1 Catching up with Bonhomme Carnaval

How old are you? I don’t see a single wrinkle.

Stop, you’re embarrassing me! I’ll be 51 this year. My “plastic surgeons” have made me a bit taller (seven feet) and rounder than I was when I first got started.

Some people can’t believe you can still do those high leg lifts. When’s the exercise video coming out?

I’ll have you know that in some aqua-fitness courses, they have the students do a leg raise that’s dubbed the Bonhomme. Naturally, I’m flattered. As far as the video goes, I’ll leave that to the experts.

How do you spend your summers?

I have a secret hideaway, a bit farther north, where I go to escape the heat and get ready for the next carnival. And I travel a lot. I am an ambassador, after all.

The 51st Carnaval de Québec takes place in Quebec City from January 28 to February 13, 2005. www.carnaval.qc.ca

2 Cuppa Love

Maybe it’s the long, wet winters, the salty sea air or their Acadian and British roots, but Maritimers like their tea. In fact, they love it. The East Coast has Canada’s highest number of tea drinkers per capita. But they’re not sipping Salada. No, when they want a cuppa, they reach for New Brunswick’s King Cole tea, a full-bodied blend steeped in the G.E. Barbour company’s 90-year-old history. This is one secret that won’t stay in the bag for long.

3 Ice Is Nice

February 1983. Three a.m. Minus 30°C. My father stands outside, half-asleep, flooding the yard with a half-frozen garden hose. His mission? To produce the next number 99. Some things never change. Across the country, parents execute plans for the perfect backyard rink – all so they can watch their kids make Gretzky moves and Patrick Roy saves. For some, home ice now includes a few luxuries: full-size boards, halogen floodlights, even Zambonis. But that should come as no surprise. Canadians always give 110 percent.

4 This Blows

In the winter of 1927, a strange-looking new machine rumbled through the streets of Montreal, clearing the snow with wild abandon: the Sicard Snow Remover Snowblower. Part truck, part farm thresher, the contraption was an instant hit. But the path to fame wasn’t all clear for the inventor, Arthur Sicard. When his first prototypes failed, he was mocked and told to give up. (Luckily, he blew his critics off.) By the time Sicard died in 1946, his snow blowers were making inroads across North America – and making winter just a little more bearable.

5 Hats Off

Tuque sure sounds French, and it is, sort of. A type of hat first worn by freed Roman slaves was adopted by French Revolutionaries and eventually by Quebec’s habitants. They get credit for bringing tuque (not to be confused with toque, which historically describes a woman’s velvet cap or a chef’s hat) into our lexicon and our closets. From gracing the heads of freedom fighters to warming José Théodore’s bean at the outdoor 2003 Heritage Classic, the tuque’s history weaves a noble lineage – pom-pom or not.

ADD YOUR COMMENTS > letters@enroutemag.net