If it could remotely be called Canadian, it was shown off in tonight’s opening festivities. Right down to the problematic hydraulic system, which I sort of halfway joked about having been designed by Toyota. They got all manner of historical on us, hitting on not only Canada’s aboriginal history but our apparent fondness for fiddle music. I’ll admit, I have an occasional interest in that particular genre. Rarely, and usually around the same time of year, also usually while sitting around drinking beer and enjoying Pembroke’s labour day fiddle fest. Naturally, the city of Pembroke website doesn’t actually have anything really link-worthy to explain just how far back that goes, but it goes back far enough and is popular enough that Riverside Park is pretty much jammed full for a week solid. And when they’re not competing–yes, they actually have a contest in among all this, there’s music and dancing and shananigans of all kinds. And, because I have no idea how else to describe it other than a shit ton of people crammed into a can of awesomeness, I won’t bother to describe it in any other way. Instead, have a video. This does a better job of it than I can. Sorry for any issues with being able to actually see it–it seems to have been recorded on someone’s personal video camera. But, it was the best and most involved video I could find. Blame Youtube and Google. I do.