All the Comforts of Home

This page and Walnut Boat had an anniversary-and-merlot fuelled outing in Victoria last weekend. Anytime one can dance to an African band in front of a Canadian government building next to an Irish pub with a crowd of Korean exchange students, one would think that this city goes out of its way to welcome the world. The hospitality industry in Victoria may think they have an international focus, but there's only one country whose travellers make them go out of the way to roll out the red, white and blue carpet. Our American neighbours stepped off the cruise ships, the Clipper and the Coho, strolled down to the Inner Harbour, and found themselves in a scene which one could only describe as the world's prettiest Wal-Mart.

Local merchants are still more than happy to accept U.S. currency at grovelling exchange rates, even though the Loonie has been working out lately. Security guards at the Bay Centre assured us that the lockers that used to be in their shopping centre were taken out because of 9-11*. Thanks, but one, we actually wanted a locker, and two, wearing a Seattle Mariners cap does not make me Captain America. For that role, I nominate the "singer" by the Empress Hotel who was performing Toby Keith covers, drowning out other buskers and snidely dismissing people who don't support "our" troops.

This page can certainly see the appeal of Victoria for many Americans: what better way to escape from the decline of the Bush Empire by sampling the maple sugar-coated leftovers of the British Empire?

*When I'm not wearing the Seattle Mariners cap, it turns out the lockers were taken out of the Bay Centre because it was a popular drop off for drug dealers.