Emily Carr as a role model. Due to the monkey

Nat has been asked to write a short essay on a famous Canadian. Nothing special, just pick someone and then write down three things of interest.

Nat picked Emily Carr. And by picked I mean was told. Just like I was.

"Do Emily Carr," my wife said, and I had no good comeback. Until then, the only famous female Canadians that were on my list were:

1. Avril Lavigne, but my own personal sense of dignity kept me from suggesting it 
2. Kim Campbell, and again with the personal sense of dignity thing. Who knew Lavigne and Campbell would have so much in common? 
3. Laura Secord, but not for making such tasty confections, but for cleaning pus from the wounds of soldiers in the War of 1812. The overarching commonality I suppose is yeast. 
4. Celine Dion. No. A thousand times no. 
5. Wayne Gretzky, if only because for the entire early 80s, I thought he was a woman, because that's how my dad kept referring to him. 

I chose none of them, and Nat was no help whatsoever. She wanted to do Elsa from the Disney movie Frozen. No can do, I told her. She's Norwegian. Or Swedish. Or something near the arctic, I'm certain.

So I was tapped, until my wife said Emily Carr.

"She's a painter," I said. "No one will care. Least of all, our daughter."

"Hey Nat," Jo called up to Natalie, who was in her bedroom, steadfastly not caring about famous Canadians. "Did you know that Emily Carr had a monkey, and she walked it in a baby carriage."

"That's crayyyyyzeee," Nat shouted down.

 So now I am helping Nat prepare a report on Emily Carr, and we have to find three things that are notable about this person. We have the monkey and we also know she paints, so we only need to find one more thing.

This week's project will be a slam dunk, I think.