Robbie Burns Bash Looms!

Thanks to How the Scots Invented Canada, we had a pretty good run, Sheena Fraser McGoogan and I, with bagpipers piping us into one event or another. Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal . . . who knew the Scots were so keen to party? They’re at it again, and us along with them, on Jan. 23,…

Read More

High Commissioner hails How the Scots Invented Canada

Scotland’s gifts to Canada January 25, 2012 Robbie Burns statue, Victoria Park in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. The statue was erected by the North British Society of Halifax in 1919. Sculpture by G.A. Lawson. By Andrew Pocock January the 25th is Burns Night, an anniversary globally celebrated. It’s right and proper, therefore, to reflect for…

Read More

Robbie Burns returns to New Brunswick

Great news out of New Brunswick. The Scots in those parts are set to unveil a gloriously refurbished Robbie Burns Statue on September 10. Guests will include J.K. and Jean Irving and the lieutenant-governor of the province. There will be a reception and a dinner. There will be singing and sundry pipe bands. Would you…

Read More

Robbie Burns inspires righteous double-whammy

The Fredericton Daily Gleaner is all over this story. . . and quite rightly. City making ‘grievous mistake’ with statue Daily Gleaner Ken McGoogan of Toronto said he’s shocked the city is refusing to fund the restoration of the statue’s base along the banks of the St. John River near the … Funding refusal is…

Read More

Robbie Burns mistreated in Fredericton

Open Letter from Ken McGoogan, author of How the Scots Invented Canada I was shocked to learn that the City of Fredericton is refusing to fund the restoration of its statue of Robbie Burns. I vividly remember that memorial from my sojourn in that city as writer-in-residence at the University of New Brunswick. I can’t…

Read More