The Rideau Canal is not frozen yet. It will be a few weeks before we'll be able to glide down the Skateway. But the City of Ottawa has opened its rinks at City Hall and Lansdowne Park. The refrigerated coils keep the ice cold so we can get our first outdoor skating experience of the season. At night we come out to the Aberdeen Pavilion where, last January, we held our second annual Sir John A's Great Canadian Kilt Skate.
Read MoreEach year at around St. Andrew's Day (November 30), the Scottish hordes descend from the Hill (or up from the Valley) to occupy a grand house overlooking the Ottawa River. They eat the food, drink the whisky, and make their announcements, then roll up their sleeps, hike up their kilts and get ready to present several weeks of Scottish themed activities in the Nation's Capital.
Once again, His Excellency, Howard Drake, British High Commissioner, and Mrs. Gill Drake opened their home to those celebrating the patron saint of Scotland.
Read MoreBut the skating weather is definitely on its way. Over the next days, ice started to form on the Rideau Canal. The temperatures at night did more to help turn November's canal into January's skateway.
Read MoreThere's probably 6-8 weeks left before the Rideau Canal Skateway is open for the season, but before the snow flies and the water freezes, the preparations have begun. This week the Rideau Canal looks like this.
Read MoreAs Canada approaches the launch of its celebrations of 150 years as a nation, the Scottish community across the country is preparing to begin the party this winter with a kilt skate. As of the beginning of November, six cities have begun to organize their events. In the coming weeks, they may be joined by several more. The kilt skate is gaining momentum as a uniquely Canadian way to celebrate Scottish heritage.
Read MoreAfter the summer break, the Scottish Society of Ottawa met to plan events for the coming year. There's a lot on our plate, but this year the plans take into account that Canada will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2017. Time to pull out the stops and throw a party!
Read MoreHere it is: the last day of August and ice skating on the canal is far from anyone's mind. Here's the "skating court" outside the Aberdeen Pavilion. It's now a basketball court.
Read MoreWhat a weekend for the annual World Record Kilt Run in Perth Ontario. By early afternoon, the temperatures had climbed to over 30 degrees Celsius, but that didn't prevent some 4000 kilted runners from gathering on Gore Street in the Eastern Ontario town that boasts one of the best preserved historical main streets in the country.
Read More“Sir John A’s Great Canadian Kilt Skate has grown to become an annual tradition that is both uniquely Canadian and undeniably Scottish,” says Kevin MacLeod, Chair of the Scottish Society of Ottawa, which organizes the national event. “It highlights Canada’s nordicity in a way similar to the New Year’s Day polar bear dips in some communities.”
Read MoreMore than five million Canadians claim Scottish heritage. The mission of the Scottish Society of Ottawa is to promote awareness and appreciation of Scottish culture, and its contribution to the fabric of Canadian society and identity. We do this by engaging many Canadians of all backgrounds. The kilt skate is not just for people of Scottish descent. We want everyoneto join in, and we’re greatly inspired that Canadians of a wide range of ethnic backgrounds wear tartan in their scarves, shirts and hats. So we will encourage Canadians to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday by wearing Canada’s favourite colour – tartan!
Read MoreThe warm weather has put an end to the skating season on outdoor rinks, speed ovals and the Skateway, but this week all eyes are on the indoor ice at TD Place for the Tim Hortons Brier. For an explanation of the game, or to keep up with the latest results, check out Curling Canada's website.
Fourteen teams representing the clubs across Canada plus the winner of last year's brier (represented as "Team Canada") vie for the Canadian curling championship.
We may update the curling news in the coming days, but in the meantime, the Scottish Society of Ottawa is working on a letter it will send to potential kilt skate partners as we plan events for Canada's 150th birthday next year. We hope to make the 3rd Annual Sir John A's Great Canadian Kilt Skate the biggest and best ever.
At just 18 days, the 2016 was the shortest skating season on record. The entire length of the canal was open, it seems, for only a few days, including the last weekend during Winterlude. Still, it was a beautiful skate!
Read MoreSo far, the winter of 2015-16 brought a total of 25 skates -- not all of them on the Skateway, of course. Every year there's time put aside for a father-son skate around Family Day, and we managed to go out on a day when the NCC was clearing the snow from the 53 cm. that hit us the day before. It made for an interesting skate!
Read MoreYesterday morning, the snow began falling before people woke up to go to work. It continued falling all day. Falling and falling. It was never falling so thick to impair visibility. Just a steady and constant snowfall. And by evening, we had 50 cms -- that's over a foot and a half of snow in one day.
Read MoreThe winter gods have a sense of humour. Last week, the temperatures were so warm, the Rideau Canal Skateway was covered with meltwater and had to be closed. This weekend, it opens once more, but the thermometer drops to minus-29 and, with the wind chill, minus-40.
Read MoreJust in time for the last weekend of Winterlude, the Rideau Canal Skateway has reopened. A blast of Arctic air has brought winter back to the city, and the cold has been intense enough that the National Capital Commission has now opened the entire 7.8 kilometers of the skateway.
Read MoreA week of unseasonably warm weather has kept the Rideau Canal Skateway closed, refocusing last weekend's Winterlude activities on the off-ice areas such as the Cartier Park snow slides, the Confederation Park ice sculptures, and the snow sculptures at Lansdowne Park. But good news: the cold weather is back! The canal is open again! And just in time for upcoming final weekend of Winterlude.
Read MoreThe warm weather has pretty well wiped out the Rideau Canal Skateway for this second weekend of Winterlude. But when you're attracting hundreds of thousands of people to Ottawa from across Canada and around the world, the show must go on! And fortunately there's lots of options.
Read MoreBernardo was determined that “foreign experience” would include the cold embrace of the Canadian winter. And his dream came true in a way he never expected.
Read MoreWhat was Saskatoon's secret? The weather helped. Last year, the temperature as around minus-30, but that didn't stop Sandy Campbell from playing the bagpipes while he skated the first Sir John A skate in 2015.
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across canada, communities host kilt skates to celebrate scotland’s contribution to our multicultural fabric.
