The Scottish are a hardy bunch, and no one is more hardy than a Scottish Canadian in a kilt — in January.
Organizer Don Cummer, holding a Scottish flag and hockey stick, and friends stand next to a very tall Sir John A on Ottawa’s Rideau Canal yesterday.
Yesterday, Scottish Canadians and friends braved frigid weather in five Canadian cities to take part in Sir John A’s Great Canadian Kilt Skate to honour the 200th anniversary of the birth of Canada’s first prime minister, Scottish-born Sir John A. Macdonald.
Wearing kilts and tartans, Canadians in Montreal, Ottawa, Winipeg, Saskatoon, and Calgary proved they can withstand any temperature. One brave Scot in Winnipeg skated for the second time in his life — while wearing a kilt.
In Ottawa, 200 skaters wearing kilts and many more wearing tartans faced a -30 wind chill on the Rideau Canal. In Montreal, our red-kneed friends skated in the Old Port. At least one Winnipeger skating in The Forks wore a hockey jersey with his kilt.
Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop said: “Sir John A Macdonald’s legacy is an important part of the special connection between Canada and Scotland. He and the other Scots who travelled to the Canada to start a new life have left a lasting bond of friendship between our two nations. The Great Canadian Kilt Skate is a fantastic idea bringing communities together to celebrate our shared heritage.”
Don Cummer, who organized the Ottawa skate, said: “It was cold if you weren’t moving.”
So, what does a Scot wear under his kilt when skating? The Ottawa Citizen reports they wear “leggings, long johns and anything else to fight off the -30 chill.”
It kind of makes you proud to be Scottish Canadian, doesn’t it?
As for my American friends who wonder how cold -30 degrees celsius really is, it is very cold — or -22 F.
Read and watch more in the Ottawa Citizen, CTV Ottawa, CTV Winnipeg, and the news release on the Scottish Government’s website. The Ottawa Citizen published an earlier article about the kilt skate here.
