Canada: An Introduction

So after a pretty standard flight, (although I did watch Mike Leigh's excellent 2008 film Happy Go Lucky) here I am in Canada. We woke up this morning in our little Ottawa bolthole to a beautiful flurry of snowflakes with our tea and muffins and today we will be driving down to our house by the lake.

After leaving the airport and being able to assocaite Candadians with nothing but South Park's Terence and Philip cartoon, my first real impressions of the place were informed by the sheer VASTNESS. Its hard to get your head around how big the country actually is. Driving from Toronto to Ottawa, the flat, grey countryside betrays the thick snow covering that has only just melted away after lying thick for most of the winter. Walking around Ottawa, their pretty little Capital, its abundantly clear that the Canadians LOVE their national flag. I saw it everywhere from the back of an old guy's wheelchair as he careered down the middle of the road, dog on lap, to the hands of a young girl wandering around parliamant with her parents, not to mention plastered all over the front of banks and offices.