Geography: Talking Travel
So You Think You Know Canada, Eh
Seminars@Hadley
Geography: Talking Travel
So You Think You Know Canada, Eh
Presented by
Kathy Culhane
Tracy Garbutt
Moderated by
Larry Muffett
April 27, 2016
Larry Muffett
Welcome to Seminars@Hadley. My name is Larry Muffett. I’m a member of Hadley’s seminars team and I also work in curricular affairs. Today’s seminar topic is under Geography: Talking Travel: So You Think You Know Canada, Eh. It is our great fortune here at Hadley to work closely with CNIB, both the staff and serving as ambassadors, and it’s a great relationship. CNIB specialists work with people of all ages in their homes, communities or local CNIB offices providing the personalized rehabilitation support they need to see beyond vision loss, to build their independence, and to lead the lives they want. Each year Canadians who are blind or partially sighted receive almost one million hours of vital support from CNIB helping them build their independence and fully participate in life. Today we welcome CNIB ILS specialists Kathy Culhane from Calgary, Alberta, and Tracy Garbutt from Winnipeg, Manitoba, for an enlightening look at all things Canadian. Without any further ado let me welcome Kathy and Tracy and we’ll get under way. Welcome.
Kathy Culhane
Thank you, Larry. This is Kathy Culhane talking. I am an Independent Living Skills Specialist out of the Calgary, Alberta CNIB office. I have worked with CNIB for 10 ½ years. I was born visually impaired. I have retinitis pigmentosa, so I do have a good understanding of what our clients have to deal with on a daily basis. It’s been a wonderful job. It’s a very rewarding job and it gives me the opportunity to meet many different people from many different walks of life. I have been a Hadley/Canadian ambassador for about 9 years. I am the Senior Hadley Ambassador for Canada. There’s about six of us that are part of that team. I love working with Hadley. It’s a fantastic opportunity. So it’s a great privilege to be talking to you today.
Tracy Garbutt
Good morning, everybody, it’s Tracy Garbutt from Winnipeg, Manitoba, the CNIB office here. I have been here for 19 years. It’s been an amazing road. It’s been really interesting getting to work, exactly kind of what Kathy said, so many different people and cultures. You learn a lot when you’re out there working with the clients. I’ve been with Hadley for about 4 or 5 years and, again, I’ve really enjoyed working with Hadley. They have lots to offer and look forward to talking more about Canada.
Kathy Culhane
Okay, I’m just going to start off with welcoming all of you. Thank you for taking the time out to listen to us today. Hopefully, you’ll understand our accents. I’m just joking, by the way. Hopefully, you’ll learn a lot about your neighbors, especially our American friends; hopefully, you’ll learn a lot about your neighbors above you. Just so that you are aware, I’m just gonna talk about our government, I’m going to talk a little bit about our money that we have here. And, just so you know, I’m not the most intelligent person when it comes to our government, so if I don’t answer all your questions, hopefully you can Google it and find some more information. But, here I go.
First of all, the capital of Canada is Ottawa, Ontario. Canada is composed of – we have 10 provinces, which are British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. We also have 3 territories, which are the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut. Canada hasabout approximately 35 million people living here. We also are governed by what we call the federal government. It is the Liberals that are in power currently, so our Prime Minister is Justin Trudeau. Canada actually has three levels of government and each level of government has different responsibilities. The federal government, which is the government of Canada, is responsible for things that affect the whole country; citizenship, immigration, national defense, trade, and other countries. Provincial and territory governments, for example the province of Alberta, would be responsible for such things as education, healthcare, highways. The municipal government, which is the local government, cities, towns, and villages, they’re responsible for firefighting, city streets, and other local matters.
The federal government has three parts to that. Queen Elizabeth II is the actual formal Head of State. The Governor General, whose name I just could not remember actually right at this time, he takes over the duties and the responsibilities for the Queen when she is not here. Then there’s the House of Commons, which makes Canada’s laws. The Canadians elect representatives to the House of Commons. These representatives are called Members of Parliament, or MPs, and usually belong to a political party. The political party that has the largest number of MPs forms the government and its leaders become prime minister. The Prime Minister is the head of the government of Canada. He chooses MPs to serve as ministers in the Cabinet. There are ministers for citizenship and immigration, justice, and other subjects.
The Senate reviews laws that are proposed by the House of Commons and senators come from across Canada. The Prime Minister also chooses these senators.
The provincial government, we have a lieutenant governor, which represents the Queen; the legislative assembly makes laws and are called Members of Provincial Parliament, like I mentioned the MPs; and the premier leads the government and chooses MPPs to serve as ministers in the Cabinet. Currently in Alberta, for instance, the Premier of Alberta, her name is Rachel Notley. She actually represents the governing party called the NDP, which is the New Democratic Party.
There’s lots of information on the Canadian government. That’s just a brief overview of what we have here. As you know, it is part of England, the United Kingdom. When we go to England, we are considered the Commonwealth, part of the Commonwealth, so hence why Queen Elizabeth II is technically the Head of State here in Canada.
The other thing I was going to mention is that Canada actually has four of the Great Lakes. There are five Great Lakes, which are Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, and Lake Michigan, which is in the United States. We also actually share Niagara Falls. For those of you who’ve never heard of Niagara Falls, it’s actually a beautiful area. It’s in Ontario. It is just a beautiful part. The Americans have the Buffalo, New York area; we have the Niagara Falls Ontario, Canada area, and it’s really, really beautiful and pretty.
Canada is the second largest country in the world. For us to actually talk about every single province, every single territory, it would take forever, so, again, I’m just gonna give you a brief description of what Canada is like. We do not live in igloos. We do not ride around in Ski-doos. It is not always cold here 24/7. We have very similar climate to our neighbors, to our American neighbors. If I was to go from east to west, the furthest east is the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. They are bordered onto the Atlantic Ocean. They are very rocky, very much a bunch of different islands. And then if you were to head west form Newfoundland, then you’re heading into the Maritimes, which is Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island. Then it’s the central part of Canada, which is Ontario, which is probably our largest province, and Quebec would be south of Ontario in our map. Quebec has Montreal, which is the common city that a lot of people have heard of. They also have a beautiful city called Quebec City. And then there, obviously, is Ontario, which is the largest province. Then it’s Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, which are considered the Prairies, and British Columbia. British Columbia’s the farthest west province. It borders onto the Pacific Ocean. There’s Vancouver, which actually held our 2010 Winter Olympics. There are many different islands as well through BC; Victoria, many other different islands, too, that people habitat on. We are fishing, there’s a lot of fishing, a lot of lumber in BC. Canada relies a lot on oil. Alberta is going through a bit of an economy slump right now due to oil, but we are heavy in that industry as well.
Just as a preview, Tracy will be talking a lot about his province of Manitoba. I, of course, will be talking a lot about the province of Alberta, just because we both are familiar with that since we both live in those provinces.
The Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut, never been, but it is the northernmost area of Canada. Lots of timber, that’s where there’s a lot of ice, polar bears, a lot of our Inuit people live up there. I heard it’s very, very beautiful up there despite it being very cold. The Yukon is actually right across from Alaska, so, if you’ve ever been to Alaska, it’s probably quite similar to that. When I say the Prairies, by the way, that means that there’s a lot of flat farm land, not a lot of hills. There are quite a few lakes, but it is pretty much flat.
Hopefully, I’ve given you a descriptive idea of what Canada is like. As I said, it is the second largest country. Our temperatures vary between provinces. We can have beautiful weather. During the winter months, we do have longer winter months, sometimes, compared to other countries it seems. We’ve actually had a fortunate winter this year. Alberta has really lucked out this year. We hardly had any snow. Vancouver, BC, the British Columbia area, is usually quite rainy. Alberta and the Prairies are usually – during the winter months, we do get quite a bit of snow. Same with Ontario, Quebec, and the rest of Canada. During the summer and spring, we actually do see the sun. We do actually have a lot of green spaces and we do have, like I said, many, many lakes. Depending on what type of year you’re coming, sorry, what type of season you’re gonna be coming in, that will just determine on what you’re gonna wear that day. You do not need battery operated socks or anything like that in the winter time. Hopefully, that gave you a good description of what Canada is like.
Tracy Garbutt
Good description, very informative, Kathy. I’m gonna start off and then Kathy and I both are gonna talk a little bit about traveling within Canada being blind or partially sighted. I know for myself in Manitoba here, things have really started to come a long way. Buses with GPS so that you know when you’re gonna get off your stop. And a lot of things that are happening now, too, there’s a website that’s really good, it’s called clearingourpath.ca, and, basically, it’s really trying to focus on the standards and how to better prepare businesses and traveling within our provinces to make it standard. If anybody has ever crossed certain streets, and I know in the states you guys have your truncated domes, and that’s to align yourselves to cross the streets. It’s really amazing how much that can help your travel, your straight line of travel. With some of these things going on within Canada, it’s really making it easier for people to travel more independently. I know in Ontario, Toronto, some of the bigger cities, it’s having the announcements on the subways. Things are really starting to come along and it makes it much easier.
The only thing, I think, within Canada, and a lot of the states too, is winter time can be definitely a harder time to travel as a blind person. I’m a guide dog user and he really makes my life a lot simpler within the winter months because I don’t have to guess where I am. And I can use my GPS on my phone and everything else, but there’s always times where technology doesn’t work and it’s nice to have my dog to really fine-tune my traveling within the winter.
Kathy Culhane
I’m actually a cane user. As Tracy mentioned, in Canada it is fairly easy to travel depending, again, on what your means of travel are. It does take a while to get across our country, so, for instance, if you are traveling from Newfoundland to Alberta, that is an 8 hour plane ride. We do have trains, planes, and automobiles here in Canada. And, yes, most of those are accessible. I use the Calgary transit system every day. They do announce stops. On the platforms they have what’s called raised braille. It’s a yellow pebbled strip that they put at the edge of the platforms so that you know when to not fall over into the train area by using your cane or your dog. If there are certain places that you want to go to in Canada, most of them accessible. You do have to probably go to their website just to find out how accessible they really are. Most of the museums and things like that within Canada, you can get hands-on. You just have to ask. We do have the Blind Persons Act here in Canada as well, and with Tracy and his guide dog, again, they do have a Guide Dog Act as well, so service dogs are allowed and permitted in every single area of Canada. So do keep that in mind. Have I missed anything there Tracy?
Tracy Garbutt
No, that sounds really good. Yeah, definitely, when Kathy mentioned the guide dog laws as well, they really, really are working on that because there are just a lot of issues with people that have, so to speak, service animals, but they really aren’t. It’s really trying to protect the guide dog users and any kind of service animal, police and rescue and all that kind of stuff, because when people are interfering with any kind of animal, it does make it hard to travel and it can be frustrating. Here in Manitoba, your first offense interfering with a guide dog is $5,000 and your second is $10,000. For people that don’t really understand the whole idea about guide dogs, you can get yourself into hot water pretty quick.
Kathy Culhane
I also wanted to mention that we do have braille on most of our signage. Again, it’s asking, requesting, if they do have any braille in any museum or anywhere that you plan on going. Just so you know as well – I just lost my train of thought talking about braille. We in Canada, actually the second language that we speak here is French, so that is our predominant – it’s English and then French, so a lot of our signage and a lot of our products and everything are in French as well. Just so that you are aware of that.
Tracy Garbutt
Thanks, Kathy. I’m gonna talk a little bit about sports and food in Canada. It’ll be very broad range. For sports and that we have our nine CFL teams, our seven NHL teams – yes, and I know, none of them made it to the playoffs this year; we’re all going through a little withdrawal, a little sad. Also, I know within Manitoba and other parts of Canada, blind sports have really launched themselves into another dimension. It’s really picked up over the last even 5 to 6 years. There’s more involvement, more things starting up. Everything, I know, in Manitoba, from the blind golfers, rowing, the running clubs, and ski teams, all that kind of stuff is really taking off. Even in Ontario, which is really cool for the partially sighted, they’re actually is a low vision hockey team. They also have the Skihawks for downhill skiing; it’s kind of awesome. It’s really making it more interesting and getting more blind people out. Over the years blind people just haven’t had the opportunity to participate in a lot of different sports, and now it’s really come a long way. Even noticing with Paralympics and things like that, it’s amazing how many more athletes we’re really seeing out there making our mark in the sporting world. It’s been pretty exciting watching that grow over the years.
Predominately, in Manitoba, we’re very diverse in our culture, so the food in Manitoba is kind of interesting. Anything from our Ukrainian population, which is fairly large – the pierogies, I love those – and our Aboriginal community. One of their things is bannock, and, I don’t know, it’s hard to describe bannock. It’s kind of in between a pastry and a bread, if that’d be a good way of describing it. Out in Alberta way, they’re big into beef. I would just say beef, really. Again, it’s just really diverse in what kind of things we eat out here, but I think it’s pretty similar to you guys as well. I know Quebec and all them, the poutine is where that was launched with the fries and cheese and gravy. I’ve actually never had it, so it’s kind of strange hearing that from a Canadian. What do you think Kathy?
Larry Muffett
You can go ahead, Kathy. We had some people trying to jump in there in front of you and I took care of that, so you can go ahead. As soon as I sign off, go ahead and jump in, Kathy.