Watching the news last night about events in Kiev, I was amazed by the stat that there are over 1,000,000 Ukrainian Canadians. I knew that we have the biggest French city outside France, the biggest Icelandic community out of Iceland, pretty massive Italian and Haitian communities for not being Italy or Haiti as well as more Finns than anywhere outside of Finland - but a million Ukrainians! This means I have to get out more and we should expect to play a meaningful role in democratizing the place if the forces of good prevail.
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Comments
Robert - November 24, 2004 10:16 am
Always remember: Use your powers for good, not evil.
Alan - November 24, 2004 10:30 am
That is the green cape, not the purple one - right?
KevinG - November 24, 2004 11:46 am
Are you kidding, there is probably a 1,000,000 ______chuks in Edmonton alone :) I think the praries looked a lot like the Ukraine in the days of immigration.
Alan - November 24, 2004 11:51 am
I kid not but you can blame my eastern upbringing being a Maritimer living in Ontario. This is simply news to me and one not covered by either Saskatchewan Roughrider telecasts or <i>Corner Gas</i>.<p>Having worked in Poland, hoever, I am definitely pro-porogy, kapusta and pivo so I am pleased to know the extent of my inherent national slavicness.
Mike - November 24, 2004 11:54 am
I thought I had heard the largest Hungarian population outside of Hungary, but could be wrong.
What else are we the 'most' of?
How many Christmas Islanders live in Canada anyway?
Alan - November 24, 2004 12:29 pm
I just figured out who Robert is. Hello Robert! How is Nick Tahou's?
Huck - November 25, 2004 3:29 am
Gee, Alan, you have to come to Saskatoon or Edmonton a lot more. Speaking of which, if you're into perogies, you must make a trip to Saskatoon's wonderful FolkFest, held every August, and visit the Ukrainian pavilion. Unbelievable food, drink, music, and dancing. Fun times.
Alan - November 25, 2004 8:30 am
OK - now I feel dumb missing one million fun people. Don't get me wrong. I knew we had a large community. I just had no idea it was 1/30th of the country.
Nils Ling - November 25, 2004 8:42 am
Growing up in Winnipeg, I had no end of friends with names like Tokarchuk, Salateski, Saranchuk, Worobec ... I used to envy them because they'd get regular Christmas *and* Old Christmas off school.
And when it comes to perogies, you just can't beat Mama Naleway's in the "Peg ... started as an old Baba making perogies in her basement in her babuschka and now ships frozen perogies around the world ...
I know two Ukranian words (neither of which I can spell, other than phonetically): "yakshimiyish" ("Hello") and "dibozha" ("Cheers" or "Drink up, Shriner!")
Donna - November 25, 2004 11:15 pm
StatsCan says 15 per cent of Winnipeg's population (or 102,635 people) is of Ukrainian descent. I'm fairly certain that Winnipeg is Ukrainian-Canadian Central; the Ukrainian Canadian Congress is even based here (http://www.ucc.ca).
About 300 Ukrainian Winnipeggers held a demo at the Legislature last night. Our former health minister (now the energy minister), himself of Ukrainian descent, switched between Ukrainian and English as he addressed the crowd.
http://winnipeg.cbc.ca/regionalnews/caches/mb_ukrainian20041124.html
Dr_Funk - November 27, 2004 11:45 am
Your gaps in information are specifically east-coast, Alan. There is a surprisingly large community of Ukrainians in Ontario. There is a large Uniate church, and a Ukrainian monastery here in Ottawa. And I recall there being a Ukrainian Catholic church in my hometown, Sault Ste. Marie (my sister's wedding reception was in their basement hall: mmm, pierogies and cabbage rolls).
Alan - November 27, 2004 11:54 am
I admit all. I am without excuse. I need pierogies and borsch to redeem myself so will be attending at the Baltic Deli and ordering in Polish this afternoon.
Nils Ling - November 27, 2004 4:58 pm
My friend Jimmy Twocarsandatruck (Tokarchuk) used to have a back and forth with his Mom:
J: I feel sick.
M: Have some borscht.
J: Borsht won't help.
M: Won't hurt ...
... and it doesn't. Ever.
Gwynne Sykes - November 29, 2004 9:41 am
"The revolution televised" (John Laughland) The Guardian 27 Nov 2004 The western media's view of Ukraine's election is hopelessly biased. There was a time when the left was in favour of revolution, while the right stood unambiguously for the authority of the state. Not any more. This week both the anti-war Independent and the pro-war Telegraph excitedly announced a "revolution" in Ukraine. Across the pond, the rightwing Washington Times welcomed "the people versus the power". Wether it is Albania in 1997, Serbia in 2000, Georgia last November or Ukraine now, our media regularly peddle the same fairy tale about how youthful demonstrators manage to bring down an authoritarian regime, simply by attending a rock concert in a central square. Two million anti-war demonstrators can stream through the streets of London and be politically ignored, but a few tens of thousands in central Kiev are proclaimed to be "the people", while the Ukrainian police, courts and governmental institutions are discounted as
instruments of oppression. The western imagination is now so gripped by its own mythology of popular revolution that we have become dangerously tolerant of blatant double standards in media reporting. Enormous rallies have been held in Kiev in support of the prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, but they are not shown on our TV screens: if their existence is admitted, Yankuovich supporters are denigrated as having been "bussed in". The demonstrations in favour of Victor Yushcenko have laser lights, plasma screens, sophisticated sound systems, rock concerts, tents to camp in and huge quantities of orange clothing; yet we happily dupe ourselves that they are spontaneous.