New Brunswick in a nutshell

Hi all,
it turns out, there's another province in Canada. I have travelled to this strange land, interacted with the natives, tried their cuisine and enjoyed some of their local carbonated spirits. A such here are my thoughts on the great province of New Brunswick, and despite their sarcasm, I did have a great time and will definitely be coming back.

New Brunswick is kind of the like the third tenor.. Domingo, Pavaratti and that other guy. It's the province when you know there is one more but it's name escapes you. Unfortunately, this reputation (or lack thereof) is undeserved. The province is beautiful (when you can see it through the fog), there is great wildlife (though most of it is currently lying in a ditch along highway 15), the food is good (if you like fiddleheads and lobster), and the people are nice (if they aren't a particular snobby waiter in a particular restaurant that shall remain nameless but needs to learn that yes sometimes women do travel alone, no its not because we are single lesbians who can't get a date, and no we don't mind being seen in public by ourselves!!)

I also have to take a moment to talk about the Acadians. It turns out they don't all play the accordion, eat bannock bread and dance to fiddle music day in and day out (I was really hoping they would break into song the way they did in my Canadian history movies in grade school). Acadians love being Acadian, you name the object, it has been painted the colours of their flag. Bumper stickers, pins, flags, sailboats, there are million symbols people will put out to let people know they are Acadian. I also have to note, that although my French isn't great, I have noticed Acadians love adverbs, adjectives and modifiers. I suppose that is why the French spoken here is so gosh darned fast, so they can fit in all those extra words.

I have to also conclude that New Brunswickers do a lot of drugs. Spending many hours in the car I am now very familiar with NB radio and not one, not two but THREE times, heard a radio DJ follow Celine Dion with psychedelic rock (Led Zepplin, Rush etc.) I can only blame the appeal of this mixture on the excessive use of recreational pharmaceuticals. I suspect BC might give this province a run for their money, we will withhold judgment here just yet

Finally, I have been asked to present an award to the Province of New Brunswick. On behalf of tourists everywhere I am honoured to give the province of New Brunswick the "Most useless free maps" award. New Brunswick could not be here tonight to accept but they wanted to thank the city of Saint John for coming up with the idea of saving paper by only putting 1/3 of the city on a map. NB also wants everyone to know that they couldn't have won without Moncton's pioneering use of the .025 font size (and their brilliant idea to use the same small font in the blown up picture of the downtown, wider roads, same font). As well, NB wanted a special mention given to Caraquet for it's "No-map" map and the slogan "It's only really one road anyway" (it isn't). Finally, NB could not have won this award without the assistance of the Road sign association of New Brunswick. They have finally managed to label almost half of the roads in New Brunswick, some roads even with three different names. This years initiative "Put signs where people can see them" was not the success they hoped for, but there is always next year.