Читать книгу Let It Snow. Keeping Canada's Winter Sports Alive онлайн

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A curling team sponsored by Sangster, circa 1915.

Trudeau’s political counterpart, conservative politician Joe Clark, joined the fray of characterizing Canada as a winter wonderland in his description of Canada as “The Winter half of North America.”

Politicians seemingly have no problem creating sound bites signifying a long-standing overexaggeration of Canada’s climate, even if their comments don’t necessarily apply to the majority of Canadians who live in somewhat more temperate regions of the country.

Generalizing Canada’s identity as a winter nation has its roots in the ways Canadians define their country. While cold winters certainly affect northern Canada, and cities such as Edmonton or Calgary, frosty, unbearable winters are not as applicable to residents of Windsor, Toronto, and Vancouver, which contain the majority of Canadians.

Torontonians share a climate similar to Buffalo, New York (but with less snow), and Detroit (but with less laid-off auto workers) for the majority of the year. Being Canadian, however, allows them to travel abroad and proudly declare that they are like winter soldiers who are able to endure the roughest of Canadian winters, while reassuring southerners, tongue firmly planted in cheek, that they don’t live in igloos, as their new house was built with bricks and mortar.