31 Days in Canada

  In honour of CANADA DAY  I plan to post a daily image of Canada and a link to a random Canadian location we have visited.

Ottawa and Calgary

       Famous Five  - random post

Women in Aviation

Diana Carney

This Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada plaque can be found on the outside wall, near the northwestern corner of Hart House, off Tower Road on the University of Toronto grounds. Here's what it says:

Graham was instrumental in establishing physiotherapy in Canada. Trained in massage and remedial gymnastics, she rehabilitated soldiers wounded in the First World War and taught at the Military School of Orthopaedic Surgery and Physiotherapy, here at Hart House. In 1929, she helped create a diploma program at the University of Toronto. Her advocacy ensured that accredited physiotherapists served as officers in the military and at convalescent hospitals during the Second World War. The Enid Graham Memorial Lecture pays tribute to this founding member of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association.

Laura Secord

Lea Vivot

Historic Women

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

 

May 2025 - OTTAWA ON

Ottawa Famous Five

The "Women are Persons!" sculpture in Ottawa commemorates their successful 1929 "Persons Case," which ruled women were "persons" under the law and eligible for appointment to the Senate. The sculpture, created by Barbara Paterson, is located near the Senate of Canada Building on the Plaza Bridge.

The Famous Five were five Alberta women—Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, and Irene Parlby—who brought the "Persons Case" to legal challenge in Canada. They are famous for their successful fight to have women legally recognized as "persons" under the British North America Act, which opened the door for women to be appointed to the Senate and advanced gender equality in Canada.

There is also a Famous Five sculpture in Calgary Alberta.

Emily Murphy: A judge and activist who was the leader of the Famous Five. 

Henrietta Muir Edwards: A women's rights advocate who worked with the National Council of Women. 

Nellie McClung: A novelist, teacher, and suffragist who served in the Alberta Legislature. 

Louise McKinney: A social reformer and the first woman elected to the Alberta Legislature. 

Irene Parlby: A farmer's wife and the first female cabinet minister in Alberta. 

The Persons Case

In 1927, the five women asked the Supreme Court of Canada if women could be appointed to the Senate. 

The Supreme Court ruled that the word "person" in the British North America Act did not include women. 

Undeterred, the Famous Five appealed the decision to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, England, which was then Canada's highest court of appeal. 

On October 18, 1929, the Privy Council overturned the Supreme Court's ruling and declared that women were "persons" under the

Sculpture Saturday Plensa Recap

 We have found Plensa's work around the world.

Montreal QC Source
Des Moines IA Nomade
Toronto Canada Dreaming
Antibes French Riviera Nomade
Bordeaux France Sanna
Barcelona Spain Carmela
Chicago IL Crown Fountain
Calgary Canada Wonderland
Beverly Hills CA Endless

August/October 2025 Montreal QC

We saw Source twice in Montreal

April 2025 Des Moines IA

We found Nomade at the Pappajohn Sculpture Park!

November 2021 - Los Angeles CA

I found ANOTHER Plensa in our archives! 2017 Beverly Hills, Los Angeles CA!!

Endless by Jaume Plensa

September 2021 - Calgary AB

 I was cleaning out photos in my archives and was stunned to find that we had another Jaume Plensa sculpture from a 2013 trip to Calgary!!

This sculpture called Wonderland is at the base of Calgary's tallest tower, The Bow. The wire mesh piece stands 39 feet high and resembles a young girl's head. (It was actually inspired by a real girl in Spain.) Interestingly, the sculpture has two entrances so that visitors can walk inside of it. “My vision for Wonderland is to inspire everyone who experiences the sculpture: I believe the architecture of our bodies is the palace for our dreams,” said Plensa.

Monday Mural

 I'm linking up at Monday Mural 

March 2023 - Toronto ON

Painted by One Direction (?) September 2022 - Dundas Square

This wall has had other musical themed murals.

August 2022

May 2020

September 2019

10 YEARS OF MONDAY MURAL

I thought for fun, that I would reverse post my Monday Murals - July 2013 Calgary Alberta

Tuesday Treasures

Calgary Alberta

Among my many photos, these hidden gems of photos of sculptures we took in Calgary Alberta were never named until recently as I attempt to cull and order our photo files.

Famous Five - I've written about these women before.

I had "discovered" a Plensa in these folders in 2021. We have seen other Plensas around the world and we now have one in Toronto!

“TransitStory” by Jill Anholt is an art piece of 30 sculptures of people engineered and fabricated from steel and artfully painted. To show the different moments of arriving and departing from the public train system in Downtown Calgary (the center line is free within Downtown), the sculptures have been strategically installed along the Centre Street LRT transit platform of the Calgary CTrain.

Standing 8 feet tall and extending for 12 feet along the west side of the TransCanada Centre, the Weaving Fence and Horn sculpture is an iconic art installation.

Designed by renowned artist John McEwen, this unique structure served a dual purpose. The artistic intent of the sculpture was to call to mind the bighorn sheep – common to the nearby Rocky Mountains. The practical purpose of the finished structure, combined with a “weaving fence” element, serves to mitigate wind vortexes around the tall buildings in downtown Calgary.

The sculpture is comprised entirely of recycled steel that was generously donated by IPSCO and transported from their plant in Regina, Saskatchewan to a plant in Hamilton, Ontario for fabrication. At the time of construction it was the largest recycled art in the country.

There are quite a few pieces by McEwen in Toronto, click on his name in the labels/tags below this post if you are interested.

Sculpture "Sadko" - Romanian artist Sorel Etrog was apparently inspired by a dancer from the Ballet Sadko.

There are also works by Etrog in Toronto.

The Family of Man - Created for the British Pavilion at the Montreal Expo in 1967, the ten 6.5 meters tall aluminum figures by the Spanish artist Mario Armengol became a landmark in Downtown Calgary since they have been installed in 1968.

This deliberately rusting horse, built almost entirely from "found" metal, stands outside of a Calgary restaurant. The sculpture was created by artist Russell Zeid, whose works can be found in many museums and cultural buildings throughout Canada.

Family of Horses outside City Hall by Calgary-area artist Harry O'Hanlon.

Tuesday Treasures

 Perhaps this building, at 254 Locke Street South in Hamilton ON, was Duncan Garson’s shop back when soda fountains in drug stores were common.

Hamilton ON

The soda fountain was 'born' in the 1850’s, when people would seek fountain drinks from their local drugstore to cure physical ailments. At the time, many fountain drinks were concoctions or extracts of flavored, effervesced drugs.

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Car and Collectibles Museum Russell's New Mexico

Cocaine and caffeine were among such popular drugs found in pharmacy drinks—this combination was used for headache treatment. As patients began to suffer rebound headaches, they would return again and again for more drinks to treat their pain.

Mount Airy North Carolina

Patients enjoyed visiting the soda fountain to get some 'pep—at the time, it was widely believed that stimulants were safe and effective. Many pharmacists (called druggists at the time and chemists to this day in the UK) even made and marketed their own secret formulas.


Pharmacies also began to offer milkshakes (the original recipe was carbonated water, sweetened flavored milk, and a raw egg) and ice cream sodas (flavored soda water with a scoop of vanilla ice cream) at their fountains.

Frankenmuth Michigan

Selling cocaine-derived drinks was completely legal, as every drug was over the counter. However, in 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act became law under President Woodrow Wilson, and it banned the use of cocaine and opiates in OTC products.

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Roanoke Virginia

Almost every drugstore had a soda fountain by the early 1920’s. Due to prohibition, which began in 1919, bars were closing and people needed a place to socialize. At the time, ice cream parlors were usually standalone businesses and not part of a soda fountain.

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Mackinac Island Michigan

Pharmacist Jacob Baur started the Liquid Carbonic Company in 1888, where he manufactured carbon dioxide in tanks, and then the real soda fountain was born. His Liquid Carbonic soda fountains were manufactured and marketed in the early 1900’s.1 A potential soda jerk (one who serves and sells from a soda fountain) could purchase a Liquid Carbonic soda fountain, an operations and recipe manual, and enter the soda fountain business. The soda fountain was seen as a valuable and profitable business.
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Charlotte North Carolina

Pepsi was invented by pharmacist Caleb Bradham, at his own drugstore, Bradham’s, in New Bern, North Carolina, in 1893. At the time, the drink was coined 'Brad’s Drink,' and it was renamed as Pepsi in 1898.4 Bradham believed that the drink was not only refreshing but would aid in indigestion, or dysPEPSIa, hence the name Pepsi.

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New Bern North Carolina

That's me, taking a photo!

Preservative-free soda syrup, with flavorings extracted from natural fruits, such as Orange Crush and Cherry Smash, became common in the local drugstores. The soda jerk would add carbonated water and phosphate to the syrup to make a unique beverage. Syrup companies began to provide the pharmacist with free syrup dispensers in exchange for advertising.

Winnipeg Manitoba

Soon, soda dispensers came along, replacing syrup dispensers, and changed the market. Pharmacists no longer had to mix their own concoctions. Instead of having to mix syrup with carbonated water and phosphate, the soda dispenser mixed the syrup and carbonated water, eliminating any additional steps to prepare a fountain drink. Soon, companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi began making soda dispensers, which they supplied to the pharmacies free of charge. The pharmacist simply had to hold the glass and turn the handle to dispense a drink.

Calgary Alberta

Although this advancement freed up the pharmacist, the pharmacist also lost some uniqueness because the drinks became the same at every drugstore. According to the virtual Soderlund Drugstore and Pharmacy Museum, “As wonderful as these soda dispensers were, they hastened the demise of the soda fountain. They contributed to the homogenization of drugstores.”

Toronto ON - sadly now gone

A bonus for the soda companies: most people were already loyal to the brand from drinking these sodas at the pharmacy. Once the sodas were available in bottles, the brands were already recognizable and in demand.

Sydney Australia (click link to learn more)

Today, soda fountains are seen as old-fashioned yet charming, but are few and far between. Many customers enjoy the egg creams, soda floats, sundaes, and milkshakes that these soda fountains have to offer.

Click here to visit the Coca Cola Museum in Las Vegas

T for Tuesday

 T Stands For is hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard

Calgary Alberta

The Famous 5 are five women, truly pioneers, who in Alberta in the early part of the 20th century shaped the future of the lives of all Canadian women to come. Because of their efforts, on October 18, 1929, the Privy Council declared in the famous " Person's Case of 1929" that women were persons and thus eligible to hold any appointed or elected office.

At the time of their victory, the media dubbed the group the "Alberta Five." Over time, as the case took on a privileged position in Canadian women's history, the group became popularly known as the "Famous 5." They have come to represent an entire generation's political activism, including an earlier, nationwide campaign for women's suffrage.


Emily Murphy. Nellie McClung. Henrietta Muir Edwards. Louise McKinney. Irene Parlby. Five Alberta women drawn together by the tides of history and a shared idealism.

Each was a true leader in her own right: one a police magistrate, another a legal expert who founded the National Council for Women. Three served as Members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta — among the first female elected officials in the entire British Empire. And they did all this before they were even fully defined as persons under Canadian and British law.

Separately, these five women were champions of the rights and welfare of women and children. They worked hard and courageously in the face of the prejudices and resistance of the day. Together, they formed an unstoppable force that changed the world for women in Canada and in all Commonwealth countries.

The Famous Five have been commemorated with individual and group plaques in the foyer and antechamber of Canada's Senate and two identical sculptures by Canadian artist Barbara Paterson. One at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and the other at the Olympic Plaza in Calgary.

Yes, I'm wearing a cowboy hat, because it is the Calgary Stampede and everyone in town is wearing a hat.

WOMEN ARE PERSONS!