Canadian Expatriates, its contributors, and readers have been invited by Foreign Affairs Canada to participate in a series of eDiscussions. The current topic is “Showcasing Canadian Culture and Know-How Abroad”.

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What role does Canadian culture and know-how play in our foreign policy?

How might the government best promote Canadian talent and expertise in the world?

The eDiscussion runs from April 4 to May 6, 2005. At its conclusion, a summary of the discussion will be sent to senior policy planners.

The Expat admin team encourages its readers to join in the eDiscussion at the Canadian International Policy website.

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Thank you!

It has not quite been a full week, and the Dude is still beaming over the blanket of snow outside.

"This is the most snow that I have ever seen in my life!" he proclaims every time that we step into the great outdoors. His childish delight is adorable, but in the back of my mind I am giggling that in his near thirty-year life, the largest quantity of snow that he has ever seen is this six-inch thick blanket.

Passing the golf course on our way home from Christmas shopping, we saw two long lines of tracks imprinted into the snow. Inspired by the tracks, I declared, "We should go cross-country skiing!”

"Is that what those tracks are from? I was just about to ask you," answered the Dude.

It was then that I realized just how different our childhoods really were. While my fourth grade class was going snowshoeing, tobogganing, skating, cross country skiing, and building quincies and snowmen, my husband's class was... well... I really don't know what they would be doing in Small Town, Arkansas. Perhaps going on a field trip to the local paper mill, I guess? ¹

Suddenly, I was struck by a divine epiphany: I was my husband's cold weather steward, my task was to devise an itinerary of winter fun. The responsibility of my position weighed heavily upon my shoulders, as did my thick wool sweater and my three-in-one jacket. I looked at the dashboard of the car. The digital thermometer said that it was 21°F outside. Doing the conversion in my head, I realized that I have become a weather wimp. It was only -6°C outside and I was cold. I hung my head in shame and worried that my Canadian blood was no longer thick enough to sustain me during our afternoon of outdoor activities.

First on our list of winter fun was tobogganing. We went to the local sporting goods store in search of the Krazy Karpets of my youth. Every Canuck child of the eighties knows that nothing slides better than a thin piece of blue plastic. I was surprised to see the new-fangled toboggans and was even more surprised to see their prices. They had all manner of snow scooters, snow tubes, sleds and toboggans, but no Krazy Karpets. Not wanting to bother with the frustration of going to Wal-Mart or Target on a weekend so close to Christmas, we went home.

At the homestead, the Dude embraced the first snowy activity of his life - shoveling the snow from the driveway and the front walk. Just as he got into the zone with this new task, he was struck by another winter first - a cold, wet snowball.


¹ This has since been confirmed. All field trips were to the paper mill.