#CheersCanada150

Geographically, we are comprised of ten provinces and three territories. The territories always trip me up because when I was a kid in school, we only had two: Yukon and Northwest Territories. Nunavut, the largest (by land area) territory showed up as a new territory on April 1, 1999 (no joke!) when it separated from the Northwest Territories.

We are a population of 36,610,800 (as of the date of writing, June 14, 2017), 3,239,072 fewer people than the state of California. We are 38^th in the world in population, yet we are the second-largest country in the world by land mass! Note: there are not Mounties everywhere.

We are a country known for our music (I think most of the country cried at the very last Tragically Hip concert), our comedians (and our self-depreciating sense of humour), our insertion of the letter “u” into words, our universal health care, our high taxes and saying “excuse me”, “sorry” and “eh”. However, we do not live in igloos, ride dog sleds to work, own beavers as pets or form part of the United States of America. This was summed up brilliantly in a beer commercial that ran a few years ago for, appropriately enough, Molson Canadian beer.

We take great pride in our beer, our winter sports (hockey and curling are the only Olympic sports in which we expect both our men’s and women’s teams to win gold medals), poking fun at ourselves and poutine. Poutine? Never had it? Put it on your must-try list!

We also take great joy in pointing out which famous people are Canadian!!!! (I’m looking at you Ryan Reynolds, Mary Pickford, James Cameron, Alex Trebek, William Shatner, Avril Lavigne, Celine Dion, Jim Carrey, Justin Bieber, Drake, Pamela Anderson, Dan Ackroyd, Shania Twain, Donald (and Kiefer) Sutherland, Rachel McAdams, Bryan Adams, Michael J. Fox, Frank Gehry, Ryan Gosling, Mike Myers, Keanu Reeves, Will Arnett, Seth Rogan, Ellen Page, Fay Wray and deadmau5, to name a few!)

We love to mention that Canadians are the reason that the White House is white! We will tell you that we burned the original building down during the War of 1812 – the war they never teach in US schools – and that it had to be whitewashed to cover all the black soot. (Side note to Canadians, yes, we did burn it in 1814, but the original building was supposedly white due to lime-based whitewash used to protect the porous stone it was built out of from freezing. Or, maybe that is just what the Americans say.)

Our history is as mixed as our population. Originally British and French dominated. We welcomed those Americans who didn’t want to separate from Britain, no matter how high the tea taxes, as well as those who slipped over during the Vietnam war. Over the last 150 years, we have welcomed immigrants from all over the world, myself included – I moved here at age 2.

Same-sex marriage ceremonies have been taking place in Canada since 2002. #lovewins and it has for 15 years now!

I’m not sure if John A. Macdonald, our first Prime Minister, would recognize our sea-to-shining sea country if he saw it today, but I think he would be amazed at how we have grown from our 1867 population of 3.4 million!

To honour my country’s 150^th birthday, the blog posts in the month of July will be about Canadian events, food, drinks, things Canadians like, or just Canadian things I like.

I’ve also organized a campaign on Instagram. Everyone is welcome to participate (we are all about inclusion here). I’ve asked Instagrammers to post a cocktail on July 1 with the hashtag #cheersCanada150 and tag @cheersCanada150 for a repost. Everyone can submit, so please join in.

For my cocktail, which I will share today and post on Instagram on Saturday (follow me @travelfoodcool), I wanted to come up with a drink that reflects both my love for Canada and a bit of an homage to my life in Canada.

For the base, I started with Black Cow Vodka (available general list LCBO). Why? First of all, it’s British, and a nod to one of the founding parts of our country – and part of my heritage. Second, it is milk based. My grandparents were farmers (my Mother grew up on a farm) in Avening, Ontario (near Creemore) and I wanted a toast them. Thirdly, it is gluten-free, and as many of you know, my sister Louise is celiac.

The next layer is Giffard’s Mangalore (special order from Boldworks – thank you!). Besides being RED (how could I resist), it is a nod to the French founders of our country. It is also complex (like our tax system) and a blend of cardamom, cinnamon and chili – you all know I love a little spice.

Luxardo Maraschino is my salute to Italy, another country, surprisingly younger than us, where I love to spend my free time.

Dillon’s Orange Bitters are from the Niagara region, an area that kept me employed throughout my university years.

The lemon and the ginger beer, well they are two flavours that I absolutely adore, and they work really well with the Mangalore.

Please join me July 1 in saying CHEERS to this great country!

Ladies and gentlemen of the world, I present my #cheersCanada150 cocktail. John A. Macdonald – who was known to enjoy a drop or two in his time – I hope you would approve.

The Johnny Eh!

What you need:

• 1 oz Black Cow Vodka
• 1 oz Giffard Mangalore
• 1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino
• ½ oz fresh lemon juice
• 2 dashes Dillon’s Orange Bitters
• 4 oz ginger beer (I used Fentimans)

What you do:

• In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add the Black Cow Vodka, the Giffard Mangalore, the Luxardo Maraschino, fresh lemon juice and Dillon’s Orange Bitters.
• Shake.
• Strain into a tall Collins glass filled with ice.
• Top with Fentimans ginger beer.
• Enjoy the day off!

To our neighbours to the south, I’m sorry in advance for all the noise, we promise to turn it down in time for your national holiday.