This is the tale of two very different prairie families whose legacies warmed the future of a bitterly cold place. These families lived in my hometown of Edmonton, but landed there from far off: Lebanon and England.
In the late 1800s, my grandfather’s family emigrated from England. By 1906, Walter Ramsay had been a schoolteacher and principal for 13 years. A year later, he’d quit to open up the first greenhouses in Western Canada, in a place where the ground froze in October.
Flash forward to the 1920s when Dany Assaf’s great-grandfather immigrated to Alberta from Lebanon. He made his living with a general store in Edmonton and his son worked in the northern fur trade. In the depths of the Depression, he was part of 20 Lebanese families who decided to build a little mosque on the prairie.
It was the first mosque in Canada. In fact, this was a women-led initiative, a phrase that didn’t exist back then, of course. The President of the Muslim Ladies Association, Hilwie Hamdon, and her friends, approached the Mayor, John Fry, who gave them a plot of land. Construction stalled for lack of funds, so the 20 families went back out and collected $5,000 door-to-door from Muslims, Christians and Jews. The contractor was a Ukrainian-Canadian named Mike Drewoth, which is why Canada’s first mosque looks like a prairie church.
Meanwhile, Walter Ramsay had put up nine greenhouses, and grew roses, carnations and chrysanthemums. By 1909, he was the first president of the Edmonton Horticultural Society. By 1912, he chaired the school board. In 1971 the city named a neighbourhood after him: Ramsay Heights.
When I was five, my father, Donald Ramsay, who inherited Walter Ramsay Florist from his dad, took my mom and me in our 1956 Chevy station wagon to Calgary and Banff. These were wild and exotic places, because the wagon’s real job was delivering flowers in Edmonton. And back then, cold was Cold. If the men offloading huge boxes of flowers shipped in from the U.S. to Edmonton delayed by even a minute or two, the entire shipment would freeze and be worthless.
These two stories of immigrant families came improbably together in 2013 when I stumbled across a Globe and Mail article about being an Albertan Muslim, by Dany Assaf. He was by then a partner at Tory’s LLP and I was a writer living full-time in Toronto. Dany’s article noted in passing that the first mosque “relocated to Fort Edmonton Park as a testament to its historical significance.”
I could barely believe what I was reading, because so was the original Walter Ramsay Florist; they’re both part of a larger street made up of notable early places in Edmonton. Of course I immediately contacted Dany Assaf whom I didn’t know, and we marvelled over lunch at how small Canada really is.
Dany wrote a book about Canada called “Say Please and Thank You and Stand in Line.”
My grandfather would have liked the title. He spent his life selling flowers to people who stood in line at weddings and at gravesides. Now his greenhouses stand a short walk from a mosque his customers’ neighbours built.
My grandfather’s greenhouses are long gone from 100th avenue, and Dany’s family worships at a much bigger mosque. But both our families undertook acts of faith against the age they lived in, against the odds and certainly against the climate.
They were tougher than all of us and, in many ways, kinder as well.
We can learn from them.
Meanwhile…
1. Pants on Fire. If only bluster like this could win wars. And fend off laughing at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Plus a different view on why the midterms went Blue. And a clever take on why Britain isn’t working; and one American’s reaction to Republicans who suddenly want healing. And speaking of fake, a fake news expert claims a fake doctorate.
2. Sex comes calling. Certainly on Nvidia. And sexism lands on Julia Gillard. And on men who start hiring women once they have a daughter, and on patients who have a female doctor.
3. The cavalry is coming. This week the Carney government announced a $5 billion whump of new funding for the arts and artists in Canada. Among the programs is a new Canada Creative Credit where artists can be exempt from income tax on up to $45,000 on their net annual business income from original and creative works.
This turned my head to a Canadian artist who has transformed his childhood into a creative work that’s toured the world: Quebec’s Robert Lepage, the legendary director, designer, writer and actor whose 887 comes to Toronto Dec. 10-13 at the Elgin Wintergarden. Details and tickets here. Get a 10% discount with Unlock Code RAMSAY10 for tickets $98 and up, valid through Nov. 30.
4. AI makes a chair. What if AI was used to make something actually useful? And fear not, big tech already knows everything about us. Everything. And Canada learns that strength in diversity really means something. And finally, Salon, the first web magazine to publish serious journalism online since 1995, folds after 31 years.
5. A burst of action on the worst of Alzheimer’s? Let’s hope it happens.
6. How to use a diacope. The explainer explains. Plus, Nick Cave reads The Wildest Bet is the Winning Bet. And when does curiosity kill the cat?
And here are the world’s longest place names: Canada’s Lake Pekwachnamaykoskwaskwaypinwanik made the list. Finally, PEN Canada turns 100 on November 25th, with Louise Penny in tow. Tickets here.
7. What are you doing on Nov. 23? Jean and I are hosting our third information session for the trip to the top of the world in August 2028. It’s 20 days, on one expedition ship, with two helicopters.
We’d wanted to recruit 40 friends, and so far 57 have already signed on. We’ll also hear from one of our expert onboard speakers. John Geiger, the noted author, shipwreck hunter, and CEO of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, who will tell us about Shackleton’s unfulfilled desire to explore the Arctic. Details here, and please join us to learn more.
8. …look a lot like Christmas. Those sappy British TV adverts landed this week, with a topless James Norton for Marks & Spencer, and Kristin Scott Thomas fighting intergenerational rejection for John Lewis. Plus photo award shows: for Best Birds and Wildlife and even for Comedy Wildlife. And the latest from the infinitely tiny zeptoverse. And a bold new medical Trojan Horse created in Toronto.
9. Wine&Song&Dance. The story of Liza with a Z. Plus Noel Coward’s Great Hits (dated but still sharp). Plus Holland’s CDK Dance Company performs “Somebody that I used to know.” And finally, the David Blackwood Pinot Noir from renowned Canadian vintner, Closson Chase, released to coincide with what would have been David’s 85th birthday.
10. Sunny&Snowy. The Sunshine Atlas ranks places around the world by how warm, dry and sunny they are. And, at the other end of the thermometer is OpenSnow, the best snow-forecasting app for skiers, snowshoers and disoriented glacier walkers.
Plus the hotel with the terrifying check-in, and the pianist who fell from the cruise ship, and the English country house on the 84th floor.
11. What I’m remembering. A deeply memorable Remembrance Day, especially with stories like these.
Guaranteed 100% written by Bob Ramsay, human.