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Things to Do in Canada 215

St. Patrick's Day

March 12, 2025

Good morning!

Did you know? St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated in Canada since 1824 (before Canada was even a country), when Irish soldiers organized festivities in Montreal. Today, celebrations include parades, music, Irish food, and beer.

Speaking of St. Patrick’s Day, it’s coming up on Monday the 17th! For those interested in celebrating, there are several events taking place, especially in Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, and Vancouver. If you can make it to Montreal, they are celebrating the 200th parade! Woohoo!

On a side note, our poll last week about visiting Calgary got a pretty overwhelming response with most people saying they’d likely come, especially if it included Banff. We’re not sure how to organize this yet, but we are now thinking about it!

Poll of the Week

Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

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The Montréal St. Patrick’s Day Parade is the longest-running of its kind in Canada, uninterrupted from 1824 until 2019 when it was forced to cancel during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The parade was actually cancelled once before, in 1918, for various reasons some ascribed to controversies over WWI conscription, but Montrealers defied the city’s orders and paraded nonetheless.

This year, it celebrates its 200th anniversary!

Montréal’s St. Patrick’s Day parade turns 200: 10 fun facts

No matter the weather, Montréal brings in the spring with the biggest parade of the year, a hugely celebrated gathering of the greater Montréal clan (you don’t have to be Irish to love a good party). This year, as always, all Montrealers and visitors alike will be honorarily Irish for a day, so prepare to get out your green for the 200th edition of the Montréal St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

www.mtl.org/en/experience/fun-facts-st-patrick-day-montreal

Montreal isn’t the only city celebrating the Irish though. While there are local events taking place all over the country, some of the bigger events include:

In addition, for a taste of Ireland within Canada’s border, head to the most Irish place in the world outside of Ireland:

The ULTIMATE Guide to the Best Things To Do in Newfoundland

Newfoundland is one of our favourite destinations in Canada. From mesmerizing landscapes and outdoor attractions to incredible food, hospitality, and music, this is your guide to Canada’s slice of Ireland.

www.mustdocanada.com/things-to-do-in-newfoundland

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In March 2000, using nationalism as a platform, the iconic “I Am Canadian” commercial aired with a man named Joe: an average Canadian, standing in a movie theatre, with a cinema screen behind him showing different images relating to Canadian culture.

This commercial became one of the most famous in Canadian history. Now, that same Joe is back again.

Beaver Bites

It really is a shame that Tim Horton’s isn’t Canadian anymore. For those that didn’t know, it’s been Brazilian for quite a few years. Now with the surge in Canadian pride, they’re at least trying to be less American. The company is currently trying to switch from its U.S. suppliers to Canadian ones. Are they really doing it because of the trend or because it’s now cheaper to produce things here? You be the judge.
Speaking of Tim’s, this expert supposedly has a secret to winning Tim Hortons’s Roll Up The Rim. Mmm hmm.
Just like WestJet, Air Canada might reduce flights to some U.S. destinations as well, thanks to waning demand from Canadians.
It’s been almost 140 years since the last spike was hammered into the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was the largest infrastructure project in Canadian history. Now it’s time to finally enter the future. Canada has announced its first high-speed rail network, with electric passenger trains travelling between Toronto and Québec City at speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour, stopping along the way in Peterborough, Ottawa, Trois-Rivières, Laval, and Montréal. A train voyage from Toronto to Montréal on the track will take only three hours.
Use Aeroplan? They just made some changes to the Fare Chart for certain airline partners.
Do you enjoy watching people get yelled at on Kitchen? Well, Gordon Ramsay just opened a new restaurant in Vancouver.
We love Jasper, Alberta and the BBC is correct when it says that it’s one of the best places in the world to see the Dark Sky.
Kevin Kelly is often referred to as one of the most interesting men on the planet. This is his top travel tips after globe-trotting for five decades. Having read through them, we agree.

Just for Fun

As we know, not all Americans are bad. Many of them love Canada, like this couple that ended up paying everyone’s breakfast at a Windsor restaurant as an apology for their president’s behaviour.
For Canadians that love to swim, it was only a matter of time before they started playing the sport underwater.
Move over Amazon. Temu is opening up to Canadian businesses. For the first time, Canadians will be able to list and sell items to Canadians via Temu thanks to a local fulfillment centre. We can’t say much about Temu yet but anything that erodes Jeff Bezos’ power is good with us.
It looks like these tariffs will hit Calgary, Alberta and Saint John, New Brunswick the hardest. What do they have in common? Oil & Gas. Check out this list of the most vulnerable Canadian cities.

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