Victoria Day

Dzisiaj wazne swieto w Kandzie tzw. Victoria Dzien czyli Dzien Krolowej Wiktorii. Pod rzadami krolowej Wiktorii nad Brytyjskim Imperium nigdy nie zachodzilo slonce. Ten fakt potegi i wielkosci Imperium znaja prawie wszyscy. Nie wszyscy natomiast wiedza, ze sila napedowa Brytyjskiego Imperium byly konopie, z ktorych to produkowano zagle i liny do okretow. Takze malo jest znany fakt uzywania konopi (marihuany) przez krolowa Wiktorie w celach leczniczych. Krolowa palila trawke aby ulzyc sobie bole menstrualne.

In gynecology. Cannabis has been used successfully in the treatment of hyperemesis gravidarum, a form of morning sickness in which the pregnant woman suffers from constant nausea and vomiting. Cannabis reduces pain and increases uterine contractions more quickly than ergot alkaloids. Native women in South Africa stupefy themselves with cannabis to facilitate delivery. Dr. J. Grigor rediscovered the oxytocic properties of Indian hemp in 1852, and stated more or less altruistically, "it is capable of bringing the labor to a happy conclusion considerable within half the time that would otherwise have been required, thus saving protracted suffering to the patient, and the time of the practitioner. Cannabis also is a valuable remedy in the treatment of mastitis, dysmenorrhea, menstrual and postpartum pain, and it has been used to increase lactation. Queen Victoria herself smoked cannabis to relieve her menstrual cramps (Rowan Robinson, "The great book of hemp", Park Street Press Rochester, Vermont 1996).

Ottawa residents flocked to Parliament Hill on July 1, 1867 to observe the birth of the new country. Bands played, soldiers saluted, and government officers were sworn in as spectators clapped and enjoyed the fun. Ever since, Ottawa has led the nation in celebrating Dominion Day, or Canada Day, on Parliament Hill. And neither Queen Victoria nor her descendants have been to "otherwise direct" the location of the seat of government. The "Queen's Choice" remains Ottawa...
And we see emerging in Canada, long before it surfaces in Britain and engulfs the home island in a wave of emotionalism, the idea of the nineteenth-century British Empire (Robert M Stamp, "Kings Queens & Canadians", Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Markham, Ontario 1987).

Victoria's secret: she's not so dour

Mention Queen Victoria and many people picture a dour woman in perpetual mourning for her husband, Prince Albert. But at the centenary of her death - on Jan. 22, 1901 - some other facts about Canada's first post-Confederation Queen:

* Her father, Edward, Duke of Kent, died when she was eight months old. Victoria was raised in genteel poverty by her German mother.
* She was 18 when her uncle William IV died and she became the new monarch. Her reign would last 631/2 years.
* She was a gifted painter, and Felix Mendelssohn said she had the finest amateur singing voice he ever heard.
* There were seven assassination attempts on her life - the first in 1840 and the last in 1882.
* Through the marriages of her nine children into the royal houses of Europe, her descendants are now on the thrones of Britain, Denmark, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
* Her descendants are so numerous (39 grandchildren alone) that the first 50 people in line to the British throne are from just one grandchild, George V.
* Canadian connections: while Victoria never visited Canada, her father did military service here, and one of her sons and a son-in-law were governors general (Patricia Treble, MACLEAN'S).