By Alex Beam, Globe Columnist Source: Boston Globe Not for the first time, Canada has embarked on a tourism-promotion binge intended to lure Americans to the land of the maple leaf and cheap prescription drugs. Canadian travel ads never fail to amuse. My favorite, which I spotted in a glossy magazine about six months ago, depicted a dreamy Newfoundland seascape bathed in radiant sunshine. I know they can do anything with photographs these days, but a fogless day in ''Shipping News'' country is as rare as a pro-George Bush editorial in the mainstream Canadian press. With a touch of cynicism - or is it realism? - Canada's government-funded Tourism Commission raised its US marketing budget by more than 50 percent this year, figuring that post-Sept. 11, American travelers would not stray far from home. By 2003, the commission figures, Americans will be jetting off to Tuscany again, barring any new terrorist attacks. As I do almost every year, I spent a week of my summer in Nova Scotia, one of the provinces that constitute Atlantic Canada. (The others are New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and - good luck finding it in the fog - Newfoundland.) The provinces spent about $12 million advertising themselves to New Englanders this year, with mixed results. ''We just are not getting the numbers we need,'' columnist Sandra Porteous wrote in the Halifax Daily News last week. Worried that Atlantic Canada is being improperly marketed to stay-at-home rubes in Maine and New Hampshire, Porteous suggested: ''Maybe our only hope is to target cities - and to be blunt.'' I think I can help. Here are a few modest proposals for Canadian tourism promotions that will really work: Canada is Cannabis Country! You bet! There are 30,000 ''grow houses'' in the Vancouver area alone, puffing up what is said to be a $6 billion local industry. A special police unit called Growbusters raided about 600 homes last year, but arrested only 200 people. Judges deal gently with most offenders, letting them walk with a $2,500 fine, about one percent of their estimated yearly revenue. So it should come as no surprise that the United States' No. 1 ''reefer refugee'' makes his home in British Columbia. Steve Kubby, who suffers from adrenal cancer, was busted for owning 200 marijuana plants in California in 1999, and fled to a town about an hour north of Vancouver with his wife and two children. He now produces content for the Web site Pot-TV (www.pot-tv.net) and is seeking political asylum. Visit Canada, the Land of No-Oz! How do they get by? I learn from the National Post, one of the country's two magnificent national dailies (the other being the Toronto Globe and Mail) that most Canadians can't watch such shows as ''The Osbournes,'' MTV's ''Jackass,'' and Fox's ''The O'Reilly Factor'' because of restrictions imposed by the government's Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. This has nothing to do with content - there is plenty of American bilge in the Canadian ether - but involves regulations about using government airwaves to retransmit US cable signals. So the ostensible good news for Canadians is that the over-the-air CTV channel will start broadcasting ''The Osbournes'' this fall. The bad news, of course, is that the Osbournes are about as hot as last week's donair (spiced lamb on a spit) in Digby. ''The Osbourne backlash has begun,'' Entertainment Weekly reported on the same day that CTV trumpeted its cool new fall lineup. So it goes, eh? Canada - We're Becoming a Lot Like You! Imagine my un-surprise to read that Ontario's Kevin Moore was thinking of suing the city of Halifax because a cut on his leg had become infected after he fell into the water near the city's harbor. It's not about the money, Mr. Moore told a reporter, it's the principle of the thing. As Bob Dole said in a very different context - he was eulogizing Richard Nixon at his funeral - how American. Of course, the marketing types will never get around to selling the truth about Canada, which is possibly the most civilized country in the English-speaking world. So I have adopted my own promotional slogan, primarily for personal use: Canada - a nice place for me to visit. But do me a favor and stay away. Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. This story ran on page E1 of the Boston Globe on 8/6/2002. Source: Boston Globe (MA) Author: Alex Beam, Globe Columnist Published: August 6, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Globe Newspaper Company Contact: letter@globe.com Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/ Related Articles & Web Site: Pot-TV http://www.pot-tv.net
Superjoint, I wouldn't be the least bit surprized if Canadians will take the next step and legitimize Amsterdam-style coffee shops (or "tea parlors"). Since their police force is already in place to handle any troublemakers, the "tea parlors" would be for peaceful and orderly people to smoke some weed. The government would receive much-needed revenue on license fees and usage taxes. It's a win-win situation. The irony is that whilst this is taking place, the United States will be spying on every American via satelite, and probably have even invented some kind of mind reading contraption to make sure that nobody has even thought about "the evil drug of Satan, corruptor of youth."
as a canadian living in british columbia we have already seen and have two coffe shops in vancouver where you can go in sit down and smoke with fellow puffers in a public environment. One is right downtown,the police know what is going on but do nothing. You cant go in there to buy or sell weed or you will be kicked out and banned you must bring your own. They have live music and other stoner friendly things to do. comr to vancouver and smoke some world class b.c. bud
Is Canada's Tourism Going to Pot? I certainly hope so. In this way meaning , if less people drink and more smoke up instead ,Canada will enjoy ;fewer 'random' acts of violence , less domestic violence ,eventually lower insurance rates ,'less' police will be required to fight the 'real crimes' of the crooked politicians/corporate CEO's ,resulting in lower taxes ,and health care costs and a definate higher standard of living.................to name a few. Perhaps through the 'freedom' to research the positive effects of 'all' the cannabinoids and amides in marijuana ,could even result in a cure for the common cold ! ! Well maybe not...............but who is to say without the 'freedom' to do long term 'in depth' research . just a pleasant thought................. it all 'could' happen
If it hasn't been done, it's already been done. If it cannot be done, it will be done. I heard about a coffeeshop like that from a guy who visited Vancouver. Heard of the Blunt Brothers' Coffeeshop? thats what he said it was called.