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		Canadian Love ©1985 Marie-Lynn Hammond Sound Clip
A humorous look at love in a cold climate, written for a folk festival years ago. In those days, guys always seemed to get the sexy workshops like “Rebel Songs That Changed the World” and “Really Fast Train Songs with Lots of Instrumental Breaks So the Guys Can All Try to Out-Solo One Another,” while the gals got stuck with “Lugubrious Lullabies” or “Interminable Ballads about Masochistic Women Who Die on the Scottish Moors of Broken Hearts.” When the artistic director asked me what workshops I’d like to be in, I said, “Anything but ‘Love Songs.’” On arriving at the festival, I found I was to host a workshop called “Canadian Love.“ In mock revenge I dashed off this ditty. The first two lines of the chorus actually made it into John Robert Columbo's The Dictionary of Canadian Quotations, so, God help me, this may be the only thing that I’m remembered for.		Oh I met him at an ice rink in Flin Flon ’twas a mild night, just 20 below as we skated in circles he reached for my hand but what it felt like i’m not sure I know for I had on two pairs of mittens and he wore a thick sheepskin glove but if the trembling I felt wasn’t due to the cold then maybe perhaps it was love Oh Canadian love, Canadian love it’s either 40 below or it’s 90 above and though it’s hard to be yearning when you’re freezing or burning like the dollar we keep falling - in Canadian love So we ended up going to his place where I peeled off my mits at the door (both pairs) and after 10 minutes of struggle my boots and my socks lay in a pool on the floor then he tenderly took my wool tuque off and he rolled down my leg warmers too by now it was 10 to 11 and we still had a lot left to do Oh Canadian love, Canadian love it’s either 40 below or it’s 90 above and though it’s hard to be yearning when you’re freezing or burning like the dollar we keep falling - in Canadian love with a sigh he unknotted my muffler then he stopped for a much needed rest I could tell he was getting discouraged - with reason! For he was still fully dressed but when he finally unzippered my parka I caught sight of the clock and cried "Oh! It’s quarter to 12 and I promised my mother I’d be home an hour ago!" Well, he looked like a man who’d been broken but it wasn’t emotional pain it was just that he couldn’t stand having to watch me put all that stuff back on again Oh Canadian love, Canadian love it’s either 40 below or it’s 90 above and though it’s hard to be yearning when you’re freezing or burning like the dollar we keep falling - in Canadian love Well, we met the next summer in Wawa— An only slightly more hospitable clime— and if it hadn’t been for the black flies and the heat wave we might just have made it that time Oh Canadian love, Canadian love it’s either 40 below or it’s 90 above and though it’s hard to be yearning when you’re freezing or burning like the dollar we keep falling - in Canadian love

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