struggles and conflicts Newfoundland had to overcome in order to progress and establish its own sense of culture and identity.

Alice Munro and small-town Ontario

Alice Munro is considered one of Canada's most important writers in the 20th century. She is a three-time winner of the Governor General's Award for fiction, and has penned numerous bestsellers. Born and raised in rural Ontario, the majority of her stories are set in and around the region she was born, Whingham. In one review, her writing is said "both to invite and sustain reading within a realist tradition." Many feel that her characters and plot are very true and real to what life in small town Ontario is like.
Her published books, rather than novels, are mostly collections of short stories that span different time frames and characters. One of her stories, A Wilderness Station, is based on her family's own history. It examines a Scottish pioneer family in the 1850s and the hardships they experienced. The main character, Annie, was sent to become a homesteader in Huron County, and the story tells of her relations with her husband and the community, an experience similar to that of genuine Scottish pioneers. The character of Annie also emphasizes the wilderness as being an important factor in daily life; being out in the wild evokes in her feelings of safety, despite the fact that it is there that her husband is killed. This story exemplifies themes common in Canadian literature, most notably, the British colonial tradition of Canadian homesteading that the story is based upon, as well as the mythic nature of the North.
Douglas Coupland, another Canadian writer, might argue that this is quintessential CanLit: it is government encouraged literature, set in the North, with beautiful descriptions of the scenery, or else about the immigrant experience. It does not go beyond the boundaries that CanLit has set out, and it does well because of it. Many authors such as Coupland feel as if to be considered CanLit, you cannot leave these traditional barriers; in essence, that despite being a Canadian author, you are not actually considered one.
Munro is also considered one of Canada's few cultural exports. Along with Margaret Atwood, she is one of the few authors that make an impact within the United States. Munro has gone on record saying that she will soon retire, worrisome to many because as one of the few Canadian voices south of the border, Canadian cultural influences will be greatly, and sadly, diminished.
Munro has not only made an impact with her books at home and in the United States, but her stories have also been made into movies, most recently Away From Her. Based on the story, The Bear Came Over the Mountain, from her collection Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, which tells the tale of a married couple dealing with the decline of their relationship; the wife, Fiona, suffers from Alzheimer's Disease. Nature is a central theme again in this short story. Fiona and her husband, Grant, have moved into their cottage after retirement, in an attempt to help her remember their past; Grant tries to get her to remember one of the many hikes they would once embark upon. The movie adaptation did well critically and introduced Munro to a wider audience.

Southern Ontario

Southern Ontario is home to some of the most diverse landscapes and populations within Canada. Toronto, which is not only the capital of Ontario, boasts that it is, "the cultural, entertainment and financial capital of Canada." This excerpt comes from the official City of Toronto website. There is a host of information contained within this link, including statistics that make Toronto the clear multicultural city of Canada. Ethnic diversity within Southern Ontario is most clearly seen within the boundaries of Toronto, where over 150 languages are spoken everyday, and 50% of the residents are foreign born. This city has adapted to this diverse ethnic mosaic by creating portals such as Chinatown and Kensington Market. These sections allow immigrants to become a part of the Canadian landscape, while still maintaining their own traditions. As Bannerji states in his article, this is the kind of multiculturalism that all of Canada must strive for. The type in which citizens and immigrants of Canada are welcome to celebrate their own diversity, traditions and differences within the boundaries of Canada. This is exactly what Toronto tries to maintain, making it the ethnic centre of the country.

Ethnicity within all of Southern Ontario is quite vast, as most immigrants choose to move to this area of the country. Much of this is due to good financial prospects and opportunities, as well as the many different areas that are optimal for settling down. Southwestern Ontario is known for its rich land that is able to farm many different fruits and vegetables, as well as tobacco. The Ontario Federation of Agriculture website makes it very clear that farming is an integral part of Southern Ontario's identity. This symbol is closely accompanied by the Great Lakes and Niagara Falls, which are both known as symbols of Southern Ontario around the world. Horseshoe Falls of Niagara Falls, which is one of the seven wonders of the world, is nestled on the Canadian-American border. Not only is this a natural symbol of Southern Ontario, it is yet another multicultural hotspot in Canada. The Official Niagara Falls Tourism website highlights many different opportunities and attractions for people from all over the world.

Some other symbols of Southern Ontario which are known around the world are: Peelee Island which is the southernmost tip of Canada, Grand River Country which is home to a Canadian heritage river and Aboriginal culture, and Shakespeare Country which hosts the world-renowned Stratford Festival. All of these cultural symbols define Southern Ontario in different ways, and all offer opportunities to experience the diverse landscapes and heritage of this region.

Symbols and Ethnicity go hand in hand when it comes to Southern Ontario. It is the symbols of this region that attract immigrants, and it is the many different immigrants and cultural backgrounds that make Southern Ontario the multicultural land that it is. Without one, the other would not be possible. Ethnicity and symbols of this region will continue to be diverse, and will continue to make Southern Ontario the neverending cultural experience that it is.

Northern Ontario

It is evident that the people of Northern Ontario have a strong sense of identity that is separate from the rest of Ontario. There are many distinguishing characteristics of Northern Ontario which creates its strong sense of identity.
The Big Nickel in Sudbury is one of the major symbols representing Northern Ontario. The City of Sudbury website provides an excellent description of the physical construction of the Big Nickel as well as its history.
The Big Nickel is a symbolic representation of the prominence of nickel in Northern Ontario’s mining industry. Mining plays a key role in constituting Northern Ontario’s ethnic identity. Furthermore, Sudbury is known to be one of the world’s leading mining centres. The Ontario’s Ministry of Finance website points out that Sudbury, with its rich basin supplies 13 per cent of the world’s nickel.
Timmins, a city in northeastern Ontario is also a major mining centre. Mining makes up the majority of the city’s economic base and mining tours are a main attraction there. Overall, this vibrant sector of Ontario’s economy is the leading employer in the northern community. Hence, it plays a significant role in shaping Northern Ontario and distinguishing it from the rest of Ontario.

Prince Edward Island

Similar to the flag of Nova Scotia being influenced by Scotland, the Flag of Prince Edward Island is influenced by England.

Of the official symbols of PEI, 6 are unique to PEI, 3 are unique to England and 1 is unique to Scotland. Interestingly, the Canadians dominate the population, but the Scottish are second with 50 700 people and the English is third with 38 330 people.

The tourism web site, similarly to that of Nova Scotia, is dominated by scenery and symbols that are unique to PEI.

Overall, it is becoming clear that Canadian symbols, ethnicity and culture are very specific to the individual provinces and are related to ethnicity. Do these symbols represent the culture of Canada? Or only that of their Province. If the symbols and culture are provincial, then is it possible for Canada as a country to have symbols and culture?

Nova Scotia.

After class discussions on the articles Scottishness and Britishness in Canada by J. M. Bumstead and Tartanism Triumphant by Ian Mckay, it was clear that Nova Scotia used Scottish symbols and culture as their own. This became even more evident in viewing the symbols of Nova Scotia.

It becomes clear that the flag of Nova Scotia is strongly influenced by Scotland, when comparing the flag of Nova Scotia to the official and unofficial flags of Scotland.

Although her flag is dominated by Scottish symbols, the official symbols and emblems of Nova Scotia are mainly unique to Nova Scotia. Of the symbols and emblems, 9 are unique to Nova Scotia, 5 relate to Scotland and 1 one relates to England. This relates to ethnicity because Canadians dominate the population of Nova Scotia but the number of Scottish and English people are almost the same.

It was interesting also, to note that the tourism websites are not at all dominated by Scotishness.

New Brunswick

Atlantic history is deeply tied to the fishing industry, and New Brunswick is no exception. With an economy consisting mostly of food production throughout (the McCain Farms are located here) fisheries along the coast, and forestry in the interior of the province. Tourism is another important economic venture for the province.

New Brunswick is home to the town of Shediac, which is the self proclaimed "Lobster Capital of the World". Shediac houses a large monument of a lobster, with a fisherman between its claws, and has a yearly lobster festival.

The lobster festival brings thousands of people into the town during the two weeks it runs, and though the lobster is a symbol of something that has been part of New Brunswick's history, and is a large part of their culture, it is also a symbol of a time that is no longer a complete truth. Fisheries have suffered along the east coast, and Shediac is no exception. They are unable to produce enough lobster from their own water, and are forced, somewhat ironically, to import lobsters for the festival.

Shediac was an Acadian developed town, housing some of the expelled people from Nova Scotia, and bringing French and English traditions into the area.
New Brunswick is the only province that is officially billingual, with more people claiming a French heritage, than an English. Even though small percentage of the population considers themselves to be Acadian, the First Canadian Acadian Congress was held in Moncton, and there are many festivals throughout the year that celebrate Acadian culture and hertiage.

Newfoundland

In many Newfoundlanders minds, the history of their province has been marked by challenge. In Jerry Bannister's "Making History: Cultural Memory in Twentieth Century Newfoundland", he discusses how Newfoundland's historical memory is surrounded by the thought of past and future struggle and conflict. The pink, white and green flag is a symbol of this conflicted past, and a feeling of unity for the future.

Sr. John FitzGerald discusses the history of the flag on the website Pink, White and Green: A Revolution. The flag, which became popular during the mid-nineteenth century, was designed to show the connection of Newfoundland's past to Ireland and England, bringing them together. Though it is not an official symbol for Newfoundland, it is used by many as an independent icon. Another article posted on the website is an article published in the Independent newspaper, discussing Danny Williams desire to bring the issue of changing the provincial flag to Parliament.

The use of the flag is also supported by Newfoundland's Premier Danny Williams and his conservative government. Williams has helped to turn around the economy of the province. as well as bring new pride and a sense of nationalism for the province, which the flag symbolizes. The desire to change the flag is another symbol of the changing atmosphere of the province that is deeply tied to its history and which feels separated from the rest of the country.