Happy Canada Day (kinda late)

[billbillw]

I love our neighbors to the North. Spent many good times in Ontario when I lived up in Michigan. Happy Canada Day for all our Canuck Polkies. Hope you all had a safe and happy holiday.

I apologize if any of this sounds like a rant.

I do have a question...
Why the heck do so many of your fellow Canadians feel the need to come to the US on your national birthday?

I spent 2 hours crossing from Ontario into Buffalo at Niagara today, and that was at 7:30 am! They had 8 lanes open at US customs and it still took that long! Almost all Ontario plates. Truck traffic was not the issue, it was cars.

Later in the day (about 3pm), I ran into a backup at the Sarnia/Port Huron border that was over 5 miles long. I sat in it for one hour and made it far enough to reach the next exit and got off the highway and drove 20 miles south to a ferry crossing only to find that it was also backed up. At least I got to look at the St. Clair river instead of downtown Sarnia. The ferry crossing ended up taking almost 3 hours. Talking to the border folks, they said the delay at the Bluewater Bridge was almost 7 hours!

Am I mad about it? Not really. I just don't understand it. Bottom line, I picked the wrong day to try and trek across Ontario to pick up some audio gear in Buffalo :(

BTW, for those wondering why someone from Georgia is going across Ontario, its because my extended family is still in Michigan. I am up here visiting.

PS, and the gear is sweet, will post details in a separate thread sometime later.

[TECHNOKID]

Canada day was somewhat quiet here in Gatineau. Most large stores were closed to the exception of supermarkets. There was a celebration with a well known Quebec signer but fortunately it was on the radio station and I decided to listen to it while driving (beautifull evening) and had a stop at the marina (was much better than enduring the crazy crowd... When you are aging, it somewhat becomes harder to bare crazy crowds ;) ).

Weird, this year some people were getting the 1st and others will get the 2nd to make for a longer weekend. To answer your question, many people are probably wise enough to take an extra day to make for a long weekend (mainly public servants can afford to do so, right Willow ;) ). So basically people take advantage to go and visit our neighbour country the US (fact is people chase for nice beaches along with great weather). Weather was kind of great but still I encountered some people complaining about little chilly. Heh, let the complainers go across the border and spend some money on your side, the more the merrier for your tough present economy (as I pointed out, most shopping stores were closed so I guess shopping had potentially some to do with it) ;) .

Glad to hear you still managed to pick-up your audio gear !

Cheers!
TK

[BeRad]

Well, as TK said: a lot of people took Friday off work and are going on a nice 4 day weekend trip.
Another reason could be that people are just heading down to shop for the day since products (even products made in Canada) tend to be much cheaper to purchase in the US. Also, starting today a new tax is in effect in Ontario and B.C. that simply merges our federal and provincial taxes into one. This now affects anything that used to only have the federal tax such as cigarettes, some foods, consulting or service-only (no actual product involved in transaction) and the big one... GAS! Some people here head down to MN simply just to fill up.

We love our country, but are more low key with regards to our birthday than the US seems to be. Besides, we party our asses off all year long (helps to keep warm in winter too!)