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Let the Festival du Bois Fill your No-Fun Void

Travis Paterson, OP Contributor

I’m no cultural expert, but it seems that a
big part of the culture in Greater
Vancouver includes hockey during the
winter. This year, along with thousands of
others, I’m learning to do without the
escape of NHL hockey. And as a social
enthusiast, I’m seeing a lack of winter cul-
ture in this city. Sure, each town has bars,
nightclubs, curling clubs, and ice rinks, but
nothing that builds anticipation. What
about outdoor music, art, and food? If
this is the so highly regarded West Coast
of Canada, why am I not familiar with any
festivals monopolizing winter like a sec-
ond Christmas, as they do in the East? I
think a winter festival would do a lot for
this city.

I’m not looking for a full-blown festi-
val equivalent to Quebec City’s Carnival,
but what about a West-Coast equivalent to
the freezing of hot Maple syrup into
candy on a stick? ’m looking for some-
thing that can take our minds off the utter
lack of any holidays until Easter. Maybe
something to embrace the rain and cold
that makes a Vancouver winter special.
And, for those of us who still enjoy a
drink responsibly—a place to irresponsi-
bly enjoy a drink.

Curious as to what festivals we do have
in Canada, I decided to research the mat-
ter. What I found was the Spirit of
Canada tourism website, which openly

 

Malllardville

admits the lack of a winter festival in
Vancouver. Instead, they recommend the
Art Gallery, Aquarium, and Stanley Park
as winter destinations. Anyways....

In Montreal they celebrate the High
Lights festival for up to 17 days with
music, art, and food. In Quebec City, 88
percent of the population enjoys red wine
at the Carnival for 17 days. In Ottawa,
they celebrate the Winterlude, snacking in
heated huts along the frozen Rideau

Coquitlam

 

Then there’s the Yukon
Sourdough, which includes dogsled races
and axe throwing, and is described as
“Mardi-Gras in mukluks.” Niagara Falls
hosts a nine-day Icewine festival, and in
Calgary the luge and speed-skating tracks
are as hot as their winter chili cook-off.
What I did find on the Lower
Mainland was the bilingual Festival du
Bois. The Festival du Bois, celebrating its
16th year under the big tent, runs March

Canal.

 

5-6 at Blue Mountain Park in
Maillardville, Coquitlam. Realizing I had
once attended it myself, I began recalling
the bands, the dancing, and the frog-
shaped toques. I also remembered that it
is great if you or your friends speak
French—but a bit cliquey if you don’t—
so bring your French-speaking friends.

Held outdoors, solid sponsorship
makes this a progressively minded event,
complete with live music, wine, beer, and
food. This is the kind of thing I’ve been
looking for, but why is it French? The
closest thing to a winter festival in
Vancouver is run by folks who’ve emigrat-
ed across country from Quebec; is there a
festival run in Quebec by ex-British
Columbians? I doubt it. Then again, if
Carnival in Quebec City is as wonderful as
they say, drawing a million visitors each
year, then maybe we need a good
Quebécois kick in the beer keg to get
started. Perhaps this is the kind of festival
that could blossom into something bigger.

I recommend investigating this year’s
Festival du Bois (www.festivaldubois.ca)
as it is a great reminder that being a
Canadian is more than knowing how to
enjoy cold beers outside on a cold day.
And what better way to do so than tipping
back some cold beers on a cold day in
Coquitlam?

 

Crude Wars

Linda McQuaig discusses petroleum's grasp on the war in Iraq

Jessica Hume, Arthur (Trent University)

 

14 | www.theothe

rpress.c

PETERBOROUGH, Ont. (CUP)—
Linda McQuaig’s new book, Its the Crude,
Dude: War, Big Oil and the Fight for the Planet,
her sixth, is a bestseller. The book is a
fact-based discussion of the ever-increas-
ing global over-reliance on oil and the
serious implications of this—both in
terms of global warming, as well as the
less-acknowledged geopolitical implica-
tions.

McQuaig explains the scramble for oil
control is a crucial aspect for geopolitics
with respect to wealth creation and mili-
tary viability in a country—the war in Iraq
being the event in this context. She also
refers to the fact that in the first two
world wars, access to oil was of crucial
importance.

The United States consumes 25 per-
cent of the world’s oil every year, yet has
access to only three percent of its
reserves. Therein lies the problem. The
US wants economic dominance, but does-
nt have enough oil of its own, and it is
increasing its dependence on imports.
Now, Iraq has the second-largest oil
reserves in the world, almost completely
untouched. Access to oil is needed for
superpower status, and there can be no
doubt the US aspires to this. McQuaig
goes on to explain that the OPEC crisis of
1973, where foreign oil imports were cut
off, made a very deep impression on the
US, leaving the country with a sense of
vulnerability it had rarely experienced.

For the US, oil is not a question of

 

money, as the events in the early 1970s
showed, but rather one of control.
McQuaig argues; oil is “intimately con-
nected with extending US power.”
Overcoming this vulnerability became the
focus of US strategic planning.
Immediately after the 1973 crisis, there
was an “upsurge of hawkishness of the
American Right,’ promoting the idea the
US needed to take a more aggressive
stance in the Middle East.

McQuaig discusses the Project for a
New American Century, headed by none
other than Dick Cheney, Donald
Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz, whose
main priority was to overthrow Saddam
Hussein. Within ten days of arriving in
the White House, Cheney set up the

FEBRUARY 23/

2005