Canada Day was usually just another work day on the farm when I was growing up.
Not like today, when it’s a holiday with community parades and fireworks in Cambridge, Kitchener, or Waterloo. Or a backyard family barbecue might be more appealing.
Now that I’m a business communications professor at Conestoga College, I encourage the international students I teach to enjoy the break from classes, join in community events and learn more about Canada.
Canada Day events Waterloo Region
For my students at the Doon or Downtown Kitchener campuses, there are Canada Day festivities in Waterloo Region. The Canada Day parade down King Street in Cambridge ends at Riverside Park, where fireworks light up the skies.
July 1 now is so different than when I was growing up on a farm just south of Hamilton, Ontario.
Late June and early July was in prime time for cutting and bailing hay, before putting it in the barns to feed cattle over the winter. The weather was usually stinking hot and humid. And it felt even hotter when working the upstairs mow of the barn, under a sheet metal roof with minimal air circulation and clover dust burning my eyes.
Days that felt like 35 C outside felt more like 45C or 50C up in the mow. I remember sweat stinging my eyes and running down my back as I worked beside my dad and brother with hooks to drag, lift and stack 30 kg bales of cut and bundled grasses.
It looked like what was happening in this video, except we would always be wearing gloves. The video below shows how I remember the bales of hay carried up into the barn for stacking.
Didn’t care about Canada Day
Almost five decades ago, I didn’t care that most stores were closed on July 1. If was sunny and hot, we were putting bales up and in the hayloft, not shopping.
Now, I tell my international students that since July 1 is a national holiday, most stores and businesses will be closed across Canada.
It wasn’t until I turned 16, and started working part-time in a camera store in shopping centre off the farm, that I started paying attention to the Canada Day Holiday. Especially when it fell on a Saturday, like in 2023, when my holiday day might end up on Friday, or a Monday. I learned to like working on July 1, because I was paid a premium rate.
And later, when a newspaper reporter and assigned to work on holidays, the employee union contract guaranteed I receive double-time pay.
She came to town and fell in love with the architecture in Cambridge, Ontario – especially on the west side of the Grand River. She’s now a private chef creating and serving gourmet meals in homes across West Galt. Photographer Stan Switalski provided the cover and inside images to accompany the story.
The monthly magazine is published by Best Version Media and delivered by Canada Post to mailboxes in my neighbourhood.
For 17 years, I worked as a journalist, photographer, and editor at the former Cambridge Reporter newspaper. Now, 20 years since it closed, I continue to put my local news and writing skills to work as a content coordinator for Neighbours of West Galt. It’s an analog anomaly in the 21st century: a print-only, local magazine.
I’m always looking for news, event, and photo submissions about West Galt, at this email.
Stories and photos submitted to the magazine in the January edition included:
Another book published: Tara Mondou released another of her fiction novels, entitled Tara’s story.
GaltRailway history: Local historian Trevor Parkins-Scibarras shared one of his Transit Time Warp photo comparisons. It shows a train crossing the Grand River in 1900 and again in the same spot in 2022, using the landmark Canadian Pacific Railway bridge over the Grand River.
Pet of the Month: Bubbles, a Labradoodle dog who greets customers entering Molloy’s Soap at 7 Grand Avenue South.
The Christmas light display is about to start in the 2020 show at the Old Post Office IdeaExchange Digital Library in Downtown Cambridge, Ontario. Photo by Kevin Swayze
Throughout the year, animated light shows are projected on the historic Old Post Office IdeaExchange in Downtown Cambridge. Christmas-themed shows continue on the half hour between 8-10 p.m. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sundays until Jan. 5, 2023.
You can drive and park in the parking lot across the street and watch the show from the warmth of your car. Tune your car radio to FM 92.5 to listen to music choreographed with the show.
Taking the bus from Kitchener, use the Route 57, Route 206 or Route 302 (with onboard Wi-Fi) directly to Ainslie Street terminal. The Old Post Office library is one block west, at 12 Water St. S. Look for the clock tower.
If you’re taking the bus or planning to watch the light show on foot, I suggest dressing warmly and bring along hot drinks.
Every semester I teach at Conestoga College, I use food to get the attention of my business communication students. There are always foodies in my classes of international students.
The Cambridge Farmer’s Market is one of the oldest in Canada. Photo by Kevin Swayze
That means I’m always planning how to share recipes, restaurant recommendations and places to visit and experience food in the Waterloo Region area. In each class, I create an online discussion forum in the eConestoga online learning platform, provided by D2L.
I think of it as an applied business communication exercise. The students are my customers for the information and local expertise I share. I see plenty of evidence about how food builds trust with students facing a new culture, climate, and educational environment.
At the start of a class in January 2020 – before my teaching moved online – I ordered in an urn of coffee to share with my students before we started talking about communication theory.
I’m now teaching students living in Brantford, along with Kitchener, Cambridge, and Waterloo. Brantford is the latest addition to by geographic teaching roster. Now I’m learning what food information I can share in that city, too
I always start by sharing videos about the local farmer’s market.
The St. Jacob’s Farmer’s Market, on the northwest edge of the City of Waterloo, also gets students’ attention. It’s Canada’s largest farmer’s market and a busy place with lots of local fresh farm food and prepared food on open days. There are also lots of vendors with a range of clothing and household goods.
Here’s info about the smaller Cambridge Farmer’s Market, which runs every Saturday morning near my home. It’s the closest farmer’s market to the Doon and Cambridge campuses.
And the downtown Kitchener Market. That’s just around the corner from the new Downtown Kitchener campus of Conestoga.
What other food information do you suggest I share with the students new to the Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and Brantford areas?
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