A happy drum corps Canada Day 2026!

Happy Canada Day! I'm shuffling my regular order of presentation of Canada's drum corps by beginning with Drumcore's Drum Corps Percussion: Top 12 Canadian Drumlines (“TICK” System) to represent the first decade of the DCI era.

This video chronicles the Top 12-scoring percussion sections of junior drum & bugle corps hailing from CANADA under the “tick” system (1983 and prior).

Ranking is by average score of DCI Finals Week, in order to take into account all end-of-season performances.

The scope of this video covers only DCI competition, as access to Canadian contest recaps is limited.

I thanked the uploader.

Good work, Tumour! I'm planning on featuring this video for my Canada Day post next week, so thanks for putting it together. Are you going to make a top 12 Canadian corps under the build up system after you finish the top 12 most legendary drumlines series? If so, I'll feature in next year's Canada Day post!

He answered he would, so I expect to feature his second video about Canadian drumlines next year.

Follow over the jump for corps representing the pre-DCI era, and the decades from the 1980s to today.

A happy drum corps Canada Day 2025!

Happy Canada Day! Following my regular order of presentation of Canada's drum corps, I begin with a pre-DCI performance preserved in Echoe's [sic] of the Past Side 1 1971 @ C8 Preston Scout House Wooden Soldiers & Waltzing Matilda by TJ.

While I featured the alumni corps on Canada Day 2022, I haven't embedded a video of Scout House from their competitive era since A happy drum corps Canada Day 2018 on the second Souther. It was time to do so again.

Follow over the jump for Canadian drum corps (or at least units competing in DCI) from the DCI era by decade from the 1970s to today.

A happy drum corps Canada Day 2024!

Happy Canada Day! I resume my regular order of presentation of Canada's drum corps with a pre-DCI performance, Guelph Royalaires (Live at Waterloo, Ontario, 9/8/1962) by Fleetwood Sounds, making this an official upload.

Guelph Royalaires (Live at Waterloo, Ontario, 9/8/1962) · Fleetwood Sounds
The 1962 Canadian Championships, Vol. 1 (Live at Waterloo, Ontario, 9/8/1962)

I've never embedded the Guelph Royalaires before, so they break ground as this year's all-age corps representative.

Next, a corps I've featured in the very first Canadian drum corps for Canada Day, 1976 Oakland Crusaders | Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake to represent the first decade of the DCI era.

Toronto's Oakland Crusaders perform selections from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake during the 1976 DCI World Championship in [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.]

I couldn't resist an official upload from the beginning of the show to serve as a bookend to the unofficial upload of the end of the show I used eight years ago.

Follow over the jump for Canadian corps from the 1980s to the current decade.

'Great DCI Moments from CANADIAN Corps' for a drum corps Canada Day 2023

Happy Canada Day! I'm switching up the usual chronological order of Canadian drum corps to embed Great DCI Moments from CANADIAN Corps, which Mekel Rogers uploaded on October 19, 2022.

The best of DCI's Canadian corps. Shows range from 1988-1991.

In order, the corps M. Rogers included were 1988 Dutch Boy, 1989 Ventures, 1989 Dutch Boy, 1990 Academie Musicale, 1990 L'Insolite, 1990 Ventures, 1990 Dutch Boy, and 1991 Dutch Boy. 1990 was certainly a great year for Canadian drum corps!

Having taken care of both the 1980s and 1990s and Ontario and Quebec, it's time to move on to the rest of the past 60 years of Canadian drum corps. Follow over the jump!

A happy drum corps Canada Day 2022!

Happy Canada Day! To celebrate the first of three patriotic holidays in July I observe on this blog, I am continuing a tradition I began six years ago with Canadian drum corps for Canada Day, showcasing units from the 1970s to the 2000s. I begin this celebration of Canadian drum corps with this year's pre-DCI corps, 1971 De La Salle Oaklands.


Nationals video, US Open audio
Now for this year's featured drum corps, 1978 Offensive Lions - Canadian Nationals.


I'm recycling my comment to the video at YouTube for my reaction.

I marched in the 1978 Anaheim Kingsmen and we competed against them just once at DCI prelims. They beat us having gone on the day before. Our reaction was "the WHO beat us?" Now that I've finally seen this video, 43 years later, I understand why. Great G.E.!

Thanks to Gelp99 on YouTube for uploading this and other videos of Canadian corps, some of which I'm sharing today.

Follow over the jump for the rest of today's featured Canadian corps from the 1980s to the 21st Century.

A happy drum corps Canada Day 2021!

Happy Canada Day! To celebrate the first of three patriotic holidays in July I observe on this blog, I am continuing a tradition I began five years ago with Canadian drum corps for Canada Day, showcasing units from the 1970s to the 2000s. I begin this celebration of Canadian drum corps with this year's pre-DCI featured corps, 1970 De La Salle Oaklands, Canadian National Champions.


Representing the first decade of the DCI era, I'm repeating a corps and year that I included in 2019's edition, but only had a slideshow, not a performance video, 1977 Seneca Optimists. Now I can share a full performance video thanks to the Toronto Optimists Alumni.



Recorded in Denver, CO, at Mile High Stadium on August 19, 1977
Follow over the jump for the rest of today's featured Canadian corps from the 1980s to the 21st Century.

A happy drum corps Canada Day 2020!

A happy drum corps Canada Day to my readers! To celebrate this first of three patriotic holidays I observe during July, I'm continuing my tradition of featuring Canadian drum corps by decade from before the advent of Drum Corps International (DCI) up to the current century.

Since I've shared videos of the Toronto Optimists, Preston Scout House, and De La Salle Oaklands, I'm giving the Cadets of LaSalle their turn in the spotlight as the featured pre-DCI corps. Watch 1970 LaSalle Cadets.


The video I first found of this performance said this was from "North American Toronto." I'll trust that's correct.

Follow over the jump for the Canadian corps from the DCI era.

A happy drum corps Canada Day 2019!

A happy drum corps Canada Day to my readers!  To celebrate this first of three patriotic holidays I observe during July, I'm continuing my tradition of featuring Canadian drum corps by decade from before the advent of Drum Corps International (DCI) up to the current century.

Since I've shared videos of the Toronto Optimists and Preston Scout House, it's about time I gave the De La Salle Oaklands their turn in the spotlight as the featured pre-DCI corps, so here is the corps' 1969 show.

An audio-video review of De La Salle Drum Corps in 1969, celebrating its 60th year of operations. Del won the Ontario Championship in '69 for the second year in a row and won the first of three Canadian Championships in a row.

Follow over the jump for corps from the 1970s to the 21st Century.

A happy drum corps Canada Day 2018 on the second Souther

Happy Canada Day, the first of three patriotic holidays in July.  Today is also Souther, a holiday John Michael Greer and I co-founded that falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Summer Solstice, the mascot for which is a wombat, an Australian animal.   Now, how do I celebrate both at once?  Is there a Canadian corps that wears Aussie hats and plays "Waltzing Matilda?"  Yes, there is!

I begin today's festivities by reaching back into the archives for the 1959 Preston Scout House.


The first year of this series, I shared videos of the Oakland Crusaders and Seneca Optimists.  The next year, I featured their predecessors, the Toronto Optimists and De La Salle Oaklands.  It was only a matter of time before I kicked things off with the other famous pre-DCI Canadian corps, the Preston Scout House.

Follow over the jump for Canadian corps from the 1970s to the 2010s, along with some ice cream for Souther.

A Happy Drum Corps Canada Day 2017!

Happy Canada Day!  To celebrate the first of three patriotic holidays in July, I am going to recycle the concept behind last year's Canadian drum corps for Canada Day, which became the third most popular post during July 2016 and the fortieth most popular post of last year with 995 total page views by posting more videos of Canadian corps for Canada Day.  I'm all in favor of giving my readers what they want.

Last year, I posted videos of corps from the 1970s to 2000s, beginning with the 1976 Oakland Crusaders and Seneca Optimists.  This year, I reach back another decade to the 1967 Toronto Optimists.


Yes, that's a color presentation of the Maple Leaf Flag, which was only two years old at the time.

On to the 1970s with the 1974 De La Salle Oaklands, the first Canadian corps to make DCI finals.

Finally a copy of the 1974 De La Salle Oaklands field show---Toronto DCI show--late June

The celebration continues over the jump with Canadian corps from the 1980s through 2000s.

Holidays for the sixth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News

Happy Throwback Thursday!  It's the perfect opportunity to resume the retrospective of the top entries of the past blogging year with the subject I promised after entertainment and the election -- holidays!  This is one of the favorite themes for this blog, both for me and my readers, as every blogging year has produced at least one retrospective about holidays, even if the first year's post about a holiday didn't make the top ten until a year later.  Looks like my readers and I both love holidays!


The eighth most read entry posted last year and the ninth most read on the all-time list as of March 20, 2017 is Happy Sweetest Day 2016!.  Posted on October 15, 2016, it finished the blogging year with 3330 page views, 3452 according to the raw counter.  It was also the most viewed entry posted during October 2016, as well as the second most read entry overall for the month, with 3222 page views, 3335 according to the raw counter.  This post earned 2000+ page views in twelve hours purely by other people sharing it on Facebook.  It passed Republicans on climate change and energy at the CNBC debate, which had 2401 page views at the time, between 3:00 P.M. and 4:00 P.M. on Sweetest Day to earn a place on the all-time top ten.  It earned 2991 page views in the first 24 hours, enough for it to place seventh on the all time list.  During the morning of October 16th, it passed CNN and MSNBC interview Libertarian candidates William Weld and Gary Johnson to rank sixth.  Not bad for a throwaway holiday entry that I only posted because previous Sweetest Day entry proved very popular, becoming the sixteenth most read entry of the fifth year of the blog.  This one exceeded its predecessor.

By the way, it's now tenth on the all-time list, with first the three entries about the Michigan recount pushing it down, but also Rusty-Patched Bumblebee finally placed on the Endangered Species List, which is the first entry of the seventh year of this blog to reach the top ten.

Follow over the jump for more popular holiday entries.

Canadian drum corps for Canada Day

Happy Canada Day!  To celebrate the first of three patriotic holidays I observe during July at this blog, I'm going to do what I've done for the 4th of July and Flag Day--make it a drum corps holiday with corps from north of the border.

I begin with the 1976 Oakland Crusaders playing "El Gato Triste."


1976 may have been the USA's bicentennial, but it was the only year two Canadian corps made DCI Finals.  Here is the other, the Seneca Optimists.

The Seneca Optimists earned a spot as a finalist corps in its first year of a merger between the Seneca Princemen (founded in 1972) and Toronto Optimists (founded in 1952). The new corps was particularly noted for its bright yellow uniform jackets.

The corps’ 10th-place 1976 production kicked off with “5th Movement, Rondo: Finale” from Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 7,” a movement Mahler referred to as “bright day” after the “night pieces” of the second and fourth movements and the “shadow-like” waltz of the third. Premiered in 1908, the symphony remains the least recorded of his 10 symphonies. The Optimists stated the main theme with brass players goose-stepping toward the center of the field while playing to the front.

Follow over the jump for more Canadian corps from the 1980s to the 2000s.

50 years of the Maple Leaf Flag for Canada Day

Happy Canada Day!  For this year's celebration, I present The real story behind the Canadian Flag from CBC's The National.

Our maple leaf was raised over Parliament Hill in 1965, but not without controversy. Reg Sherren tells us the little known story of how the flag came to be.

In addition to the history, CBC provided a little flag humor in Canadian Flag turns 50.

The Canadian Flag turns 50 on Sunday. Reg Sherren meets one of its biggest fans.

Cool shades, dude.

As I wrote in the very first Canada Day post on this blog, "Welcome to the first of three patriotic holidays I observe as part of my blogging. Hey, I can't be all doom all the time!"

Happy Canada Day, 2014!

It's time to be a good environmentalist and recycle again.


I celebrate three patriotic holidays every July, Canada Day, Independence Day, and Bastille Day. Time to mark the first of them by wishing a Happy Canada Day to all of my readers on the other bank of the Detroit River!

Happy Canada Day, 2013!

Time to be a good environmentalist and recycle.


I celebrate three patriotic holidays every July, Canada Day, Independence Day, and Bastille Day.  Time to mark the first of them by wishing a Happy Canada Day to all of my readers on the other bank of the Detroit River!

Happy Canada Day!

As I wrote earlier today, I celebrate three patriotic holidays this month, Canada Day, Independence Day, and Bastille Day. In fact, I use a graphic with a kid on it for Canada Day, which is today--and here it is.

Happy Canada Day to all of you on the other bank of the Detroit River!

Happy Canada Day!

Welcome to the first of three patriotic holidays I observe as part of my blogging. Hey, I can't be all doom all the time!