April 30, 2006 Archives

On a much lighter note, I've been slightly obsessed with the idea of having 1- the Canadiens advance and play the Senators in a Battle of the Outaouais River (or Battle of highway 417, named after the Ontarian portion of the automotive link between Mtl and Ott), and 2- that the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames simulataneously advance (and, if Colorado doesn't collapse after taking the lead 3-0 -now 3-1- in its series against Dallas) and play a Battle of Alberta in the conference semi-finals.

If a series between Montreal and a team nobody cares (the Hurricanes) draws so much emotion out in this city, I can't imagine what it would be against a team people actually cares for (and which has numerous fans in this city, and throughout the province - especially in the Outaouais, duh). It's the sort of alignment of planets that drives me nuts, you know.

Upon looking up the Battle of Alberta, I found a blog freshly created for the purpose (top Google hit, no less), to prove that this country is simply crack-pot for its national winter sport (what, we have a national summer sport?).

I also found, linked from that page, an NHL playoff odds calculation site, which, as of April 29th, hands Montreal the top probability of winning the cup of all the teams still alive. A whooping 15.7%! rofl!

So I went to the Montreal consultation for the head tax issue this afternoon, at the new Chinese community centre in Chinatown. The room was packed with victims of the Head Tax and Exclusion Act. The head tax was a tax imposed on every immigrant of Chinese origin starting in 1885, and until 1947. In the meanwhile, the Chinese Immigration Act was adopted by the House of Commons in 1923 to limit Chinese immigration to 50 per year (link). I've never heard of the head tax or exclusion act until the last federal election campaign, nor did my direct family on both sides been affected by it.

The consultation was hosted by Heritage Canada, and the minister herself, The Honourable Bev Oda was present. It was said that the venue held about 300 people, most of whom were elderly citizens of Chinese origin, and at most 20 people of my age or younger.