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Stompin' Tom's Canada includes a plywood board >> Words of wisdom from the best doggone potata what's ever been growed in this country by PHILIP PREVILLE
When they went back to check them after the thaw, all they found were metal scraps and twisted springs. The current had ripped the gadgets to shreds. The chief engineer, convinced that no man-made structure could last, resigned from the project. Gave it five years, at most, before crumbling to bits. Which means it has about three years left. So the story goes. Stompin' Tom Connors doesn't give a damn about stories like that. He's too busy writing songs about Prince Edward Island so fair, that wonderland garden cradled out there, his island devotion callin' him over the blue waters rollin'. Stuff like that. He recently recorded his ode to the Confederation Bridge, "The Confederation Bridge," the title song for his 1997 EP The Confederation Bridge, in honour of the strength and courage of the people who built a glorious structure that links Canadians to one another. While it can sometimes be hard to take this PEI native seriously, you can't question his integrity. Stompin' Tom is such a proud Canadian he returned his six Juno awards because he was infuriated with Canadian radio's refusal to play Canadian music. His gesture turned into a self-imposed 11-year exile. He's been back for a few years now, and is only starting to gather steam: EMI is re-releasing all his old titles, and Stompin' Tom is about to embark on a 38-city Canadian tour. (38 cities in Canada? Who knew?) Stompin' Tom is kind of like Gordon Lightfoot and Stan Rogers, but kind of not. Rogers sang about the boys who sailed the seas aboard Canadian vessels steered by sure-handed veteran captains. Stompin' Tom is more contemporary: he sings about potatoes, ketchup, truckin' and bingo halls in Sudbury. His most recent compilation, 25 of the Best Stompin' Tom Souvenirs, is a collection of songs for the Don Cherry Nation, the folks with simple pleasures and pursuits who, it's important to note, happen to make up the majority of people in this country. Next Wednesday is Canada Day--moving day for us, but a major occasion for devoted Canadians such as himself. Forthwith, Stompin' Tom's thoughts on the state of the union. On the 1995 referendum: Without you folks in Montreal, we would have lost the country. I watched the results on TV as they came in, and let me tell you, I had my fingers crossed, my eyes crossed, my nose crossed. On Jean Chrétien: I was angry about his speech the night before the referendum. He shouldn't have been all wimpy and pleading. He shoulda been bangin' his boot on the desk or something like that. On whether he still believes, as he once sang, that people who don't love their country should pack up and leave: Sure I do. If people are going to take offence to what I say, that's up to them. You tell the other fella exactly what you think. Like it or lump it, at least you're being honest. On Quebec separatists: They want to be despots, kings and queens in their own little country. But I admire the way separatists stick up for themselves. They just shouldn't take it out on the rest of the country like they do sometimes--that's their mistake. On Canada-U.S. relations: When the American Prime Minister in Washington (sic) says "jump" and our Prime Minister says "how high," that's disgusting. We have to take a lesson from Quebec and start talking to Washington the same way Quebec City talks to Ottawa. On being the only musician on the face of the Earth who still writes songs about bridges: If it's a lost art, someone's got to bring it back. What do you ever hear on the radio that has anything to do with Canada? I don't know about other lands. I write about Canada. On the state of Canadian music today: I've gotten over my anger now--anger's no good, it only bothers your own self. But we still don't hear enough of our own music. We're only chasin' our talent to foreign lands. On Joe Clark's potential comeback as leader of the Progressive Conservative party: Joe Who? On Preston Manning: Preston Who? On his own political leanings: I belong to the Canadian Party, and I'm going to prove it 'cause my cross-Canada tour is going to be one big party. Stompin' Tom Connors performs in Ottawa on Canada Day and in Montreal at the Concordia Concert Hall on August 25. Info: 848-4718.
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Rumour has it that when they first began construction of the Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick to PEI, they attached mechanical stress-testing gadgets to the bridge's concrete pillars. They left them in the water for an entire winter, to see how the pillars would hold up against the windy currents and icy chunks of Northumberland Strait.