Tossing Pebbles in the Stream

2012-01-19T12:36:00.005-05:00

Finally some significant snow

How is this for a lot of snow? No this is not the road in front of my house. This is a section of the Trans Labrador highway. They get a lot of snow in the interior of Labrador. This is in a location along the highway where the snow drifts over the road. What impresses me is that this picture is in April when the road was finally opened.

We have had three small snow storms in the last 10 day. There is about 1 1/2 feet on the ground with some drifting.. I love it with everything being white and clean looking. It is lightly snowing now when I took most of these photos.

I just love my mukluks. They were a gift from a friend who bought them for me when he was working as a driller near the remote northern First Nations commuity of Webequie.

My house in Winter

Looking up the road toward the Temagami Forest Reserve

My Ojibwe Snowshoes

My woodpile catching a drift. My shoved path has disappeared. I had begun moving some more wood into the basement.

I just looked outside and it is snowing heavily such that I cannot see my neighbour's home.
Time for another coffee by the fire. I hope wherever you are you are enjoying the Winter.

2012-01-16T11:04:00.003-05:00

Belated Christmas Gifts

Parker showed a couple of days ago with my Christmas gifts from him and his kids. We were not together for Christmas.While I spend Christmas and New Year's in Mississauga, Parker and his kids went snowboarding at Collingwood's Blue Mountains. Afterwords, he and his wife Sandra went to Las Vegas, which they enjoy. . . . I just do not understand the fascination for that place. I have places I would like to go that hold no interest for anyone else! Everyone to his own.

Well here are my gifts. I now have a pair of lovely leather "go to town" gloves. I also got a tin of chocolates and a tin of Belgium cookies, many with chocolate icing. I quickly eat them all.

The tin of coffee is the wonderful brand served at Tim Horton's, our national institution of a coffee donut shop (it also sells some sandwiches and soup now). It's reason for being is the coffee. It is the Canadian equivalent of Dunkin Donuts, but much better (a Canadian opinion).

I also got two more books to read. I just love books of how to do homesteading kinds of things which is what the "Country Wisdom Almanac" book is all about. The other book, "Inside of a Dog: What dogs See, Smell and Know" is a examination and an appreciation of the mind of dogs by a scholar on the subject, Alexandra Horowitz. I have so wanted to read this book. I purchased it last summer to give to Jenny my dog sitter as a gift for taking care of Heidi. I read part of it before I gave it to her and asked her to loan it to me when she finished it so I could finish it. Now I have my own copy. Yippee! I thought the hound dog on the front look like Heidi, my Great Dane.

Well I can now put Christmas behind me for another year.

2012-01-12T16:23:00.004-05:00

Life is mostly quiet around here.. . .except. .

After the excitement of Christmas and New Year' Day my life had returned to its quiet reality.

One of my kittens wonders what I am doing at the computer

Today we are finally having a little snowfall. Could this be Winter, at last.

Heidi sleeps away the afternoon in her favourite spot

.

Well life is not always quiet and dull. Here is my neighbour's garage burning to the ground yesterday.
It brought out not only the local volunteer crew but also another company from the community of Field, 10 miles away.

It reminded me of my house fire that required rebuilding the attic and roof a few years ago. It is a horrible experience to go through.. My neighbour's house was spared.

Well back to my reading..

2012-01-07T13:49:00.020-05:00

My Christmas Reading

For me, Christmas morning would be a great disappointment if I did not get a book, hopefully more than one. This year I have gotten three so far, (I have yet to exchange gifts with my son and his family.)

I can usually count on my sister for a book, or two. Her present comes in the mail directly from Chapters before Christmas. I have been know to have her present (s) read before Christmas morning. Not so this year as I was spending time at Lynne's home, enjoying each other company and touching base with her family and some of mine. I am just now finding the time to do some extensive reading. The books I have to read look like good and substantial stuff to keep my brain alive and well.

My Christmas selection of books

My sister, Penny, send me "A Fair Country", by John Ralston Saul and "Salt, A World History",

by Mark Kurlansky. I was know of the former, having heard the the author interviewed , so I am aware it is putting forth the thesis that Canada is a "metis" society. It is a discussion of the early orgins of the blending of European people and First Nation's people in such a way as to create mythic understanding of the shaping of Canadian value which persist to this day. As I am always interested in Canada and it's similarities and differences culturally with the United States, I look forward to a close reading of this book by one of Canada best know, public philosophers.

The second book, "Salt", I know nothing about. I am aware of the importance of salt through human history and that it has been a form of currency as well as an essential item in human sustainable history. I have also been very interested and read quite a bit about the Tuareg people of the Sahara , berber pastoralists, who to this day still trade salt by transporting it in camel caravans across that great desert. If you have been following the political struggles in Libya you no doubt recognize the name as a fierce warrior people who live, in part ,in southern Libya.

I am also interested in how salt has been used as a preservative in history, before refrigeration.

I have been wanting to try this method of burying raw meat in salt and later recovering it, washing the salt off and preparing it to eat. Just a few generations back this was a common way of preserving meat over time.

So I am interested in reading the book about the history of Salt and learning more of how it was important in so many ways, politically, economically, nutritionally and culturally.

The book by Niall Ferguson, the historian, " Civilization, The West and the Rest" will be a intellectual challenge I am sure. This was my Christmas gift from Lynne. Ferguson is a conservative and is supporting Mitt Romney for the Republican Presidential ticket, which I will try to overlook. I am sure what he has to say is much more profound , with a ring of truth, than what politicians say. I previously read his book "The Ascent of Money, The Financial History of the World" and found it interesting and challenging. I expect this book to be an interesting challenge also.

I hope everyone got some stimulating reading for Christmas and is starting off the new year enthralled with an good story, some wonderful poetry, humourous delights or a challenge to your understanding of the world of ideas. I get the next month or two of Winter reading ahead of me, by then it will be my birthday resulting in another book or two.

2012-01-05T12:04:00.001-05:00

I Have Returned!

I am back after a two week holiday visit at my friend Lynne's place in Mississauga; which is my excuse for the lack of posting items on this blog. If you missed me, blessed your heart; if your did not. . . . well that is what I expected.

I had a lovely time in the South, that is southern Ontario in Canadian speech, in Mississauga, near Toronto. Lynne has a lovely home in the neighbourhood, I grew up in so some things are familiar while there have been dramatic changes over the years that do not make it feel much like home.any more.

Over the time I was there I got to share in some of the holiday celebrations of Lynne's family and also meet up with my sister and some of her family for a visit.

Here are some notes on my visit.

The weather was quite mild in Mississauga with little or no snow. I am sure in my youth it was colder and snowier over Christmas. I had checked for anticipated fairly mild temperatures even back in River Valley. I took some modest efforts to make sure there was enough heat in my house so that the water would not freeze while I was away. When I saw that the temperatures had dropped to -22 C feeling like -32 C back home I was feeling a little panicked. I phoned Parker and he went over to check on the house. All was still well and he did some more things to make the house less draughty and warmer to protect against my plumbing freezing. What a relief for me. Except just before I came home I learned it had even gotten colder at about -36 C, which left me worrying again. When I got home all was well except I had forgotten how long a cold house takes to truly warm up. You not only have to warm the air but also the walls and ceiling as well as furniture. I ended up sleeping a blanket on top of my bed covered with a comforter dressed in my outside clothes the first night as the mattress was very cold. It is like camping out. I had forgotten about this. The last time I did this was when I had just bought the farm and commuted on weekends the first Winter. It did not take long to heat the air with my two wood stoves going and the electric heat on in the two rooms I spend the most time in, my bedroom and the library. By the next day, with the outside temperature warming and the house fully heated all was back to normal.

Christmas Eve Lynne and I went to her eldest son's home not far away for a soiree
with his partner and teenage children, his younger brother and a couple of relatives of Lynne's former husband. It was a pleasant time; a family tradition when gifts can be delivered. The children can spend Christmas Eve with their father and Christmas Day with their mother.

Christmas Day, Lynne and I headed out for her daughter Kyla's home in Brampton. She has a delightful two year old daughter, which promised to make Christmas morning a little of what I remember as a child. It occurred to me that Christmas now is more often the gathering of six or eight adults to watch one child be delighted about Christmas. This was the pattern at for my sister's Christmas as she and three of her four grown children celebrated with her son who has the one young child. It seems people are having fewer children, or am I at an age out of touch with young families?

At Kyla's home, her partner, her younger brother and Lynne's brother and partner were there to watch Leigha play with her Christmas presents, chat up each other and have a traditional Christmas dinner.   It was nice to finally meet Lynne's younger brother, the school principal.

Does not one get married any more? All the adults at these gatherings has partners and not spouses.

It was a nice time and Lynne's granddaughter is a truly a delight. I finally felt comfortable enough to take a peek at their pet boa constrictor when I found myself sitting next to the terrarium it was in.   I had suggested we bring a live mouse to feed it but Lynne likes mice even less than she likes snakes. I am really nervous around snakes. Is the word out that in my youth I was very cruel to snakes, something I am ashamed of and feel snakes have a reason to pay me back.

Lynne and I went to the large Chapter's bookstore to allow me to do some last minute shopping. It is a very large bookstore, like Amazon or Barnes and Nobles.
The "big box" kind of store that puts out of business small delightful bookstores owed and run by people who love books and know lots about them, literature and authors. I guess they call these stores, progress! I am not so sure. There certainly was a large selection although to my dismay they had virtually no books in French not to mention any foreign language. Given the demographic of Mississauga and Brampton you might expect not only some French books (we are a bilingual country) but some in Urdu, Farsi, Tagalog, Mandarin, Punjabi, Tamil, to name a few languages spoken by many new immigrants. I was thinking of getting my granddaughter a french book, perhaps one of the best known French Canadian novels, since she is my grandchild who identifies the most with the French Canadian culture she partially participates in. It turned out this would have required me to go to Toronto to one of the two or three French language bookstores I was aware of. ( I learned of them years ago when I tried to buy a French Canadian cookbook that had a picture of my wood cookstove, L'Islet, on the cover. It proved to be out of print.) I ended up getting her a fun book to read, called, The Book of Awesome. I am tempted to add to it by writing in it that, "to have a grandfather who passed on his genes to her father, it truly "awesome". Then again, I may not.

For Travis, my youngest grandson, I purchased, Tom Sawyer. I previously gave him my copy of Huckleberry Finn. These two classic novels, I thought he would enjoy. They were ones that my mother and I read together a couple of times when I was young. Travis is the biggest reader in the family, a quality that endears him to Lynne.

For Dillon I got the highly recommended hockey book, The Game, written by Ken Dryden, a former great goalie with, " Les Canadiens". It is not new but recommended on Canada Reads. It is more than just a hockey book.

I had planned to get Lynne the latest book by Joyce Carol Oates. A Widow's Story and knew I could find in a Chapters. This is about the mourning experience of Joyce Carol Oates, when her husband of 46 years unexpectedly died. There's was a great love and marriage. What I knew of the book I found interesting and thought Lynne would also and it might resonate with her experience when her husband died suddenly a few years ago. As I have learned more of her experience, I have admired how she coped with it and came to admire the quality of the marriage she shared in for so many years Bill was a man I never met but believe we would have enjoyed each other. I suspect I have some of his qualities which recommend me to Lynne besides her confessed admiration of me when we were in school together from the third grade through high school. (Why I never asked her out, I don't understand. As I looked back I didn't date many girls that lived me for some reason). I hope she enjoys the book and maybe she will want to read more of Joyce Carol Oates, large collection of published works. I tried to get her novel Blonde ( a story built on the events of Marilyn Munroe's life) but it was out of print. I thought my sister would have enjoyed it with the renewed interest in Marilyn Munroe with the current movie out about her.

I was also shopping for a book for my sister, no! two books for my sister as she has a birthday just after Christmas. I decided to give her a book about Charles Dickens life, this being the bicentennial year of his birth. It is a wonderful history of his life wonderfully full of pictures and pockets of facsimiles of documents and letters to examine. For her birthday I got Truth and Consequences: Inside the Life of the Madoff Family. I read most of this fascinating account of the Madoff Scandal and how it affected his immediate family when I was at Lynne's place. She had gotten it as a gift. I ended up reading much of it too her. I thought Penny might find it as interesting as I did and share it with her husband who had spend his working life dealing with finances. It is more about the effect of Madoff great evil's effect on his family than the actual financial story of his 50 billion dollar debt when the ponzi scheme collapsed.

After leaving Chapters Lynne and I went for lunch. We do a lot of eating out when we are together. Lynne enjoys this as a way of socializing and it a rare and fascinating event for me. We went into the restaurant of Jack Astor's. It was a large comfortable restaurant with lots of video screens to look at. It seems these days we need distractions at a time when people traditionally had conversations and enjoyed a meal together. I thought the screens were used in the evening for sports events with the video images on loops were turned off. transforming the place into a sports bar.

In looking around I admired the young women servers all with long hair and matching uniforms. It did not take me long to realize there was something uncomfortable for me in this. I pointed it out to Lynne. Besides all the girls being dressed alike and having long hair I realized in some ways they were all the same. They were all young, slim probably between 5' 3" and 5' 6". Most startling to me was that with the exception of a couple of Eurasian girls they were all white. I found this jarring. Mississauga is a very mixed ethnic community. Here was a large community restaurant and there were no servers of visible minorities. Having twice in my life lived in minority ethnic communities where I was in the white minority, I am sensitive to such obvious discrimination. In Mississauga for the restaurant to reflect the community there should have been Caribbean, Chinese, South Asian, Middle Eastern, girls working there. I would even expect some girls wearing hijabs. There were also no older women, overweight, handicapped or even plain looking girls.

We had a lovely blond server who was very pleasant and it turned out in school training to be a teacher. I stopped her and asked her what the hiring prolicy was at the restaurant. She sat down and told that it involved a personal interview (with a man) and that there were a couple of things required of the girls that I had not thought of. They must have long hair worn hanging down. Apparently, short haired girls need not apply. The uniform tops were deliberately designed to show some cleavage, which was modest but for a man no doubt tantalizing. I did not see any big busted girls either so apparently they were screened out. I pointed out to the girl that such employment practices are wrong and could be illegal. She pushed my button by say, "Well, this is the way it is."   I hate this answer to the acceptance of a wrong in society which implies that the way things are, are unavoidable and cannot be otherwise. Such an attitude defends all kinds of injustices against minorities. I ended up giving her my little speech that social. political, financial, not to mention familial, organized structures are not written in stone but human creations that can be changed. The ageist, sexist, racist policies of the restaurant could and should be challenged.

After the server left Lynne says she got spoken to by one of the managers and may have gotten into some trouble to socializing with us. We liked her and appreciated her frank comments. Lynne, I think, left her a larger than normal tip.

I found this all very interesting and I still thinking I may write to this restaurant chain with my observations and complaint. While I enjoyed the food, I will not go there to eat again. My form of protest I guess.

We had one more event to attend. My sister suggested we get together at the Epic restaurant for lunch before I go home. The Epic is an upscale restaurant of the lobby of the Royal York Hotel, the beautiful historic railroad hotel across the road from Union Station. It is now a Fairmont Hotel. The Queen always stays here when she is in Toronto. It was once the tallest building in the Commonwealth and now is dwarfed by the bank towers and the new hotels and condos that are the modern face of Toronto. The Royal York was midway between us with Penny coming from the East side of Toronto and me coming from the West. Lynne and I came by the GO train from Port Credit, the station a couple of blocks from Lynne's house. It was a lovely restaurant, of course, and we all decided to eat from the brunch buffet.   Penny and David, their son Donald, daughter, Elizabeth (home from London, where she works, and son Scott, with is new lady friend made up the group. Son, Rob and his wife, ( the parents of the young child in the family were too exhausted from Christmas to come. It was a nice gathering. I swallowed my socialist pride and did not say it was too expensive a place for me.

After lunch Scott was flying to Montreal where he lives. The downtown Billy Bishop airport was handy. Lynne and I jump on the subway and went up to Maple Leaf Gardens to see the transformation of this abandoned shrine to hockey. The former home of the Toronto Maple Leafs. It is now a very large Loblaws grocery store and the sports facility for Ryerson University. The grocery store is very interesting with great quantities of food. I was most impressed with the size of the cheese department. There are several acknowledgement to it's past glory.There is a large blue maple leaf construction on a wall made out of blue seats from the arena There were other old seats to sit on to rest. We looked for the spot on the floor, in isle 25 which was center ice in the old rink. I guess this was a kind of pilgrimage to see this iconic spot. I was not sure whether one was supposed to get down and kiss it.   It would have been nice if they had made a slit in it and we could have deposited a loonie coin as it has become a tradition for Canadians to bury a loonie at center ice in a tournament (if they can get away with it), as good luck.

I enjoyed being able to spend the time with Lynne over the holiday. Heidi was enjoying her stay with Jenny my neighbour and dog lover who seems to love my dog and welcomes her at her place along with her six dogs. (or is it five). I do not worry about Heidi when she is at her place which is like a resort for a dog.

I hope all my readers had a wonderful holiday season and will find many interesting challenges and unexpected joys in the new year.

2011-12-20T12:28:00.006-05:00

She shoots. . .She scores!

Here is my granddaughter, Olivia in her hockey outfit.

Besides being an excellent student, Olivia is an enthusiastic hockey player. She recently took part in a regional East/West hockey game, which is a traditional annual high school event. It is made up of students from area high schools which are made up into two teams. Olivia is one for a few students representing Ecole Secondaire Northern Secondary School. She scored a goal for her team in front of 2,000 howling students and staff at Memorial Gardens in North Bay. It is always a boistrous affair.

Her proud father sent me the picture. She was one of the younger girls being only this year in the nineth grade. She is an enthusiastic player. Her father always speaks with pride when he tells of her taking the boys into the boards when she played on mixed boy/girl teams when she was younger. She is not one to back down from 'vigorous' play. I am glad she got a little recognition in the local paper for her athletic efforts which go along with her scholastic accomplishments which please me even more. I am glad she is participating fully in all aspects of the school life and succeeding.

2011-12-12T18:22:00.007-05:00

"Dance Like a Butterfly but sting . . .?"

I found this video both charming and hillarious. As a pacifist, I give this kind of fighting, or dancing, my imprimatur.

Perhaps, this is more like, "Dance like a bee but sting like a butterfly." (My apology to Muhammad Ali.)

2011-12-06T14:03:00.025-05:00

Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet

In the Netherlands and Belgium today, December 6, they are celebrating the arrival of Sinterklaas and is Moorish helper Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) arriving from Spain. Two years ago, when I was in Belgium, I was surprised and taken aback to see images of Black Pete. As one who took part in the civil rights struggle and has tried to always be politically correct with reference to all things "black", it was a shock to discover this much loved Moorish character that was the helper of Sinterklaas, the saintly bishop St. Nicholas. Black Pete is much loved by children in the Low Countries as he distributes candies and cookies and help Sinterklaase deliver gifts to every home.

Zwarte Piet (Black Pete)

Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet.

Rather than try to explain to this holiday in Belgium and the Netherlands I thought I you share with you the explanation by a delightful young woman from Belgium in this video.

The share a little in the public celebration of this holiday watch this video of the procession in Utrecht. Enjoy!

In reading a little about this holiday I learned the Canada made a contribution toward it when Canadian soldiers after liberating the low countries they held a Sinterklaas celebration for the children with many Zwarte Pieten present.

"Originally Sinterklaas was only accompanied with one (or sometimes two) Zwarte Pieten, but just after the liberation of the Netherlands Canadian soldiers organized a Sinterklaas party with many Zwarte Pieten, and ever since this has been the custom, each Piet normally having its own dedicated task."

2011-12-03T07:31:00.033-05:00

Keeping Busy

I have been keeping busy these days, partly out of necessity and partly because of circumstances.

Having been late in doing my firewood, I have been frantically working to get it done before it gets really cold and snowy. Well, I now think I am on top of it. We have had a little snow even though it remains warmer than usual. Below is a photo of my handiwork. I promise myself I will get at it earlier next year.

(click on photo to enlarge)

While I rest between sessions of wood cutting and spitting and piling, I have returned to my efforts to learn touch typing. Years ago, I began to learn to type. (When I was in school only the "dumb" students in the commercial stream took typing for careers in office work). I had to learn to type when I got my first job as a minister. My wife said, "No more, I have have typed for you throughout University, now you have to type for yourself." Many a hour in that first year, I spent in my oak lined office with a teach yourself to type book; learning the keys, and the fingering and trying to build some accuracy and speed. Well I got the job half done. I learned to type with a couple of fingers more that two while looking at the keys. This worked for me for many years to type letters, rough drafts of sermons and the odd report. When I was no longer a minister of a church, I lost what facility I had acquired.

Along came the computer and the Internet for me, rather late I must say. I managed with two finger typing for most things but I decided I should learn keyboarding. (I hope every grade school child learns this now along side of handwriting.) A while back I began this process using a learning to type online program. I faltered before the task was done.

I am now back at the learning to type. I have learned the keys and finger strokes and now I am working on my speed and accuracy without looking at the keys. I am up to about 40 wpm. I have no great ambition in this but I would like to consistently be above 40 wpm. So I am close.

Practice makes perfect for this aging fat fingered typist.

This routine of wood splitting and typing was going fine until my computer went down. I managed to get an older computer, (I bought for $20) which has little power, connected to the Internet. It worked well for emails but little else. It was slow and I could not view videos or access some sites like Blogger's dashboard where I write these blog entries.

After almost a week of trying to get to town to take my computer to the tech guy, I discovered my computer was not broken at all. It was my monitor. I exchanged my good (now broken) monitor for the one from the old computer. Now I am back online.

A guy has to do something while suffering from "Internet withdrawal". I found myself cooking while not doing wood.

I decided to make some Boston baked beans. I used a recipe which they use at one on Boston's most famous restaurants, Durgin Park, which ate at several times while I lived in the Boston area. They are good, although a little milder that I would like.

With the weather getting colder I have begun to use my antique wood cook stove. (some photos are here) It is great to cook on once you learn the basics. It is also nice to keep warm by the stove. I find lots of things cook better on the stove with it's better heat distribution. On my electric stove my grilled cheese sandwiches never turn out such a nice soft brown toasted colour as you can see below.

While I have never baked bread in the wood stove oven it is nice to bake bread when the stove is going. The warmer heat from the wood stove helps the bread to rise. I then bake it in the range.

Yummy, If you cannot pursue your passions on the Internet, at least one can eat for satisfaction.

2011-11-20T08:19:00.015-05:00

The Santa Claus Parade

It seems the Christmas season has begun. Today is the Santa Claus Parade in Toronto. This is the best such parade in the World and the oldest children's parade.

For those lucky enough to live near Toronto, it is time to gather up the children, if not yours, your neighbours, (for the parade is best viewed with children) and take in the parade. Be sure to get there two hours in advance so as to get a good viewing spot. For millions more around the World there will be an opportunity to see the parade on television
.
The Santa Claus parade is a Toronto institution, nay, a Canadian institution, begun by the T. Eaton Company which sponsored it for decades as a playful obsession of the Eaton family and as a commercial promotion of their department store, Eaton's of Canada, which was a wonderful Canadian institution in itself, as a major retailer in downtown Toronto and as that wonderful mail order department store know to rural and small town Canada,( where most Canadians lived until the 1950's) through the Eaton's catalogue, particularly the Christmas catalogue. It was a sad day when Eaton's went out of business. It had been an institution that helped give our country a national identity. It lives on in the shopping mall, the Eaton Centre, in downtown Toronto and in the Santa Claus Parade.

Here is the first of a series of videos on the history of the parade.

As a child, I remember those magical few years when we were taken to see the Santa Claus parade, at true believers, so we could be reassured that Santa was in town and could be visited at Eaton, "Toyland"department. The weather usually was chilly, and often with some snow on the ground. This year it will be warm with the temperature at 13C. with some rain. I expect there will be large crowds lining the parade route.

I have written before how fierce my mother was making sure we had a front row seat if the crowd was was many rows deep. She would push up through the throng so that we could sit on the curb. "Let the little children through! The parade is for the children." She would hover at the back, probably only being able to catch a glimpse of us from time to time. No doubt she admonished my older sister to keep, "Keep an eye on your brothers and hold their hands when the parade is over." We were always treated nicely by strangers who readily followed my mother's admonishments to have us reach the front row. It was a more innocent time. There was no fear of strangers and possible child abduction, in my childhood.

When I returned to Canada from living in the United States, I had a son of my own and for a couple of years I remember meeting up with my sister and her family to watch the Parade near its beginning, at Christie Pits, a park my father often talked about as a place he played as a child.

One year we even got on the subway and traveled to the head of the parade down on University Avenue and watched it a second time.

The Santa Claus parade is one of those community events around which family memories are fashioned.

I also remember in my youth going shopping at the downtown Eaton's store. It was a large and magical place at Christmas time. We would walk to the village of Port Credit, which we lived near, catch the bus in front of Hooper's Drug Store, to take us to Long Branch, where we could get the street car into Toronto. It must have been an adventure for my mother with three children in tow. We were there, of course, to see Santa Claus and visit "Toyland", where we could see the great displays of toys, riding up to the appropriate floor on a classic elevator, which seemed to be made of brass with a caged door that was closed by an operator, wearing white gloves. He would call out the floors, "Third floor, Toyland!" It was the first department store to have elevators installed. It was also the first store to have electric lights installed. I was always fascinated with one other thing. The vacuum tube system in which messages could be put in a container as swished off the some management office. We could have lunch at the Eaton's stores restaurant. (before fast food places, it was one of the few times we ever ate out. Being on our best behaviour was expected). This building was eventually torn down and replaced with the Eaton's Centre. Now that I think of it I think it should have been declared a National Historic site and preserved. It seems progress overtakes many of the sights and sounds of our historic memories.

Eaton's Department Store and its retailing rival Simpson's across the road, had the most spectacular store windows, at street level. It seems they tried to outdo each other with animated scenes displaying toys and other goods, although I only remember toys. These were part of the Christmas magic we had to view though the largest glass windows in any store.

This is a painting by Kathryn Smith, a Hamilton, Ontario artist, of a scene "Eaton's Windows"

Here are a few photo's of Eaton's Windows in The Archives of Ontario

So much for my Christmas reminiscences. If you want to read memories of others you can find them in The Archives of Ontario.

If you have not gotten your letter off to Santa you could take it to the Parade and some elf will gather it in. Be sure to address it if you want a reply," Santa Claus, North Pole, Canada, HOH OHO". As a child, we always knew Santa was a Canadian for the North Pole is in Canada. We were happy to share him with the World.

We are still assured that every letter will get a personal response. For decades, staff of the T. Eaton Company took on this task, on Santa's behalf, and today, Canada Post staff does it. You can also send your letters with your excuses for being naughty and your assurance that you have been nice (I have tried my best.) before you lay out your wish list for gifts at Christmas. (Be sure to be modest in what you wish for and always wish that less fortunate children get gifts also.) I suspect viewing the Santa Claus Parade on TV will inspire a flurry of letter writing. I trust a real letter sent by snail mail is still the best and only way to communicate with the jolly old elf.

2011-11-17T14:27:00.015-05:00

Doing Wood

I have not posted as much as I might, lately. I have been busy doing some wood for this Winter. It is rather late to be doing this. One is supposed to do it in the Spring so that the wood can cure over the summer. Properly cured wood burns so much better giving off the maximum heat.

This Winter I will muddle through as I did last year. I do still have some wood in the basement left over from last Winter. Some of the wood I am currently cutting, splitting, piling and moving into the basement has been cut for a year and is partially dried. I will cure it for a while outside and them move it in the basement. This can be done when their is snow on the ground.

The snow is overdue. There was a sprinkling over night as their was one night about a week ago.
They have had significant snowfalls south of here and north west of here so Winter will eventually show up after a rather mild Fall. I read that meteorologists are predicting a cold Winter, hopefully with lots of snow. So far the temperatures are just hovering around the freezing point. At the moment it is 1C and may go down to -3C tonight.

This early in the Winter season I am looking forward to the -20c highs and the -3oc's and occasional -40c temperatures. With ample snow the Winter can be an invigorating challenge.

Those Canadians who have not fled it for warmer climes with best deal with it by rising to the challenge and embracing with outdoor Winter activities: skating, ice fishing, snowmobiling, snow shoeing, skiing both Nordic and downhill and snowboarding (which seems to have become the most interesting activity for the young. There is also Winter camping, which can be very interesting. I have always wanted to do it but never tried it. It we have lots of snow this year I might try to build a quinzee and try sleeping it it. (I am too old to try such thing by getting too far away from my bed and comforter if it doesn't work out.

For now I am dreaming of Winter and working hard doing wood, which I always enjoy a test of my manhood. I must admit at my age it is feeling a lot more challenging than it used to be.

My initial little bit. One small hitch of wood and some wood I purchased from a neighbour (not of good quality)

The latest wood my neighbour skidded out for me. I cut most of this a year ago, so I hope some of it is well on the way to being dry enough to burn. I tried to include my equipment in the picture. Having worked as a logger I am always keen to use all the safely gear. helmet, with visor and ear muffs (I prize my sight and hearing). safely gloves, boots and pants. Having been struck on the head by a falling tree, I appreciate my helmet. Even with safety boot I once cut through the boot and half way through my big toe with the saw. Cutting yourself with the saw is not fun although not as painful as you might think. The stitching my toe together was more painful. The real cautionary tale that impresses on me the wisdom of the safety equipment is the face that I have know three loggers killed on the job, even with good safety equipment. Logging. like hard rock mining , can be very unforgiving.

The wood I use is mostly poplar. It is a low grade hardwood. When properly cured it burns well and fast until it is ash. It needs lots of lending so one need to be around to feed the fire. Poplar is plentiful and largely a weed tree. There are problems using it as lumber but it is used in particle board and plywood. Due to years of bad forest management there is lots of poplar which flourishes after it has been cut down and more valuable trees have been removed. The are now trying to reverse this degradation of the great softwood and hardwood mixed forest in this southern part of Northern Canada.

Before I am though I hope I will have 7 full cords of wood done for this Winter. For those who are not interested in word, a cord is 127 cubic feet of wood and air. or 70 cu feet of piled lumber.

This is a pile of firewood 4' X 4' X 8'. I have it cut into three piles of 16" long wood to feed my wood stove.

I wish my wood was all done and all I had to do was sit and watch the Winter close it. I won't be fully ready but I will have wood close by that I can get even if it means moving some of it in on a clear cold winter day in January or February.

2011-11-11T09:28:00.006-05:00

Armistice Day

I prefer the older designation of today at Armistice Day rather than Remembrance Day. It is the anniversary of the armistice signed to end the first World War on the 11/11 at the 11th hour.
It reminds me of the irony that it was to be the end of the, "War to End All Wars", which, of course it wasn't. It was the beginning of a century of wars which seem to be continuing into another century, as a way to resolve international disputes. Armistice Day reminds us of the end of an unnecessary war which was particularly horrible for the common soldiers who fought it under terrible physical condition, which we may never see again. Unfortunately, the sacrifice of our youth in war is an even less of a deterrent today. We no longer see tens of thousands of soldiers kill in single battles. It seem wars of the future will be robotic wars fought by soldiers half way around the world directing drone attacks as if they were playing a computer war game.
Innocent civilians will continue to be the greatest casualties of war. There is no Remembrance Day for them, sadly.

I have the greatest respect for those soldiers that answer their Nation's call if they truly believe in the justice of the cause. Unfortunately, with perhaps, the exception of the Second World War their have been no just wars since that armistice day. I would have more respect for soldiers if they refused to fight in unjust and illegal wars. There are few this heroic as we are trained all our lives to obey our political leaders.

I have always been impressed with the continued remembrance of the Canadian soldiers who liberated the low countries of Belgium and the Netherlands. It was largely Canadians who were tasked with this theatre of war in WWII while the Americans and British armies pushed on to greater glory in liberating Paris and then reaching Berlin ahead of the Russians. The people of the low countries have never forgotten the sacrifice and efforts of Canadians. They continue to teach, three generations on, their young people of Canada's effort on their behalf. It is emotional and humbling to see their continued tribute to Canadians.

Lynne sent me this touching video of a Belgium boy dressed in a Canadian uniform saluting some Canadian soldiers, who acknowledge his salute.

May we continue to rededicate ourselves to the slogan of Canadian veterans "Never Again!"
We could best honour those who fought and lost their lives in war if we stuggled harder to avoid future wars. Our youth are too precious to sacrifice in wars of their elders.

Bloody War. . .. . The Cause

When greed sups with the devil
And principles are shed
When power is corrupted
And truth stands on its head
When fear pervades the confused mind
And fools are easy led
When reason is a prisoner
The bell tolls for the dead.

Tom Walker ( an veteran sailor, still alive in 2010)

2011-11-10T10:58:00.015-05:00

My Vote is for Fundy

There is currently an international contest to select the new 7 Wonders of Nature.

I cast my vote for the Bay of Fundy.

It is worthy of such recognition is that is it an amazing ecological system made possible because it has the highest tides in the World. If for no other reason the fact that it is habitat of 12 varieties of whales ,including the rare right whale, would justify its designation. I leave it to you to explore the reasons to vote for The Bay of Fundy.

I find the Bay of Fundy a worthy Canadian contribution to this contest. It is quintessential Canadian. It is low key. It is not "in your face" as so many of these natural phenomena are. It is dependable as the tides come and go predictably such that the ecological system can be sustained. It supports not only the ocean ecology but also the culture, Mi'kmag, Acadian and Canadian, around it's shores which can be traced back to prehistoric times as it wears away th land to reveal the oldest fossils in North America. The dramatic tides of the Bay of Fundy will help sustain the people of the area with the generation of tidal electical power in the future. The Bay of Fundy is an ongoing phenomena that has the power to sustain man and Nature well into the future if we appreciate and respect what it has to offer.

The above two photos are of the same pier at high and low tide.

Here is a right whale breeching in the Bay of Fundy.

Low tide at the flower pots at Hopewell Rocks. I have visited this spot on the Bay of Fundy and witnessed it dramatic tides. I have also watched the reversing falls near St John, New Brunswick as the tides back the water up in the mouth of the river.

I hope the Bay of Fundy get the recognition it deserves. I hope to revisit that area in the near future to discover some more of what it has to offer to an interested tourist.

2011-10-28T10:43:00.002-04:00

The War of 1812

The coming year will be the 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812. It is a much neglected war in the United States Britain and Canada. It is largely forgotten; when it is referred to it is debated as to who really won or lost it.

It was a war of aggression by the United States initiate by a Republican government. Since the end of the Revolutionary war the Americans has eyed the remnant of British North America as ripe for the taking. Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams believed that Canada could be easily annexed to the United States. By the time of Madison's Presidency the idea of manifest destiny was growing so that many Americans came to believe it was the United States God given right to hold reign over all of North America. Anger of British interference on US and French trade was the excuse to for war.The United States declared War against Britain in 1812. It was to be a "cakewalk" (to use a current term).

Aging Generals, from the Revolutionary War were dusted off to lead militia in their attack of the Canada's; Upper (Ontario) and Lower (Quebec). They proved to not to be very effective against the better lead British defense force, Canadian volunteers and native allies. Sir Isaac Brock ably lead the British and colonial forces while Tecumseh lead the native allies.

British North America was successfully defended at Detroit, Niagara, Kingston and the border for Quebec.

Who won the war? The Americans claim to have won it on the basis of defeating the British Navy when it tried to take Louisiana. This battle was won after the war was officially over with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.. The British felt they won because the has successfully rebuffed the invasion of the Canadas. and the nuisance presence they had in the mid-Atlantic states including the attack on Washington where they burned down the White House. The Canadian settlers celebrated that they successfully protected their farms and villages and remained under British parliamentary rule that they viewed as superior to American republican rule. Even the French Canadians lead by French officers, such as Charles de Salaberry, preferred the British to the Americans. They had come to accept British rule and many of their elite served in the British military. In Upper Canada there were many settlers who were United Empire Loyalists who fled to Canada as a result of being on the losing side of the Revolutionary War. They rejected being part of the United States a second time. It seem the only ones who did not win were the First Nation's people under their leader Tecumseh

They had come to believe that the British would guarantee them a territory (country of their own). The were betrayed. Not being party to the peace treaty they were not well defended by the British. Their territory was taken over by the Americans. Some relocated to Canada where generally they were better treated. As I have mentioned in a previous post Manitoulin Island was repopulated at this time by the groups which came to be known as the Three Fires Council: Potawotami, Ojibwe and Otawa. A similar migration has occurred after the Revolutionary War when the Six Nations Reserve was settled by Iroquois from all tribes in the Iroquois Confederacy and other tribes who had supported the British side in that conflict Joseph Brant was their much admired leader. This pattern of resettlement of people from the US territory became an historic pattern (fugitive slaves, draft dodgers, discouraged American Liberals,) which persists today.

To read the background to this war I suggest historian T. Robert Fowler's essay.

I recently watched the PBS documentary on the War of 1812. It is a very interesting history lesson from the American point of view. I understand a Canadian documentary of the War is under development in Canada for the coming year. I watched the PBS documentary on my computer ( you can view it here still.) The documentary features two participants, one an American Kentucky militiaman, William Atherton, and a British soldier, Shadrach Byfield Both of these men survived the war and wrote accounts of their experience in it. I located these text on the Internet Archive and read them. Here they are: the one by Atherton and the one by Byfield. for those interested in reading original texts I recommend them.

I was particularly interested in Atherton's account. He was a fiercely proud Kentuckian and a loyal American. He was capture by the Potowatomi Indians in Michigan. He was in fact adopted by them. He came to respect them and spoke of some kindness shown him while sharing in their harsh life style. He came to leave them and surrender to the British who treated him as a prisoner of war. Such prisoners were harshly treated often with lack of sufficient food, heat or shelter. British prisons were dreadfully sparse, cold, vermin infected places where treatment was often harsh. Atherton came to recall that his treatment under the Potowatomi was so much better that under the British. After the war he was released. He was taken with others into Vermont and released with no food, adequate clothing or money to find their own way home. For him it would be a trek of 1,000 miles. He often got little or no help along the way. He particularly speaks badly of how he was treated in New York State where he says there were many Tories who were not particularly supportive of the American War against British North America. In fact, they traded goods across the border during the war. Atherton was often told the food the British got in Lower Canada was often food from the United States. One such American trader was Francis Duclos, He had been a hero of the Revolutionary War who now betrayed the US by passing on intelligence from Federalists (who opposed the war) to the British in Canada. It seems the border even back then was only casually respected by those who lived along it.

He finally made it back to his beloved Kentucky and lived out the rest of his life as a Methodist minister.

Our present Conservative Canadian government has made it know they are going to celebrate, in a very public way, the bicentennial of the War of 1812 in the coming year. I have mixed feeling about this. On the one hand I think this history is interesting and important to know but on the other hand I fear the Conservatives will treat it in an shallow and exagerated patriotic way making more of its' significance than it warrants. (They already have show themselves to be such patriots) This kind of flag waving leave me uncomfortable. They will be spending money on monuments and battle sites as well as educational efforts. It will be interesting to see how they treat it. I think they will try to make of it a great Canadian War that helped shaped Canada as a Nation. I am not so sure this is the case. It was a British War to begin with. Canadians fought to defend their farms and homes as well as defending the rule under Britain. They learned, if they did not know it already, that they were not Americans more so than they were Canadians, after all they were loyal British subjects.

Canada has emerged as a country gradually. The war of 1812 may have had something to do with it but what welded the country together as a Nation is best understood a Canadas successful involvement in WWI, It was the heroic and successful battles fought by Canadians as a distinct Corp within the British military, symbolized in the Vimy Ridge battle, that say Canada gain a great sense of nationhood. It would be, 1948, before the Canadian passport reached its final form..

It will be amusing to follow the Canadian and American's different handling of the history of the War of 1812 this coming year. One thing that I think we can both celebrate is that in this 200 years Canada and the United States have been peacefully neighbours along a very long border. We have our differences but we always find ways to working them out without resorting to violence. There are few countries in the World who have accomplished this for this length of time.

2011-10-25T11:24:00.006-04:00

Where Credit is Due

I am often loathe to give the Conservative Party credit for anything. This time they surprised me. I would not have expected them to do this.

Recently, in the Ottawa area a young teen aged boy, Jamie Hubley, who suffered from depression committed suicide. Life had gotten to difficult for him to envision life getting to better. Among his difficulties was that he was often a victim of bullying at school. He was different. He was openly gay and had tried to form a club a school of students who were sympathetic to the issues homosexuals face in our society. For this he had been tormented and even physically abused. He was apparently one of those students that teenagers feel they can pick on. He was interested in acting and figure skating and I assume a more gentle soul that his tormentors.

Jamie was the son of a local politician so his family was well know. As a result, he became a cause célèbre .

To their credit some Conservative members of parliament as well a some staff members made the following video in support of gay youth to try to get the message out that life will get better.

Who would have expected this from the Conservatives? Apparently, not I! It is too their credit that they did it.

I Canada we often like to compare our political conservatives with the American conservatives, our Conservatives and their Republicans. While they share a lot in common, they are different, mainly because of the differences in culture. Canadian Conservatives, like Canadians in general are less strident, less religious (certainly not a requirement legitimacy) that our American conservative cousins. They also are shaped by the more liberal and progressive culture of Canada, which they in some ways hope to move to the right.

As a result of these differences, with the exception of a few arch conservative members from Western Canada, the Conservative Party is not ready to dismantle our universal health care system, or change the law to allow for capital punishment, or restrictions on abortions, or nullify same sex marriage. The prime minister, who is a member of a religiously conservative denomination that would support such initiatives has made it clear they are not on the table. He knows such meddling would be political suicide (and besides our legal system has largely been the branch of government that has changed these laws based on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom.

When the Conservative Party was reformed several years ago they jettisoned the name of the old Progressive Conservative Party. It seems Canada is not ready for a radically conservative party yet to yet so the present Conservative Party is much like it predecessor, fiscally conservative and socially progressive, not willing to undo the the progressive institutions that Liberals and New Democrats ushered in over the years. At least not, yet.

The Conservatives Government has even committed itself to promote gay rights among Commonwealth Countries ( and I would hope among the Francaphonie) where homosexuality is still often considered illegal, a grounds for discrimination and even punishable by death)

In the mean time, I welcome the Conservatives willingness to be supportive of homosexual youth, in Canada, with their generous and heart felt video "It Gets Better".

2011-10-20T11:27:00.011-04:00

Grieving . . .

"If You Know What I Mean"

I shed a tear this morning when I learned of the death of a man I never met in person.

I knew him through his blog which revealed things about him through brief and cryptic conversations he had with his friend Philip. Here is a memorial account about him which appeared in this mornings' Globe and Mail.

His name is Tony. He was homeless and well known on the street in his neighbourhood on Toronto. He was befriended by a fellow named Philip who helped him publish his blog, which I have faithfully read for some time.(I invite you to visit it and read it.) It is a blog so different from mine in that his postings are brief and reveal small details of his life and thoughts, without editorial content.. Over a long time I found I came to learn about him and his life. Some of this is written about in the newspaper link above. I came to like him. He was witty. I am not sure he understood how much. He was quick to respond when someone said something he found foolish, but without malice. He accepted his life as his own terms.. He never complained or blamed others for his circumstance.. He was at home among the people in his neighbourhood.

His friend, Philip, not only recorded his postings but also was his foil in the brief conversations which so often made me smile or illicit a response from me with his hint of an emotion.

Here is a posting that touched me very much in its' pathos with his quiet acceptance of his alienation from his daughter and his understated gratitude of the brief visit.
"“You know who I saw yesterday? You won’t believe it. It was my daughter and my two grandkids with her. I didn’t even know it was them when they were standing there. Then there’s a boy, he comes up to me and hands me a $5 bill. So of course I say thank you and he says that I shouldn’t be thanking him, I should thank his Mom, you know, Tanya. So there’s Tanya standing there and we talked a bit. That was a treat"
This passage could very well have ended with the phrase he seemed to use a lot. "If you know what I mean!." I often found myself looking for it in a new posting.. It made me laugh every time he used it.

I shall miss Tony's blog , reading his efficient poignant postings. I wish I had met him. I hope he knew how much he was appreciated and how he touched peoples lives. He certainly touched mine, "If you know what I mean!"

2011-10-19T11:02:00.003-04:00

Canadian Women Declared "Persons"

"[T]heir Lordships have come to the conclusion that the word "persons" in sec. 24 includes members both of the male and female sex and that, therefore, ... women are eligible to be summoned to and become members of the Senate of Canada, and they will humbly advise His Majesty accordingly."

With this judgement in October 1929 of the Privy Council of the British government, Canadian women were declared "persons" allowing women to be appointed to the Canadian Senate which was according the the British North American Act (the British law that established Canada). Until this ruling "persons" for the purpose of this act only referred to men and excluded women.

A group of five women has taken a case to the Canadian Supreme Court to have "persons" declared to mean women as well as men. The Supreme Court in 1927 upheld the traditional view that "persons" for the purpose of the BNA Act did not refer to women. As a result, the case was appealed to the British Privy Council, who in their lordly wisdom overruled the Supreme Court of Canada and declared the reference in the Act referred to women as well as men.

Five years later a woman was appointed to the Senate for the first time. Agnes MacPhail had been the first woman elected to the House of Commons in 1921 shortly after women won the vote in Canada.

Another outcome of this case was the acceptance of the "living tree doctrine" in applying judgments of the Supreme Court by recognizing the Constitution as an organic concept that must respond and change with the times.

The five women who pursued this case were a remarkable social activist bunch. Most of them were from Alberta. In Calgary today there is an identical statue to the one outside parliament in Ottawa ( part of which is seen below.)

Part of the Statue to the five women who won the "persons" case

Here seated are Louise McKinney and Henrietta Muir sharing a cuppa tea

The other remarkable women of the "Famous Five", involved in this suit were Emily Murphy, Irene Marryat Parlby and Nellie Mooney McClung. All Canadians owe these accomplished women a great honour for advancing the state of our parliament democracy.

Whenever I think of or read about this historic decision I remind myself that this did not make our democracy complete. Chinese were denied the vote until 1947 and prison inmates did not get the vote until 2002 . I think it is important that a democracy seek to expand the right to vote. There has been a history of expanding the franchise.

This differs from the United States where is a long history of efforts to expand the franchise while at the same time there are those who creatively try to limit it. ( eg, fewer polling booths in poor districts and more in wealthy districts, attempts to deny citizenship to children born in the US whose parents are illegal immigrants, gerrymandering, literacy tests, untrustworth voting machines, etc.) I look forward to the day when the voting age in Canada is lowered to 16.

2011-10-15T18:29:00.022-04:00

I Remember Hazel

I was 11 years old and it was beginning to rain when I got my newspapers together to deliver along my route, a day to remember October 15, 1954. It was the beginning of Hurricane Hazel. (cbc video) I was aware that it was going to be a rain storm but I don't think I really understood the implications of a hurricane. A neighbour lady, Mrs Weakley, saw me struggling to get to the place where my route began. She must have understood more than I did for she offered to drive me around my route so I could get home earlier. It was not until the next day that I realized how bad it was as I heard tales of how they were travelling by boat up #10 highway, Hurontario Street. The creek that passed in front of Lynne's house on Old River Road had overflowed it banks and flooded this major roadway.

The news was bad in the Toronto area as the rivers and stream that drained through the city overflowed and swept away bridges, rail beds and houses including one side of a whole street. In the end, 82 people died.

We lived in a wooded area that had little damage. I do not remember any trees coming down. We were one of the few houses that had no sump pump in the basement. luckily we had no flooding in the house.

I cannot remember if we had a TV by then. I do not remember watching any TV programs about the storm. My mother would have been listening to the news on the CBC and telling me all about it.

Hurricane Hazel is well remembered in Toronto. It was a rare event. For some reason the storm turned inland rather than take it's usual path up the US coast to the Maritime Provinces or turned east out into the North Atlantic. I have since learned it was a category 4 Hurricane when it came ashore in the Carolina (a US audio broadcast) It was expected to weaken over the land which it did for a while and then picked up strength as it went northwest straight over the Toronto area with winds of 110 miles an hour dropping 7 inches of rain. It left a lasting impression on Toronto, as the first community disaster broadcast on TV.

Hurricane Hazel shaped Toronto for the better as it saw the city develop an elaborate flood control scheme along the water ways through the city, which prevented people from building on the river's edges so that the city now has well developed parkland and green belts along the water ways. They have never been test since.

My home town, which is now the city of Mississauga, refers to its mayor as "Hurricane Hazel" McCallion. She has been the mayor for forty years and has seen my home community of Toronto Township plus several small communities, be developed into the 6th largest city in Canada. At 90 years old, she is still a force in municipal politics. .

I have learned that Hurricane Hazel was the worst hurricane to come ashore that year on the east coast and caused a lot of damage in the United States.

In North Carolina, a popular dance club Sonny's Ocean Drive Pavillion was destroyed and never rebuilt.This is where it got interesting for me. It was a place to go shagging (I only knew that as meaning sexual intercourse) which got my attention. I have never heard of Shag dancing, a style of swing dancing popular in the Carolinas even to this day. I believe it is the state dance of North Carolina. It looks like fun and "cool". I wish we had learned it when I was 13-15 when I took ballroom and round dancing with the rest of the young people in our community. Ever since I have wanted to find a partner to take more ballroom dancing lessons with me but to no avail. This looks like a dance I could do.

I shall always remember Hurricane Hazel, her honour the Mayor, who destroyed the place of my youth, and now a new meaning to shagging on the boulevard.

2011-10-07T17:14:00.000-04:00

Protests at Last!

A month ago, it dawned on me that there have not been large scale protests about the depressing North American economic situation. I had been reading about the Arab Spring all summer but that had a dimension beyond the economic situation in those countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Bahrain, Jordon, Yemen, and others. In many of these countries the protests were often lead by students and young adults for whom the economy was most cruel where the cost of living was high and in spite of good educations there was not enough work for the young.

There has also been protests in Europe that were less political and focused more as a protest to the economic trouble. The most notable were Iceland, Ireland, France (all earlier) and Greece, Italy, Spain, (most prominently) recently.

Two protest movements against right wing governments that got little publicity in the mainstream media caught my attention was the student protest in Chile, where students wanted less expensive (free) and more class equal education, and in Israel, where middle class people protested against the neo-liberal policies of their right wing government which had made housing, food, education etc too expensive even for the middle class.

So where were the American protests. Certainly Canada and the United States has see students, the poor and many of the middle class in dire economic straits. Americans in particular have a long history of being willing to protest. Surely by now there should have been a million man march against the dire economic conditions wrought upon the country by the actions of greedy, uncontrolled and criminal banking institutions.

I had thought for a while that eventually there would be mass protests in the light of the economic difficulty, the realization that the action of banks and the inaction of government for several decades has resulted in a few people becoming very very rich and an increasingly larger group, with the demise of the middle class, getting poorer.

Immediately after the banking credit crisis in 2008 the protests were not that great and faded away. I think the election of Barack Obama left the progressive people with hope and a willingness to wait and give him a chance to solve some of the economic crisis. Well the time of waiting is over. People have come to realize that Obama and the Congress cannot get the job done. Obama has tried but most of his efforts have been frustrated by a Republican opposition which is determined to not let him succeed at anything. They, like their Canadian cousins, the Conservative Party, (which is in power in Canada) make all their decisions on an ideological basis. For example, President Obama must be made to be an only one term President. Any program of the government trying to do something of a social nature for people is deemed "socialist". That of course is a code word for "Un-American" for some. It seems besides a lack of statesmanship there is also a lack of pragmatism, which I used to think was an American way and virtue, to analyse the problem and come up with a rational solution. The corruption of the American political system through control of government by very wealthy interest seem to have made this impossible.

Finally, there are now protests, Occupy Wall Street, in the US with promises that they will spread to Canada. They are focused on the Banking and Financial Institutions. What began as a small youthful protest by camping our on Wall Street, which one might expect to be short lived, has grown and spread across the country. The models seem to be what happened is Israel where the protests began in Tel Aviv with students camping out in a park in an upscale neighbourhood spread to other towns and cities in the country with massive street protests of largely middle class people. This went on for over a month at least. It was so large and represented an important segment of the population, not ever the government lead by the right wing Likud Party could dismiss them and had to respond with some concessions.

Israeli protest.

The youth of Israel have been protesting since the middle of July. Tent camp cities in many cities have sustained the protests against the right wing government has developed an economy that has made education, housing, and food of even the middle class youth unbearably high. These protest have grown so that now 90 % of the populations supports the protesters.

Chilean Protests.

These protests are student lead with labour groups supporting them. Students want cheaper and less class divided education.

Greek Protest.

Spanish Protest

Spain has an unemployment rate of more than 20%. These are numbers that were last seen in the Great Depression.

The Occupy Wall Street Protests are very interesting. It turned out they are not a one night stand of a few students. They have expanded across the US and are planning to come to Canada in a week or so. WARNING: Toronto has some very badly behaved police!. The protests have expanded their base from students and the usual left wing protesters to include labour unions and people who would not normally be involved in such actions. The protests are peaceful . While they are angry at the Wall Street Banking community they have not attacked the building or interfered with the workers in those banks. The only violence has come from the thuggery of the police, which has only gained the protesters more support. When will the police learn to be there not to attack the protesters but to protect them as the exercise their constitutional rights. (I long ago, gave up the wisdom I was taught in school a child. "Our Friend, the Policeman,". At best they are a necessary evil. I have read about and seen too many policemen rioting or using excessive force against citizens to ever consider them a friend. On the occasions they have had to come to my door ( a was a foster parent to troubled teen), I refused them entrance to my house unless they left their guns outside.. Many a cold winter day, I stood on the front porch to speak with them. (Sorry, for the aside. I have a personal dislike of the police) I trust the Wall Street Protests will remain peaceful unless provoked.

What do the protesters want, seem to be the question the media can't figure out. They want many things since they represent many groups. The more they stay together the sharper their point of view will become.
What brought them together was the economic unfairness within American society. While their seem to be unlimited money for the banks, the wealthy (in tax breaks), the military and security organizations in government, their is little money to meet the needs of ordinary people who are poor, unemployed, homeless etc.

"Their cause is the same as the one boiling in the guts of America's workaday majority: Stop the gross greed of financial and corporate elites, and expel a political class that's so corrupted by the money of those wealthy elites that it has turned its back on the middle class and the poor."

Here is a program broadcast a couple of weeks ago that discuss this.

There are lots of solutions being written about to the problems the the Occupy Wall Street Groups speak about. I invite you to research some of this for yourself. You could start with Bernie Saunders.article.

It is interesting that this Occupy Wall Street was an idea that came from Canada, when a Vancouver group called Adbusters thought of it a created a poster to encourage people to take up the challenge beginning on September 17. It caught fire. The time was right.

I will end this suggesting you read a copy of Naomi Klein's speech before the group on Wall Street. She is another meddlesome Canadian (I am surprised they still let her in the US) a writer and social activist with great family credentials.

I hope this protest movement get a positive response from the US government. If not the next thing that may happen is a call for general strikes in the US, which will be a worst disruption. I trust we will all be watching the developments closely.

2011-10-02T12:10:00.015-04:00

Polio Awareness Month

I just got my newsletter from The March of Dimes, "Polio' Canada". It reminded me that October is Polio Awareness Month.

I had polio when I was 5. It has been a memory I have carried with me all my life. Memories around getting polio are some of my earliest memories. I can remember the day my mother decided there was something wrong with me and called the doctor. I had been irritable (not my usual pleasant self :) ) I was generally aching all over and had a temperature. I am not sure why she called the doctor but those where the days that parents worried about polio every summer. It was an incurable disease that was life altering for many, either through death or crippled limbs. It was the AIDS of it's day occasionally coming as an epidemic.

The doctor came, our country/small town doctor, Dr. Fletcher, who years later I came to hold in low regard. This time he got it right. With a brief examination of me and some simple tests (I remember being asked to touch my chest with my chin) while I lay on my parents bed. "You need to take this boy to the hospital right away", he informed my mother.

We had no car and lived outside of Toronto. It was a neighbour I believe drove me and my mother to the Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto. It was a bewildering time for a 5 year old. I can still recall the feeling of dread and abandonment when my mother told me to go along with the nurse. She would come and see me before she left. Well she did not come. They would not let her. It was a week before I would see her. A week is an eternity for a five year old in a strange environment. All I remember of the hospital routine was being served porridge with prune juice on it. How I hated it.

As a parent myself, I can only imagine the dismay of my parents. My mother told me of my father's reaction to me getting polio. My father was not a very emotional man having had a very difficult childhood so my mother's recall a few years later of his reaction has always stayed with me. He apparently cried and declared, "My son will never be able to play sports." This is about as emotionally communicative he was I can know about. As life worked out, I spend my whole live waiting for my father to say he loved me and to tell me he was proud of some accomplishment I had. It never came. I always had to depend on my mother to tell me what my father thought and felt. Perhaps, if I had done more in sports (I was the top athlete in my junior high school.) he might have expressed his pride and pleasure with me. This is how the fragments of memory of childhood gets all mixed up together.

I was never crippled with polio; although, in spite of being left-handed I always felt my right side was stronger than my left. Always I felt I was so very lucky to not have been crippled. There where crippled kids you would see in those days struggling with braces on their legs to remind me what I avoided.. The daughter of the public health doctor who came and put a quarantine sign on our house later that summer got polio and was crippled. There was a time I felt guilty of this as if she contracted it from me. Another year, one of the Bond boys, (only a year apart in age), got polio and died. How horrible it was. I think that was the first death I ever spent time thinking about.

I was sent to the Thistletown Hospital outside of Toronto for a couple of months convalescence Without a car my parents could only visit once a week. It would have been a day long journey: the bus and streetcar into the bus station in Toronto, then a bus ride to Thistletown. My bother and sister, when they were allowed to come, could only see me through the window. I lived from one weekly visit to the next when I would get to see my family. On one occasion, my Uncle Ross sent me a fringed leather vest and Eskimo doll which he brought back from Alaska. I cherished these two items for many years.

As a result of my hospitalization I began school two months late. I was in Madam Bedard's first grade class, (there was no kindergarten back then). It was a little confusing at first. The first day of school I walked, 1 1/2 miles home at noon thinking that was the end of the day. (There were no school buses in those days). I guess I was not very impressed with school or I needed my mother. She sent me back the next day.

Several years later, the polio vaccine was developed. Having had polio I probably did not need the injections, but I always got them along with the other children at school several times in the 50's. Here is a CBC video about polio in Canada and the last year of its great threat 1953

This little girl is the age I was when I got polio. How fortunate I was to never have to wear braces and use crutches. I remember seeing a picture of a boy in was in the Thistletown Hospital, in the newspaper many years after I was home. He was just being released from the hospital. His name was Morgan French. I often wonder how life worked out for him.

It is hard to believe now that so many had to spend time in "iron lungs" to help them breathe.
Do you remember them.?

These days former polio victim are having recurring symptoms. This is post-polio syndrome. I have followed this for many years and even contacted a local group of post-polio syndrome support group. While I have thought I was suffering some effects of having had polio I was always reluctant to join this group. On the phone a very cheerful woman told me of all the wonderful new prosthetic devices to help you get around. I just could not bring myself to me an "able bodied" participant in the group. I never had to wear braces, use crutches or use a wheel chair.

I have since learned that Toronto scientists played a big part in the development of the Salk Vaccine. At the world famous Connaught Laboratory the medium to allow the commercial development of the vaccine was developed so they could produce enough vaccine so all the child population could be vaccinated. Here is an historical essay of the Canadian contribution.

Dr . John Gerald FitzGerald founded the Connaught Laboratories and made it a World Class facility in the rather provincial city of Toronto. Here is his story in the video below.

The Connaught Labratories were first formed to create diphtheria anti-toxin in expensively so that it could be freely distributed rather than use the American vaccine which cost twice the weekly wage of worker's back them. a prohibitive cost. Fitzgerald had also developed the first vaccine against rabies. Connaught was up and running in time to create anti-toxins to use on the troops of WW! and to help fight the 1918 pandemic. When Connaught came to manufacture Insulin developed by MacLeod, Banting , Best and Collip (which my latin teacher, his sister, Miss Collip never failed to remind us), it reputation as a World Class Laboratory was assured. Dr Best went to to develop Heparin, a blood thiner that made open heart surgery possible. Connaught went to develop vaccines and blood products for years. And. it played it important role in producing the Salk vaccine to combat polio. It continues today as part of Sanofi-Pasteur Limited, which is the World's largest vaccine producer in the World. Sadly, it has moved away for being a great Canadian institution, an integral part of the University of Toronto.

Now that polio is eradicated in most countries in the World and they continue to eradicate it in where it still persists, we can look forward to the day when children everywhere will not be strickened to become crippled or even die. For those few who resist vaccines of all kinds for various reasons I just have to wonder if they know the history of vaccine development and the million, possibly billions of lives that have been protected and saved by science of developing vaccines.

The current generation of post polio syndrome sufferers will be gone in a couple of decades and then knowledge of polio and it's much feared results will be relegated to the history books. It is good to remember the defeat of this disease.

2011-09-26T10:38:00.006-04:00

A Key Piece of Canadian Rural History

On our recent motor trip, we had just left Owen Sound heading north toward the tip of the Bruce Peninsula. We were adviced to take the "scenic" shore road" along the sound. At a turn in the road we spotted and stopped at a small scenic lookout spot, which proved to be the only scenic spot on the route. Below is the road sign.

(click to enlarge photos)

This lovely little spot by the side of the road was created by the local Kemble Women's Institute., as a memorial to the women of this rural area who have addressed the concerns of rural women: educational, social and political. I learned on the plaque below that this branch of the Institute is the oldest active branch in the World, founded in 1897, the year Women's Institute was founded.

Central to this parkette of a lookout is this wonderful sculpture of a table set for tea and cookies with an open book upon the table. It represents the countless gatherings of rural women around kitchen tables to discuss issues of importance to them.

I love the line at the bottom of the plaque on the side of the table.

"The table is set. Come sit and ponder our Kemble women, past, present and future making a better community for all."

I did just that for a moment. I thought of how the Women's Institute began at a time when so many rural women were isolated on farms, some still on the frontier in Canada. The Grey and Bruce counties are still very rural and for those who cling to the cities just 1 1/2 hours drive away is seems like wilderness. This was a time of few paved roads and no telephones in rural areas. Through the Women's Institute rural women connected with each other and had a voice. Local branch groups to this day continue to find ways to meet the needs of rural women, families and communities. As the plaque below notes there are 500 branches in Ontario and 9 million members around the World.

This is the plaque on the table. Click on it to enlarge it.

I was interested to notice on the plaque that Agnes Macphail and Nellie McClung, two early social activists were also from this rural part of Canada. Agnes MacPhail was Canada's first female member of parliament and largely responsible for improving Canada's prisons. ( The link about Agnes MacPhail has several interesting historical vignettes about famous early female activists, I encourage you to watch). Nellie McClung was responsible of getting women the vote in Manitoba and she was part of the five women who won the famous "person's case" when women we declared persons and thereby eligible to sit in the Senate.

When I read about the struggle for political rights in the early part of the 20th Century I need to remind myself that it wasn't that long ago. Women in many places in the world have yet to acquire such rights. We should not be so quick to judge their cultures. We are not that far ahead of them. In Canada women got the right to vote in 1918, following Manitoba and some other provinces. It was not until 1940 that Quebec finally ratified the act that gave women the vote. Hopefully, in places were women are just acquiring their "rights" progress going foward will be faster than it was for us. Women in Canada still have not achieved full and equal status with men.

The Women's Institute was founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario. A small rural community on Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the Niagara Peninsula. It was founded in the home of Erlund and Janet Lee with the inspiration of Adelaide Hoodless. The Erlund and Janet Lee Homestead is a museum today.

I was glad I stopped at this lookout overlooking the Sound for it reminded me of this important bit of Canadian history and the history of women's stuggles lead by rural women. Living in a rural area I am aware of the Women's Institute locally. I also once drove by an historic plaque in Stoney Creek that told me it was started in that small community. Beyond this I knew little. I did not know that it spread around the world, particularly among British Commonwealth counties. I think of how many places in the world where women could find such a women's institution useful in overcoming rural isolation through social, educational and political common learning and actio

I am always impressed by the local historical plaques as we drive around the countryside. So many people rose to do great things out of modest rural settings and situations. May it always be so.

2011-09-22T14:56:00.038-04:00

An Ontario Trip

Just over a week ago, I took advantage of an offer to ride south with my sister and brother-in-law to spend some time with my friend Lynne. I dropped Heidi off at my blogging friend and neighbour, Jenny. Here new farm property has lots of safe space for Heidi as well as her five dogs. I am very comfortable leaving her here. Jenny is as fond of her as I am.

After a couple of days with Lynne at her home in Mississauga, debating what we should do with our time together. It came down to a few days at Niagara Falls seeing the sites, eating well, touring a winery and perhaps taking in a theatrical production at the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, or, a motor trip to the shore of southern Georgian Bay and a few days finding our way home to my place by a very scenic route. We finally agreed upon the latter.

We drove due north from Mississauga to the resort (skiing and boating) area around Collingwood, on the shore of Nottawasaga Bay, the southern shore of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. Lynne grew up spending her summers in this area. As an adult, she brought her children here to her parent's summer cottage . One of her brothers still owns their parent's cottage on the waterfront. For nearly 50 years, her extended family have held a reunion and golf tournament in this area. She wanted to share with me this area she thought of as "the North" where she has spend so many years and cherishes so many memories. This is a lovely part of Southern Ontario within an easy drive of Toronto. It is still a rural farming area with strings of small towns along the shore where industry and tourism flourishes.

The skiing area is adjacent to Collingwood in an amalgamated community know as Blue Mountains, the largest community in this area is Thornbury. In this area is the skiing on the ridge of hills know as Blue Mountain.

(click on photo to enlarge) (I hope you take some time to link to some of the many sites I mention)

View from the top of a ski run at Blue Mountain, overlooking Nottawasaga Bay. If you click on the photo to enlarge it you will just get a glimpse through the trees of the ski village resort at the base of the hills.

Lynne standing on the shore of Nottawasaga Bay on a windy day.

She love this shore and I had hoped to take a picture at the family cottage but my camera battery died at the wrong moment.

After two days around Blue Mountain we travelled west thought Meaford to Owen Sound, the small city in this area. Hwy 10, knows a Hurontario Street, runs from Port Credit, on Lake Ontario, (where Lynne and I grew up) to Owen Sound on Lake Huron, 135 miles. When we were young these two small communities where linked in this way. Owen Sound is still a small community but Port Credit has been gobbled up along with the rural farm area west of Toronto in what is now the city of Mississauga.

Leaving Owen Sound we headed for Wiarton at the base of the Bruce Peninsula. This is the small town central to the Southern Bruce Peninsula. The other significant community on the Bruce is Tobermory, 50 miles north at the tip of the Peninsula. Here we spend the night at the Princess Hotel, enjoying a lovely meal and viewing this unique harbour community.

The inner harbour of Tobermory.

The next morning we boarded the Chi-Cheemaun Ferry to cross Lake Huron from southern Ontario to Northern Ontario

Here is a view from the ferry of the beautiful blue water of Lake Huron. Yes it really is that blue.

It was a calm day and a lovely crossing to South Bay Mouth on Manitoulin Island. It was a time long ago when I thought I would have liked to have moved to Manitoulin, this largest freshwater island in the World. I have been here a couple of times before but never for long.

Lynne and I took an indirect route across the island so we could see a couple of communities on the Island. We went to Providence Bay, Mindemoya, M'Chigeeng and Little Current. At this community we crossed onto the main land over the North Channel via the historic swing bridge.

One cannot cross here without thinking of the voyageurs. les coureurs de bois, who passed this way paddling the great fur trading route from Montreal to Thunder Bay.

This area on the mainland in the shadow of the ancient La Cloche Mountains , is a stretch of very rugged pre-Cambian Shield of rock and water. From here we passed thought Espanola, a paper mill town. I once brought a young american girl here so she could see the town her favourite hockey player, Alan Secord, grew up in. As it turned out she got to spend a couple of days with him as we rented a cabin from his parents. He was home for the summer and very generously shared some time with this young girl who was a hockey fan. (It is too long a story to recount here). It was this experience that made me think to myself, "Why should only 15 year old girls have their dreams fullfiled?" I had dreams, too. One of them was to own a farm. Within a few months I had purchased my place here on the Temagami River, leaving a suburban life behind.

From here we drove on to Sudbury, the city about an hour's drive west of where I live. It is a large city geographically, with 350 lakes within the city but modest in size, by population, as cities go. It is still a mining center but it has diversified into being a regional center in education, medicine, government services and tourism.

It would have been nice to have an extra day travelling so we could have spend more time viewing the sites, particularly on Manitoulin Island and in Sudbury. Unfortunately, travelling always takes more time than you plan.

This trip we took has many things to view and experience along the way, if you have the time and energy. Here are some of the things than interested me most.

Around Blue Mountain even in the summer there is much to do. On the mountain there is hiking and bicycling. There is also a suspension bridge and a tree top walk ,a zip line ride and the scenic caves.

In Meaford, there is a museum to Margaret Marshall Saunders who wrote "Beautiful Joe" a book I read as a child and in fact my mother read as a child. It was a great Canadian child's story long before Anne of Green Gables. In Meaford, there is a park and statue in honour of Beautiful Joe.

In Owen Sound, there is a museum and memorial to Billy Bishop, a great flying ace in the RCAF during WWII.

Throughout this region there is the northern half of the Bruce Trail, a hiking trail from Niagara Falls to Tobermory roughly following the Niagara escarpment. There are lots of opportunities to hike portions of the trail , and side trails in this area. Here is the map.

Wiarton is the home of Wiarton Willie, the albino ground hog who is celebrated on Ground Hog Day.

Tobermory besides being the southern port of the Chi-Cheemaun Ferry is also a wonderful scenic area above and below the waterline. It is the diving capital of Canada with a diving park so scuba divers can dive on old ship wrecks off this rugged coastline. There is large National Park in the area and some dramatic scenic caves.

Manitoulin Island has more than I can mention of things to do. What makes it most interesting to me is the number of First Nation's communities. 40 percent of the people who live on the island belong to First Nations. Their rich culture is alive and celebrated on the island. These Anishinabi people are made up of Ojibwe, Adawa and Potawatomi, the Three Fires Confederacy. At one time the Iroquois drove the tribes off the Island so they might control the fur trade route . For about 150 years no one lived on the island. After the war of 1812 between Britain (Canada) and the United States, the people of the three fire confederacy came to populate the island again, returning as the US government took their lands in the United States and Canada encouraged native settlement on the island

In Sudbury, one could spend several days, enjoying the environment, the cultural opportunities such as its fine Science Centre.

I look forward to returning to some of these regions and communities again to enjoy a more leisurely visit with what they have to offer.

2011-09-10T10:51:00.012-04:00

9/11: Our Lost Border

It is a sad and grieving day today. Thinking of the relatives of the victims 10 years ago, is a reminder of our frail humanity. I also think of all the victims of the wars on terror as American seeks revenge. How come I do not feel safer and prouder of the state the world is in.

Canada lost 46 citizens and residents that fateful day. I read the brief notes on their live: in their prime, family oriented, productive people with whom so many of us can identify.

Life has changed for all of us in greater or lesser ways. Americans have changed more than Canadians. Americans have become less sure of themselves, fearful, less open to the World.
Before 9/11, Canadians admired Americans, even envied them in many ways, but now I think most Canadians feel badly for Americans and what their country has become. Some of us now pity our American cousins and hope they may overcome their fear and regain some of the best of the soul of America.

An ongoing affect of the tragedy of 9/11 ten years ago is the tranformation of the Canadian/American border. What was once a lightly guarded "picket fence" of a boundary has become a heavily guarded "wall" of a barrier. We were once neigbours who often spoke of each other as family and now we are foreigners to one another. This is particularly true from the American side. The US has been fear driven these past ten years, willing to sacrifice liberty for security. The Canadian government followed suit, not so much out of sense of fear of Canada being a terrorist target, but more out of a need to convince the Americans that we can match their concern for security. This has resulted in a thickening of the border. The changes to the border have made people crossing and commerce crossing more complicated. I miss the old border and the easy relationship across the border.

During the Winter Olympics Tom Brokaw presented a view of Canada for the benefit of Americans. It is the view, most Canadian's grew up with (Canadians are much more aware of the border than the US as most of us live within 100 miles of it.) I suspect many Americans know little of Canada and give little thought to our relationship. I enjoyed this video
recognizing that in many ways it is only an introduction of what is a very complicated relationship.

I have crossed the border many times: at Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Detroit, Northwest, Ontario, the Akwesasne First Nation, an unguarded border crossing between Quebec and Vermont, and Calais, Me. Usually, the biggest worry I had was whether I would be asked to give up my oranges in order to cross (Canada get citrus products from many countries so the US protects it's citrus industry by banning these products). I once was questioned closely at a sleepy crossing because I had my tool box in the back of my truck The border guard thought I was going into the US to work illegally. The most dramatic moment I had was returning to the US at Calais, Me. This was the first time I ever saw a border agent wearing a side arm. He searched our vehicle thoroughly included making us open up our tent. He was looking for drugs I guess although he did not know what he was looking at when he looked in the glove compartment in which he saw a hash pipe. Luckily my friends buried their marijuana on the Canadian side to be picked up the next year on their way to PEI. With a birth certificate you usually were allowed to enter the country. I once forgot mine and was refused entry at the bridge at Detroit. I tried to prove my citizenship by saying I pronounced Toronto a "Traawna" just as I know the was an American by the way he called Detroit as "Da troit". Rather than drive four hours back to Toronto to get my ID I drove drove a few miles and crossed through the tunnel with no problem. Crossing the border was usually relaxed and routine: no lists, no passports, no detailed questioning.

Apparently, there were lists but no one seemed to care about them. When I went to St John's NB to pick up my green card to live and work in the US, I was asked if I belonged to any subversive organizations. I asked what was on the list. The agent said he did not know. So I said, in that case, "NO!" I chose to not name any of the left wing organizations I belonged to. They let me in.

Immediately, after 9/11 I got the impression that when the US improved its borders creating "Fortress" America, Canada would be inside the walls as a result of our special relationship but we found ourselves outside the wall.

It seems the regulations to cross the border continue to be increased by a fear driven border security agency which had no limits to the funds available to it.

Our Conservative government seems to want to follow the US. It cannot seem to form an independent position on anything.

We should have known we were in trouble when G.W. Bush called Mexico and the most significant neighbour of the US. In the speech on 9/20 he gave thanks to a long list of countries that helped the US over 9/11. It did not include Canada, in spite of people knowing how wonderful Canadians were in treating airline passengers who were grounded in Canada, particularly in Gander Newfoundland. Soon American officials began saying the 9/11 terrorists came into the US, through Canada. This was repeated as late as when Janet Napolitano became head of the Homeland Security. It seems Canada had to continually prove itself strong on security. Our Conservative government has fallen all over itself to please the Neo-Conservative government of G.W. Bush. Canada joined the US in tightening the border. Passports, lists of people kept and exchanged, more paperwork, and the most troubling for me was the arming of Canadian border agents. Apparently, we had to look as tough as the American Border Patrol.

The border between Canada and the United States we proudly used to speak of as the longest unfortified border in the World. Well it is fortified now in many ways from strengthened crossing points , to drone aircraft flying overhead. Crossing the border has become a more fearful experience. I always hated that no mans land between the two counties border posts where you seemed to have not right to just turn around and go home. Now the worry includes wondering if you name will appear on some list and you might get arrested and end up in jail before it is sorted out. There are such horror stories. Even the American Ambassador to Canada has been stopped as someone with the same name is on a list.

The unique of the border can only be appreciated if you read about the small communities along the border, some even straddle it having been communities prior to the border firmly being established. The best know case is Derby Line Vermont/ Stanstead, Quebec. But there are others. My favourite is Estcourt Station, Maine. Americans have to pass through Canada to travel to the rest of the United States and the only local gas station is on the American side. Also,
I would love to visit Whitelash, Montana to cross. Places like Point Roberts, Washington, and Alburgh, Vermont are physically cut off from the rest of the United States. One unique place on the border is Akwesasne First Nation, a Mohawk community along the St Lawrence River that borders on New York State, Ontario and Quebec . The list is longer if you want to read about such places. These communites have been greatly inconvenienced by the new border regulations. In some cases streets have been blocked off, not to mention building and even private homes having the border run through them. A way of life that largely ignored the border has been interrupted.

I would hope that as time goes on, perhaps in another 10 years, there will be some relaxing of the the border restrictions. Canada is not an enemy of the US. We once were "kin" but it seems officially Canada cannot trusted. Sadly, no one feels more secure and their are fewer of us crossing into each other countries. This cannot be good.

2011-08-23T19:28:00.010-04:00

Meet Jack Layton

It is so dreadfully sad about Jack Layton dying on cancer. His death seems to have touched most of Canada, He was a much admired politician and human being. He will lie in State in the Rotunda of the Parliament Buildings with a State Funeral in Toronto on Saturday( a unique honour usually reserved for the Head of State, the Governor General and the Leader of the Government, the Prime Minister. He will also will be available in Toronto for two days so people from his city can pay their respects. I suspect there will be large crowds if the informal memorial site across the country are any indicator.

I thought those who would like to see him, with all his grace and charm, in life , they might enjoy these three video's below when Rick Mercer interviewed him (interviews is too formal a term). I prefer to say interacted with Jack and enjoyed being with him. (Rick Mercer is a Canadian satirist and TV personality)

This first video is a tour of Jack's riding in Toronto, the Danforth. At one time I owned a home in this interesting riding just south of the Danforth where Greek Town is. When I sold this property I made enough money to purchase my present farm property. This riding is an inner city neighbourhood of older homes and a diverse population, a smaller version of the whole of Toronto.

When I first saw this second video I was really impressed. Jack Layton and his wife Olivia Chow live a life that is consistent with their principles. They live in an older house in an inner city neighbourhood, the riding in which Olivia Chow is the member of parliament.. Their house has been retrofitted so that they are virtually energy neutral, even able to feed electricity back into the grid at times. Also, Jack has no car and rides his bicycle around town. He and Olivia occasionally ride a bicycle built for two.

This final video is a sample of the political process, on the road, seeking support for the upcoming election. Jack Layton fed off and contributed to the vitality of these occasions. He alway seemed to love to be with people. His political focus was always to have government meet the needs of people, particularly those who were being marginalized by the system.

I hope you enjoyed this opportunity to see Jack Layton in life in all his charm, affably with people. He will be missed by all those friends, family, constituents and so many others whose lives he touched. His many contributions to the life of Toronto and Canada will long be remembers.

2011-08-22T09:54:00.031-04:00

Death of Jack Layton
(1950-2011)

This morning Jack Layton died. He was the leader of the New Democratic Party and the new leader of the Official Opposition in Canada's parliament. (I have been a lifelong supporter of the NDP

In July, Jack announced that he was taking time off to fight a new cancer. from which he was suffering . He had successfully fought prostate cancer. At that meeting it was obvious he was dreadfully ill but few spoke of it as he said he hoped to be back in September for the opening of parliament. He was no longer the fit vigorous politician who had lead his party to a remarkable electoral victory to take over as the official opposition. He had rebuilt the party from being at risk of losing its party status to official opposition during his tenure. He shall also be remembered, by force of personality and political skill, he convinced large numbers of Quebeckers to give a federal party their support and see Federal Canada as a place to meet the needs and ambitions of French Quebec. In the process the Bloc Quebecois, the separatist party in parliament was destroyed. Now the NDP, without Jack, will have to lead the progressive opposition to the Conservative government and prove to Quebec that its future can be worked out within Canada.

For my American friends, I should say the the New Democratic Party in Canada has no equivalent in the United States. It is a progressive social democratic party. This means that it is a party that seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of people before those of corporations. It's role in Canadian politics has been to keep Canada increasingly meeting the needs of people from a series of programs from the social safety net to universal health care to political and social rights legislation. It is a party that began as a populist party in Western Canada, Cooperative Commonwealth Party (CCF), to finally merge with organized labour in the East to form the present party. Its founder, Tommy Douglas is considered the father of Canada's health care system as well as being considered, the greatest Canadian.

The NDP is often called by its detractors as a socialist party. I do not consider it is one. It once was but years ago it gave up on a policy of nationalizing some major industries in Canada and has done little to oppose the privatization of many Canadian industries such as oil and gas, railroads, and airlines. With a Conservative government there will always be pressures to weaken national institutions such as universal health care, the CBC, The National Film Board and other regulatory agencies. There will always be a need for a progressive party in Canada such as the NDP, particularly now. Jack Layton made believers of many that it can be more than the moral conscience of the Nation. It can be the Loyal Opposition and some day it could be the party in power and form the government. This was Jack's ambition.

Jack Layton and his wife Olivia Chow, partners in life and politic

Jack Layton has been a life long political animal who came from a family with deep Canadian and political roots. Here is a brief summary of his life

Jack Layton was a populist and was comfortable with all the cultural groups in Canada. He was a man of cosmopolitan multicultural Toronto. (Besides French, he spoke Chinese). Be was born and raised in an English community in Quebec and knew and enjoyed French Canadian society.

His charm, openness and his street level French allowed him to help convince Quebecers to give the New Democratic Party a chance to represent them in Parliament.

To honour Jack the NDP will have to work hard to be an effective Loyal Opposition and work for the people of Canada, as individuals and groups.

Le Bon Jack, Salut!

PS: I received from the New Democratic Party this morning of a letter written to all of us his best advice for the future. It is a moving example of the focus and principles of this man who spend his life serving Canada in politics. I invite you to read it here. Thanks, Jack.

2011-08-20T08:53:00.030-04:00

Catching Up With Family

A couple of weeks ago, I had took an opportunity to visit with my brother Richard and his wife Carol. They were on a holiday in Southern Ontario visiting family and friends in both Toronto and Fort Erie. I travelled south with Lynne, who had come North to attend a wedding I was officiating . We went for an afternoon and dinner at my sister Penny's place to share some time with them.

Richard and Carol live in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are retired nurses. We do not get to see them very often. Those who regularly read my blog remember that Richard and Carol hiked the compete Appalachian Trail last year. Since finishing the Trail Carol has been successfully fighting breast cancer. Being very fit, having lots of family support and successful therapy have all contributed to her successful outcome. It was also Richard and Carol's wedding anniversary. It was good to spend some time with them, celebrating, and get caught up on family information.

Richard and Carol will be hiking in Florida soon, doing something they enjoy together. In the future they hope to hike the Pacific CrestTrail from Mexico to Canada.

Me, Richard and Penny

Richard and Carol

Heidi and her new friend, Jenny. As you can see Heidi thinks she is a lap dog.

It is always difficult for me to leave Heidi behind whenever I go any where. A neighbour and blogging friend, Jenny offered to care for her in spite of being in the midst of packing up for a move to a new home. She also has five dogs of her own. Her offer was generous if not heroic

It seems Heidi worked her affectionate magic and wooed Jenny, who would have liked to have kept her after only four days. I had to reassure her that Heidi and I are "joined at the hip" and I was in no way willing to part with her. Jenny has offered to dog sit again. Which would be nice for me and Heidi. . . . . and Jenny, I gather.

Thanks Jenny.

2011-08-13T11:38:00.021-04:00

She Makes Us Proud

I have three grandchildren, Dylan, Olivia and Travis. They are all excellent students, participants in athletics and lovely young people, a credit to their parents. They all make us very proud often.

This past year. Olivia, graduated from elementary school. Ècole publique Jeunesse-Active, in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario. This school is a school in which the language of instruction is in French.

Olivia Robinson

Olivia's accomplishment was quite remarkable. She was the valedictorian of her class. She won numerous awards. She was the top academic student as well as winning the physical education award. She won the history prize and the Français prize.

She was also awarded the Citoyenne Francophone (French citizen award) which is quite remarkable as English is her first language and her family is considered an Anglophone family in Sturgeon although her mother is from a Francophone family

All three of my grandchildren are bilingual as a result of their being educated in a French language school. They have excelled in school . They are one of the few English families to seek out a French language education. Dylan is continuing his education in French at the French public secondary school that shares the building with the English secondary school in which his father works. Olivia will be attending Franco Cité, the French Catholic Secondary School. Of the three children she has come to identify herself as a Francophone the most. It seem knowing the French language is a cultural reality she has adopted.

I found out years ago the Government of Ontario considers the ability to speak French as merely a skill. (At the time, I was trying to find out if I was being discriminated against in employment because I was not bilingual.) In Québec, the situation is different. the French language is more than a skill; it is also cultural. To understand this you have to understand Canadian history and politics. Historically, Francophones in Ontario has struggle very hard to keep their language and culture alive. Now they can do so with the blessing of the government and a wider acceptance of bilingualism.

I am very proud that my grandchildren have been raised to be bilingual. It is such a wonderful advantage to speak more than one language in our World, and in Canada, being able to speak both official languages allow one to participate fully in the two founding cultures. As a result, of their education they have extended for another generation the French heritage of their mother's family, the Lajeunesse branch of the Renaud family that first settled in this area of Ontario.

I think it is important to encourage the French culture in this part of Ontario. West Nipissing (which includes both Sturgeon Falls and River Valley,)is the most bilingual community in Ontario

Congratulations Olivia. I hope and expect you will go on to find success in high school and University if you continue on. You make us all proud.

2011-08-06T08:24:00.032-04:00

August 6, 1945, August 9, 1945

The day the World changed. It was on this day that the Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Three days later, once again one was dropped on Nagasaki. It was a day of shame for humanity. We ought to always remember these dreadful events.

All my life I have had to live under the threat of nuclear war. Sadly, we still do. It has been 66 years and we still have not rid the World of these weapons. Efforts at doing so are painfully slow.

The first protest group I ever joined was the "Ban the Bomb" movement. I believing then what my mother accepted as the truth, that the bombing of these two cities was necessary to end the war. It has taking my own curiosity to do a little research on this to realize that this is a propaganda myth. The bombs were dropped probably more as an experiment than as a necessity. The Japanese were on the verge of surrender with the Russians trying to mediate. The Americans wanted to cut short any influence in the East by the Soviets.

There was lots of advice not to use these weapons, include some from the very top ranks of the military in the United States. The argument that "we now have these weapons and therefore should use them" seemed to have won the day. I invite everyone to google some sites that discuss this historical event. Unfortunately, historical research seldom changes the public historical myths, first put forward.

At a time when we hear of "banks too big to fail" surely we should consider 'weapons too dreadful to use".

The bombs in existence to day are many times more powerful that the "small " ones used on Japan. Such images as this should strike fear in our hearts.

Such war on civilians can only be justified when we dehumanize our brother, "the enemy". In this case the heinously cruel Japs. Now the Japanese are our much admired friends and allies.
We live with such historical contradictions repeatedly.

There is no justification for this. It could be a photo from the liberation of the Nazi death camps?
How ironic.

Sadly, we have recently been reminded efforts to still indoctrinate military personel into believing there is some justification in the use of these weapons. The Air Force Academy is now changing an ethics course they have used for decades which tried to convince those who might be in a position to set off a nuclear war that it would be moral and a "Christian" thing to do. As a human being and one who believe religion is an admirable human experience, I am profoundly offended that Christianity, or any religion would be used to justified unspeakable horrors as the use of weapons too horrible to use. If they are, as most seem to agree chemical weapons are, they should be destroyed forthwith.

It is this time of year that I think of the Cuban missle crisis and how one Soviet submarine officer, Vasili Arkhapov, prevented a nuclear war. He was one of three officers on the submarine who had to agree to fire in order to launch a nuclear weapon. He refused and managed to convince a second person to refuse. As a result no weapon was fired. If is had been launched, one can be sure the American's would have retaliated. This officer should be better know and revered. According to William McNamara we lived through this crisis without really knowing how close we had come to a nuclear war.

It is past time to make nuclear weapons obsolete.

2011-08-02T11:35:00.008-04:00

A Precious Find

A couple of months ago, I lost my most precious book.

I found it this week.

I had taken this table top book about Canoe's to my friend Lynn's place to share it with her.

I last remember reading on the train ride home on the Northlander.

Several days after I got home I looked for it and could not find it. I looked everywhere, more than once. I then began to question myself, "Did I loan it to someone?" "Could someone have come into the house and stolen it". Could my neighbour or my grandchildren or someone else have it? " Did I leave it at Lynne's place?" I did ask some people if I loaned it to them but frankly it was so painful to think about losing it I did not like to mention it to anyone for it might extend into a longer conversation, renewing the pain.

I thought I might have left it on the train. But, certainly, I would not not have forgotten to pack it away in my travel bag before I disembarked from the train! It was too important to me to leave it behind. What an idiot I would be to have done that? Finally, I came to believe (tentatively) that I was that idiot. Too much time had passed to contact Ontario Northland Railroad, they only kept lost articles for a month. I was grieving and learning to accept it as gone. Every time I thoutht of it I would feel sorry for myself.

Have I mentioned, I am finding I suffer from short term memory loss as I get older?

Finally, the other day I was looking for some books to give to my grandson, Travis, which I thought he might enjoy. At the same time, I found myself wistfully looking for my Canoe book.

I finally pulled out a book that was put on the shelf back binding down so that only the bottom end of the pages showed. It was tucking in beside the four volumes of the Canadian Encyclopedia. It turned out to be my canoe book.

It was a Miracle! Well that is the way I felt. (I am not a big believer in miracles). I had give up at ever seeing it again. And now, there it was.

I spent the rest of the day reading it and enjoying the 400 pictures of canoes. It is a treasure of a book for someone like me who loves rivers and canoes. My canoe I have had since I was 17. It is the perfect canoe, a classic. It is a 16 foot, Prospector model Peterborough Canoe, cedar strip canvas covered .It is the same as the canoe that the famous canoeist and promoter of canoeing , Bill Mason, owned. (How is that for an endorsement). It is , in fact, just a coincidence. I remember carefully deciding what canoe to purchase. My choice was the Prospector, a red one, what other colour would a canoe be!

I worked half that summer, so many years ago, to earn enough money to pay for it. It cost me $150.00. (Today, such a canoe costs at least that much per foot). The last six weeks that summer I spent alone living on an island on a Muskoka lake, alone and in solitude with my canoe. If only it had gone on longer.

Here is a National Film Board of Bill Mason and his family on a typical canoe trip in the North Wood

If I ever could afford another canoe it would be a birch bark canoe, a great Canadian icon. This canoe is the most wonderful example of native American. technology. I have long been fascinated with this technology that includes the canoe, snow shoes, toboggans, the crooked knife among others.

The canoe is close to the perfect artifact. It is just right as the mode of transportation for the millions of lakes and rivers in North America. It is both practical and a work of art. It is light weight and yet capable of carrying a significant load. Most memorable is that a person with a few simple hand tools and build a birch bark canoe from standing tree to vessel on the water and then skillfully propel it through the water.

At one time most Native North American men would have known how to construct such a vessel. There are still some native and non-natives who can still create a birch bark canoe.

I can only imagine the satisfaction one must feel to build a birch bark canoe and then launch if for the first time in the water as Cesar does at the end of the film. I once thought I would try to build one myself. I only got as far as selecting a tree large enough to get one piece of bark from it for a 12 foot canoe. It was on my neighbours property. When I went to arrange to cut it down I found out they had harvested it for firewood. Oh, No! It is so hard to find a tree big enough as such trees a commercially cut for veneer. This ambition of mine will go unfulfilled like so many other dreams I have had. I have been accused of being a dreamer. I guess I am. which is why I often return to my canoe book and to dream as long as I do not lose it ,or forget, where I left it.

2011-07-30T10:08:00.024-04:00

August 1 is the holy month of Ramadan (here) celebrated in the Muslim Community. Once again this year two young Muslim, Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq, are going on the road to visit

30 mosques in thirty days in 30 states.. This is the third year they have done this. I have enjoyed following them each year. The first year they visited 30 mosques in 30 days in the New York City area. The next year they went on their road trip across the continental US to visit 30 mosques in 30 states. This year they are even more ambitious. They are including the states of Alaska and Hawaii. Not only will they be meeting with members of the wide variety of mosques and sharing the evening breaking of the fast , they will be speaking at venues in the cities. I look foreword to following along and learning more about the diversity of Islam in America.

I invite readers to follow along by visiting their blog. This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about Muslims and Islam. I assure you it will be a lot different that the jaundice hostile views we read about in the news media.

In the left hand margin of the blog you can link to some interesting entries in the previous year's web log. This will give you a taste of what this year's offering will be. I particularly enjoyed the visit to the oldest exiting mosque in the US in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and the site of the first mosque in the US, in rural North Dakota. The styles and locations of mosques is often a surprise.

Here you will find a map of the cities to be visited this year.

Ramadan Mubarak

"May the spirit of Ramadan

illuminate the world and show us

the way to peace and harmony."

2011-07-24T11:25:00.009-04:00

Oops! An Obama Error

This may be old news to some but it is new to me. President Obama redecorated the Oval Office in the Whitehouse, as is the right of all incoming presidents. As part of his redecoration he had a new rug created which has on it five quotations he admired. He credited five great Americans as the originators of these quotations. As it turned out two of the quotations were wrongly credited.

You would think a person who went to school and Boston would have known the origins of these quotations.

The Oval Office View beyond the President Desk

The quotations credited to Martin Luther King, Jr ("The Arc of the Universe is Long, But it Bends toward Justice") and Abraham Lincoln ("Government of the People, By the People, For the People.") where wrongly credited. They should have been credited to The Reverend Theodore Parker, a leading cleric and outspoken social reformer in the 19th Century. Parker is a product of the New England Enlightenment, Transcendentalism. He was the minister of the 28th Congregationalist Society. (When Unitarianism was know as the Boston Religion).

As a Unitarian minister I am annoyed and a little insulted as Parker is much revered within our denomination as one of the intellectual founders of our denomination in the 19th Century along with The Reverend William Ellery Channing and The Reverend Ralph Waldo Emerson.

As the minister of the 7,000 member 28th Congregational Society in Boston, Parker spoke out for all the social causes of his day. He was an active abolitionist working to help fugitive slaves avoid being captured and sent back to their slave owners as required under the Fugitive Slave Laws.

I am sure Martin Luther King, Jr. who studied for his doctorate at Boston University in Boston and Abraham Lincoln, who was a contemporary of this outstanding preacher and social activist, were well aware they were using Parker's words. Like most clerics and public speakers they no doubt failed to give credit where credit was due. As public knowledge of Theodore Parker faded, the remarks of his were miss accredited to them.

Here are the miss accredited quotations:

To Matin Luther King, Jr. "The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, But it Bends Toward Justice."
And, to Abraham Lincoln, "Government of the People, By the People, For the People."

Like all lecturers King and Lincoln shaped the quotation to their liking. Here are the correct quotes of Theodore Parker.
"I don't pretend to understand the moral universe, the Arc is a long one. . .But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice." 1853
"A Democracy . . .that is of the people, by the people and for the people." 1850

Note: Parker no doubt was quoting for the introduction to John Wicliff's translation of the Bible into English. "The Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People and for the People"
1384.

You would think someone would have researched these quotations which the President chose in order to have made sure there ownership was properly noted. by saying such things as a "a popular quotation from Martin Luther King, Jr. who liked to repeat this phrase by Theodore Parker." and " this phrase in the Gettysburg address was spoken by Abraham Lincoln paraphrasing Theodore Parker". I hate to think those who had the rug designed would not have know the original source of these quotations. They are wonderful treasured statements in the historic literature of the United States. A little searching would have revealed the correct source reference.

Perhaps, when they publish literature for the public of the wonderfully decorated Obama Oval office they will include a footnote on these missed credited quotations.

2011-07-10T09:13:00.004-04:00

A Summer Read: To the Woods

(click on photo to enlarge)

This week I read a these books that I found enjoyable, informative and entertaining.

While in Ottawa I purchased a copy of Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods", after I was reminded of it by AC my blogger friend who I visited in Ottawa. I had been considering reading it ever since my brother and his wife hiked the Appalachian Trail's entire length last year. It is an account of the author and a friend's hiking of the Trail. If follows their planning, executing, abandoning the hike only to return to finish it and then abandon it again just before the end. For those considering hiking the Trail it is a cautionary tale. It is a very challenging hike both for it's length and the physical demands of much of it. The book is more than just an account of the trek. There are many hints on how to prepare and execute the trip interspersed and some environmental information on the health of the wilderness and the government shortfalls in protecting National Parks, particularly the Appalachian Trail. Also, there are many funny episodes in it with the interaction of the two men and their encounters with people and conditions along the way.

After following my brother's adventure, I think the book fails to mention a couple of experiences along the trail that I think are memorable long after the memory of the aches and pains of the trail have been forgotten. Certainly this was the case for my brother and his wife. These two men seem to see very few memorable animals along the way. They worry about bears but actually never see any. They also see no snakes, particularly the poisonous ones. They also make no mention of the feral ponies living in an alpine pasture, which are very friendly to hikers. Surely, the fauna along the trail would be worthy of writing about. They must have seen more than the recount.

Bryson makes no mention of the " trail angels" along the trail. These are people who live near the trail that go out of their way to be helpful to hikers. They offer shelter, transportation into town, encouragement and often food. On more than one occasion, my brother came upon a case of beer left on the trail, often a good distance from an access point. There were church groups and individuals who regularly fed hikers as they passed by. My brother and his wife found this generosity of people and genuine friendship the most memorable aspect of the trek. They felt they had found the "real America" in this time of fear, suspicion and hostility toward "others". More about these two aspects of hiking the trail, the fauna and the trail angel experience would have added a great deal to this otherwise lively account.

The second book I read this week is a young person's book. For the first time one of my grandchildren recommended a book to me. How could one not respond by reading it. My 12 year old grandson who enjoys reading handed a book to me when I stopped at his home on my way back to River Valley. I should mention he also invited me to stay for dinner, which he prepared, with a little help from his grandmother. I was a little taken aback when Travis handed me "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George, saying, "I thought you might enjoy this book." How did he know? Will this book reveal to me what he knew and thought about me. Being offered a good read for a shared experience is for me a generous and thoughtful gift so I brought his book home and read it.

This a child's book written for a thoughtful curious older child. It is the story of a boy, Sam Gribley, who runs away from home in New York City to live in the Catskill Mountains in a self sufficient "wild" fashion. (What child has not thought of running away from home.) He had been told stories about his father's more rural upbringing from whom he learned quite a lot on finding food and shelter in the woods. He also read a great deal about it. With his parents reluctant permission he set off with little more that a change of clothes, $40, a flint and steel, a pocket knife, a ball of twine and an axe. He went in a quest to go and live on the land his grandfather homesteaded which was now abandoned and at a remote area of the mountain near Derby.

The story is basically about how he solved all the problems of food, shelter and clothing. He has considerable knowledge of edible plants and animals, which he manages to find, collect, dry and store. He is a great observer of animals and befriends a few that approach his habitation, a hollowed out large and ancient hemlock tree. He captures a young falcon, raises it and teaches it to hunt for him, mainly rabbits. He fishes, snares and traps small animals and even gets deer when he see hunters shooting them and then not finding them where they fall. From the skins he makes himself clothes. The book is a source of a great deal of information on edible plants and animals. He came to the woods with this knowledge and learns more from observing the animals.

Eventually. he encounters individuals, who he befriends and shares his life with for short periods of time.: a librarian, an old woman, a teacher, a couple of young boys his age.He hides from a couple of others: a ranger and hunters. He spends a whole year living in the mountains.

Eventually, news get out about a wild boy living in the mountains. Increasingly, he seems willing to be found out. His father comes for a visit and admires what he has accomplished admitting that when he left he expected he would come home within a day, week,or month. In the end, (not a very satisfactory one) his family, including 8 brothers and sisters come to find him and decide they will join him if he will not return to the city because family ties are important. They insist they will build a house and not live in the base of a tree. It seems life requires compromises and living simple and pure in the wilds is not realistic.

I guess my grandson know me better than I thought. While I never seriously considered running away from home, I have often dreamed of living alone for a time in a remote natural setting. I have long been interested in the flora, particularly the the edible plants , and fauna of the forest. I have a small library of books, I have read and reread, on edible plants, animal and bird identification, survival skills, camping, and log cabin building. When I was 17 I tried to convince my parents to let me spend the Winter living along in a log cabin on an island in Muskoka. I had already spent six week alone with my canoe when the idea haunted me. My practical parents would not let me miss a year of school so this dream was not realized. I have since then taught myself to do simple minimalist wilderness camping. My rule of thumb was that I had to be able to portage my canoe, carrying one pack ( 45 pounds) with all that I would need for two weeks.. I did this a few times but dreamed about it a great. Even now the notion of packing up and taking off alone in a canoe into the wilderness holds a fascination for me. I have read a lot about the early adventurers in Northern Canada who travelled extensively in the Wilderness. Since I got a computer I am fascinated with remote places in the World where people live, and even some where men have lived but not longer do so. I have long wanted to visit the high arctic region of Canada. Sadly, this will remain a dream, the reality would be far to expensive.

It seems the best I could do was to find my way to River Valley and a farm property along the Temagami River, adjacent to the Temagami wilderness. Here at least I can enjoy the flora and fauna and dream my dreams.

2011-07-06T12:29:00.007-04:00

Visiting Ottawa Canada Day

As planned ,Lynne and I headed off for Ottawa to be there for Canada Day. We had never done this ,we thought it was about time. It was to be a special Canada Celebration with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in attendance. There visit to Canada was their first as a couple and there was a great deal of anticipation of their visit to Canada wondering how they would be received and how this young couple would handle themselves.

With the excepting of a few Québecois angry types who cannot get over the fact that the French were defeated on the Plains of Abraham. and then abandoned by their cultural homeland, France , for 2 or 3 hundred years, the visit was hysterically well received, even in Québec. The couple charmed us showing poise and dignity while at the same time being very relaxed and obviously enjoyed meeting and talking to people wherever they went.

Lynne and I travelled Route 7, which is actually the Trans Canada Highway although it is not a major expressway. It was an opportunity to see some of Eastern Ontario, going through some small towns and countryside between Toronto and Ottawa.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka Will and Kate)

We were not fortunate enough to even see the lovely couple let alone shake their hands. There were about 500,000 people in attendance. My sister, the Royal Stalker, was also in Ottawa and did get to see the Duchess up close. (It was my sister who went to London for the wedding to sleep in the street so she could get a good view.) A black suburban pulled up in front of her as she waited for Will and Kate to arrive at the War Museum. The door opened and Kate stepped out in from of her. She was thrilled and recounted the event while we enjoyed a meal of South Indian food (Tamil) later that evening.

Lynne and I were just enjoying the celebratory atmosphere and watching people as they appeared with bits and pieces of patriotic regalia on. It was a scene of some of the diversity of Canada young to old, families. friends and couples, decked out in ways from the sublime to the ridiculous. My favourite was a young woman in a very white hijab with a red stove piped hat on top.

John and Susan (aka bloggers AC and Cuppa)

On the way into Ottawa, Lynne and I dropped in on a fellow blogger and his wife at Carlton Place outside Ottawa. AC and I have read each others blogs for a few years now and exchanged emails when we had more to share than could be contained in a comment. I always enjoyed his blog and felt we shared some things in common. I was pleased to be able to spend some time with him and his wife to discover that they are as nice as they revealed themselves to be through their blog. I think this is probably true of most people who keep a blog. Over time, we all reveal our true selves. It would be hard to maintain a false persona. I hope we will return to Ottawa again, as there is a lot to see and do there, and have another opportunity to visit AC and Cuppa

A Couple of Canada Day Pilgrims ( Ma femme et moi)

Here we are sitting on the curb of Wellington Street, which runs in front of the Parliament Buildings. At this point we were just people watching. There was a big viewing screen in the road for the crowd on the street, unable to get on the lawn in front of the parliament building .

Our view of the festivities was obstructed by a row of "port-o-potties" We were content just to soak up atmosphere and glad not be in a big press of a crowd, above and behind us.

Statue of Oscar Peterson

One of the things I really wanted to see in Ottawa was this statue of Oscar Peterson, one of the world's greatest jazz pianists. It is outside the National Arts Centre. His music is playing when you approach and the thing to do is sit on the piano bench along side him

Me and Oscar

You can see I am a man of simple pleasures. Besides I have painful knee joints that always remind me that to sit is better than to stand, even if it is just for a moment.

Statue of Maurice (the Rocket) Richard

I could not resist taking a picture of "The Rocket". He is the hockey equivalent of Babe Ruth or Willie Mays. (if you are not a hockey fan, or very young) When I was young he was the French Canadian player to watch while Gordie Howe was the best English Canadian player.

We had a lovely time. We stayed in the ARC hotel three blocks from the Parliament Buildings.
We ate out at some interesting restaurants (always a special infrequent treat for me) We made use of the "hop on /hop off tour bus" to get around and see the location of site in the city. We got off at the Museum of Civilization and spent several hours there (not enough time), in the First Nations' people section). We went to the famous Byward Market, once to look and once to eat, (not enough time there either). We saw where the Prime Minister lived among the rich and famous and were not able to drive by the the Opposition leader's home as it was among the richer and more famous. Actual this well healed area is where a lot of ambassador residences are as are some of the more important Embassies.

The American ambassadors residence has the best view, high in a bluff overlooking the river.

The new US Embassy is closer to downtown. It is a well fortified building on the street. My reaction was that it was obvious what country is at war with the World. There were at least three levels of security barriers on the street side of the building as well as some suspicious (defensive) sculptures on either side of the door. I would have liked to visit the American Embassy but I was not sure where the entrance was. It is too bad it does not have a more inviting appearance.

I like the current American ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson. I read his blog regularly and think he is very gracious as well as knowledgeable about Canada. The previous ambassador , Wilkins, from South Carolina, I felt did not know much about Canada and the one before him Cerutti, from Massachusetts was rude and bullying toward Canada.

(He criticized Canada for not going to war with the US against Iraq. In the spirit of Bush's "You are with us or against us" view of international affairs. he accused Canada of not being a good friend to the US. I would have so liked to have replied to him, "What kind of a friend tries to drag a good friend into a illegal and immoral war?" He owed Canada more respect for taking an independent sovereign (and as it turned out a correct) decision on the war.

Sorry for the political aside.

On the Fourth of July the American Ambassador holds a barbecue for his 5,000 closest friends at his lovely residence. I would have loved an invitation. If I had know it at the time he was just in front of us while we watched the Changing of the Guard, July 3rd, (The band was marching to American tunes in honour of the Fourth of July the next day.) (If you read his blog you will see his account of this), I would have love a chance to speak to him.. . . .blogger to blogger! It is worth a try.

We went on a tour of the parliament buildings. I did this years ago and Lynne has never done it.
While most school children do this at some time , like graduation from grade eight, Lynne decided when she and I were in school the best we did was a tour of the St. Lawrence Starch Works, that always gave our home town of Port Credit a distinctive and offensive cheesy smell, and a tour of the Ford Motor Car assembly plant in nearby Oakville. This tour I wanted very much to see the parliamentary library, . . . . truly beautiful.

We had a lovely time. But I was glad to get home and gather up Heidi. My son told me on the phone that Heidi accidentally bite Dylan, my eldest grandson. My son was about to leave for Arizona (he likes the heat) while his mother was visiting from Arizona to care for the children and not necessarily for Heidi.

After less than a week away I have long grass to cut and flowers in my flower boxes to try to revive.

Oh yes one of my cat had a kitten and brought it out of its hiding place while I was away. So I now have a wild (half grown) cat that has never been handled by a human in the house. It makes life interesting.

Canada Day was a great success this year with the biggest crowd in Ottawa ever on a lovely sunny day. I trust my American friends had a wonderful Fourth of July.

2011-06-21T09:45:00.005-04:00

At Last the Summer Solstice

Well, Happy Summer Solstice. It seems summer has really arrived.

We are entering the festival season it seems. Aboriginal Day, June 21; St. Jean Babtiste Day, June 24, Multi-Cultural Festival, June 30, and Canada Day, July 1. These events speak to significant groups within Canada: First Nations people, French Canadians, Ethnic and Cultural groups, and on Canada Day, all Canadians.

Today is Aboriginal Day. June 21. First Nations people will be marking the occasion with family and community activities. Those of us who live close by First Nations Communities will be well aware of this and even joy in the activities. In Canada's Constitution the First Nations are recognized these include the Amerindians, (I live in the traditional territory of the Anishanaabek , {the Ojibwe,} if you prefer) the Inuit, and the Métis. I am particularly thinking of the Métis this year. Until they were recognized in the Constitution they were often overlooked at First Nations people and many out of shame or ignorance has let their heritage disappear. With a new sense of identity and respect for their heritage, many have rediscovered their roots once again identified themselves as Métis and demanded their rights.

A Métis Sash or Ceinture fléchée

Banner of St Jean Babtiste One of our local church is L'Église de Sacre Cour (note the sacred heart at the center of the banner.

June 24 is St. Jean Babtiste Day. In Québec is recognized at Le Fête Nationale du Québec, a nationalist holiday. Our local Franco-Ontarien community has begun to celebrate it more as a wider French Canadian celebration after the years of it being politicized by the separatists in Quebec. The French Canadians in Ontario have a long history of struggling to win a stronger presence within Canada and never sided with the Québecois and their nationalist dream of an independent Nation.

Ironically, it was at a Jean Babtiste celebration in 1880 that "O Canada" was first heard. It was to become Canada's National Anthem.

In Nova Scotia there is a Multi-cultural Festival beginning next week. Across Canada, such festivals are observed at many times throughout the year. In the major urban areas where there are such large ethic and cultural groups there are many rich festivals throughout the summer. This weekend the International Indian Film Awards is taking over the city. With Canada's large South Asian Community Bollywood films are very popular. That is happening in Canada is a recognition of the significance of the Indian Community in Canada.

The following week the colourful and very large Gay Pride Parade will take center stage. And so it goes throughout the summer from one ethic or cultural group to another.

A playful Canada Day banner. Even our pups can come out to celebrate.

(click on photo to enlarge)

Here is a previous Canada Day Celebration in Ottawa in front of the Parliament Buildings. This year, for the first time, I will be with the throngs in Ottawa. Lynne and I will be taking in the festivities and well as trying to catch a glimpse of the Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge (William and Kate) who will be in attendance as part of their visit to Canada.

2011-06-16T15:11:00.023-04:00

The Flag: Our National Symbol

There are many things about Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party that irritates me. I will be very uncomfortable for the next four years of a majority Conservative government in Canada.

One of the most annoying things about Stephen Harper is how he has commandeered our National symbol, the Flag as his own. It dawned on me gradually during the election until I realized there was never a chance for a Harper's Conservative Party's sound byte that he was not standing in front of a Canadian Flag. No other leader of a party did this. This wrapping yourself in the flag is foreign to Canadian politics. You see it often in the US where I think Harper got the idea.

The flag belongs to the whole Nation and all Canadians. While Canadians often do enjoy waving the flag, it is never to the exclusion of others. We witnessed this at the past Olympics where the flag waving left some of us a little uncomfortable even though we recognized it was a symbol of inclusion for all of us. Such overt chauvinistic displays are awkward for some. When I suggested to Lynne that we should get a couple of small Canadian flags to wave when we go to Ottawa for Canada Day, she said , "No". Such a display was not her way. Also it is not mine either, although I do have a flag hung on my house's porch. I am a Canadian nationalist and definitely not of the Conservative kind.

You notice Stephen Harper has even adopted red as his colour. Not any red but the red in our flag. This is ironic as blue is actually the colour historically associated with the Conservative Party, as in "blue bloods", the establishment. The party in Ontario, in my youth was called the "Big Blue Machine". Red is often associated with the progressive end of the political spectrum. Remember the red flag of Communism or Anarchism. Ironically we still speak of Red Tories. These are conservatives that are conservative fiscally but progressive socially. They were very much a part of the former Progressive Conservative Party.

What is going on here.

I think there is a deliberate attempt by the Conservative Party to identify itself with our National symbols. Stephen Harper has relatively recently referred to the Conservative Party as "Canada's Party" , as if it speaks for Canada in ways other parties do not.

In the parliamentary system of government, the Prime Minister and his party has the responsibility of forming the government. It only does so as long as it has the consent of parliament. It does not fully represent the country, in fact even as a majority government it did not receive a majority of votes.

To represent the country as a whole, we have a Governor General, ( the Queen's representative) to represent the Nation. The party in power need to remember it has no divine right to rule. It has a serious and humbling responsibility to do so. It is in the American system of government these two functions: administration and national symbol is unified in the President. There are real strengths to having them separated. It allows one to oppose the government of the day and still be loyal to the country as a whole.

Notice in the Contempt isposter above the large blue "C" of the Conservative Party with a red maple leaf flag in its embrace. It is the same colour and shape of the maple leaf that sits in the middle of our Canadian flag.

The problem with one party taking as its own symbols of the whole country is it indicates that all others are outside the circle of belonging. Those who oppose the Conservative Party and its program are lesser Canadians. When the going gets mean, as iot will, non-Conseratives may even be seen as disloyal to the country, subversives, if you will.

Years ago, when Stephen Harper, got into federal politics he said he not only wanted to defeat the Liberal Party he wanted to destroy the Liberal Party. I am sure in this last election he thinks he has begun its destruction. His vision for Canada was to have basically two parties one of the right, the Conservatives (Canada's Party) and one of the the left, The New Democratic Party, which has replaced the Liberal Party as the official opposition. The Conservatives treat the NDP with contempt as those irresponsible socialists who cannot be trusted with the economy. (In fact, historically the New Democrats where they have formed governments provincially have been very responsible with the economy. In fact, it has been Conservative governments who have run up deficits. And of course, there was a Conservative government in Saskatchewan that was a criminal organization that saw many of its cabinet member go to jail. I think the Conservatives see the NDP as a more vulnerable and less threatening than the Liberal Party, which historically filled the centrist postion on the political spectrum.

Just before the past election the Conservative Party was found in 'contempt of parliament".
This is almost a unique event in parliamentary democracy. The Conservatives shrugged it off as just being outvoted by those who did not like them. It was much more serious than this. Such a dismissive attitude, in itself was contemptous of Parliament. It should have denied them of forming the government but they managed to deflect it's seriousness and convince their attitude to this judgement by parliament as the correct understanding of it.

With the Conservative Party laying claim to being the "Canadian Party", draping itself in the flag, and its willingness to treat parliament with contempt, the are well on the way to attacking a fundamental aspect of parliamentary government, the notion of the"loyal opposition".

I can imagine in the next election the Conservative Party claiming the opposition is out the destroy Canada and only the Conservative (Canada Party) can be trusted to govern. I hope politics does not degenerate to this level of discourse of " us and them". Time will tell. It may depend of the revival of the Liberal Party which is more representative of the political center in Canadian politics.

2011-06-07T14:03:00.017-04:00

A New Family Member

This weekend my son and grandson came for a visit to do some chores at the cabin by the river and to show me their new dog. She is a white Labrador Retriever, cute as a button.

(click on photo to enlarge)

Heidi, Travis and the, as yet, unnamed puppy.

I guess the two dog are the long and the short of it. Heidi after easily accepting the new pup was quite willing to share sitting on the swing with her and Travis.

The new pup got a chance to explore a little around the cabin. She even dipped her feet in the river. The pup seems to be well socialized: she is very quiet and gentle and seems to like to follow Travis all around. I am sure the whole family is going to enjoy training this pup and having it in their life.

My son had a chocolate Lab for 15 years and a while back it's life with them came to an end. It was hard on everyone. It seems they are all ready to move on and enjoy this new pup, while having great memories of the life they shared with Hanna.

With the rain we have had this Spring the river is full. Last year after several years of Winter drought it was just a fraction of what it should be as a delightful river. The beaver ponds, marshes, lakes and rivers, even the Great Lakes, are nicely filled with water. We are ready for a sunny and warm Summer.

2011-06-06T11:51:00.016-04:00

June 6, 1944: D-Day

"The German dead were littered over the dunes, by the gun positions. By them, lay Canadians in blood stained battledress, in the sand and in the grass, on the wire and by the concrete forts. I saw friends I had known, men who had joined the army in the first months of the war - and now had died in their first action here on the Norman beach. They had lived a few minutes of the victory they had made. That was all."

War is ugly and not a noble adventure. Those who glorify it and glamorize the Warrior is doing us all a great disservice. This is not to say that some individual rise to great levels of valour in battle and even risk and lose their lives for their mission and their comrades. Few wars are just wars. I believe the Second World War was a just war, a necessary evil in the face of an even greater evil. Even as a pacifist I recognize them and honour those who answered the call.

I take this day each year to learn a little more about " Operation Overlord", D-Day. It was an epic and heroic enterprise, for which failure was not an option.

Canada, along with Britain and the United States came ashore along 80 kilometers of Normandy Coast. A vast armada of ships, bomber, fighter and glider aircraft made the crossing of the English Channel. It was the largest such invasion in human history and a masterful logistical operation.

Who remembers the names of the beaches the various armies came ashore at? History in our society is not well taught in schools and yet for those interested there are great opportunities to learn a lot of history, on the Internet and through international travel to visit the actual places where great events took place. The Canadian troops came ashore at Juno Beach, with the British on either side to the east and west, Sword and Gold respectively. The Americans were coming ashore at the two Western beaches, Omaha and Utah beaches.

Canada's troops had a very challenging engagement with the German defenses. It was only less challenging that the Americans at Omaha Beach. In the spirit if the Battle of Vimy Ridge in the First World War, the Canadian soldiers rose to the occasion and achieved their goal, with many casualities but less than expected, They moved inland further than any other military of that day. According to the historian John Keegan,

“At the end of the day, its forward elements stood deeper into France than those of any other division. The opposition the Canadians faced was stronger than that of any other beach save Omaha. That was an accomplishment in which the whole nation could take considerable pride.”

If you are interested in reading about the Canadians assault in Juno Beach go here,
where I found the two quotations I have used.

The Canadian soldiers who died in Normandy are buried in the cemetery , Bény-sur-Mer
I was surprised to learn that the Canadian prisoners of war who were murdered by the Germans under the command of Kurt Meyer, are also buried their. This historic event has fascinated me for many years. Kurt Myers was an SS Commander, who had a glorious career in the German Army, He fought in Poland, Greece, Russian and began his career in 1933 as part of the unit that protected Hitler. He was a dedicated Nazi ready to fight to the death for their cause. In Normandy, he ignored the laws of war and failed to protect the Canadian prisoners of war under his supervision at Abbaye Ardenne. He is the only German soldier than Canada tried for war crimes. He was sentenced to death which was later reduced to life imprisonment. In 1954, he was released do to ill health, a less than satisfactory resolution for some. There is a tribute video on Youtube if you are interested in such things. There are those who still admire him and his military achievement.

When I first met my neighbour whose last name is Meyer, I amused myself asked him if he was related to Kurt Meyer. He didn't know what I was talking about. When I explained the reference to him he said no his family was Dutch from the Netherlands Frisian area. I really did not think he was related to Kurt Meyer.

As an act of remembrance today, I recommend the video below. It is an encounter in the American War Cemetery at Omaha Beach between an aged American Veteran (101 Airborne) and a Frenchman who wanted to thank him for the US saving of France as he remembered it in his youth. I found it very touching. This is not an uncommon experience: the people of Northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands remember and are grateful to the Allies sacrifice of their behalf. Anyone who has travelled to these countries will become aware it.

On Youtube there is a series of video that tell the story of the Canadian experience in Normandy. It is a interesting reminder of a time past when ordinary Canadians were called upon to rise to extraordinary challenges.

Part One: http://youtu.be/s_SfDEzT8TQ

Part Two: http://youtu.be/p7e2H7TyNEk

Part Three: http://youtu.be/_ONQ3Lld2eg

Part Four: http://youtu.be/ZyQKO596p3o

Part Five: http://youtu.be/6hM8eNxaYJ4

I look forward to the day I can visit Juno Beach and the Canadian Museum there. How hard will it be to imagine the horror and chaos of that day so may years ago, June 6, 1944, while people and children enjoy the delights of the seashore, sand and sea.?

2011-06-03T10:14:00.010-04:00

Alys Robi died at 88

I am sure few of you who read this blog are aware of Alys Robi .

She was a famous French Canadian chanteuse, who sang in English, French and Spanish. She was the first great French Canadian singer who cross over the barrier of the "two solitudes".
Her short singing career saw her perform in Canada, the United States and in Europe. She was a favourite in the 1940's for the Canadian troops in WWII. Decades later another remarkable child singer came out of Quebec to fame and fortune, Céline Dion

At age 5 Robi delighted her family and friends as a singer. At age, 13, a simple country girl, she left home to find a career as a singer in Montreal, singing in the burlesque houses, brothels and clubs (Montreal being an entertainment mecca of North American in those days. Those of us in English Toronto referred to it as Montreal, the Bad.)

I got interested in Alys Robi only a few years ago, when I learned that the father of a friend of mine has been a great love of Alys Robi, as well as an arranger of her music and help shape her career. He was Lucio Agostini, a famous Canadian musician, orchestra leader, and composer., who became well known in English Canada as the conductor of the CBC Orchestra, composing music for radio and television programs. He was an extraordinary musician in his own right. He told me once that he could read music before he could read words. His father had been a conductor and arranger before him. His son, Elio, my friend, played the drums when I first met him but never went on to do anything in music, He became a newspaper publisher instead.

Lucio Agostini and Alys Robi colaborated on music for her career which brought her to the attention of English Canada. They also had a great love affair, at least for Alys Robi did, Lucio did not at first tell her he was married and when he did he said he would not leave his wife for her which broke her heart. She went to the United States to overcome this great loss in her life and on the verge of being considered for a movie roll, she had a bad car accident. This accident and her lost love left her emotionally in trouble. She was diagnosed as being manic/depressive (bi-polar). Her father had her hospitalized and without her consent had her lobotomized. She spent six years in a mental hospital.

Alys Robi, never regained her singing career. She is one of the few people to survive a lobotomy and function at a high level. More often people that underwent this procedure ended up worse off such as Rosemary Kennedy, President Kennedy's sister, who was a difficult child but after her father had her lobotomized she was quite retarded as well as incontinent so that the family had her institutionalized.

Alys Robi managed to get out of the mental hospital and began singing again. She found acceptance among the gay community in Montreal and sang in their clubs. She also came to be appreciated and remember by veterans groups, for whom she also sang .

Alys Robi did a lot of work on behalf of former mental patients and was awarded for her work such than she became know as Lady Alys Robi. She became,in Quebec,famous for having survived a lobotomy as well as for being a wonderful singer. She wrote two autobiographies:
"Ma Carriere, Ma Vie" and "Un Long Cri dans la Nuit, Cinq Années a l'Asite". There was
also a film made of here life," Ma Vie en Cinémascope"
.

There are several videos on Youtube of her singing. I could have picked one of her latin songs like Tico Tico which were more famous but I preferred the two below as speaking a little about her life. There are few records of her singing except for this one from Gala Records.

"Laissez-moi encore chanter" (Let me sing once again)

"Plus je't'aime Je prie pour notre Amour" ( More than loving you I pray for our love)

I hope the various music awards held in Canada each year decide to honour this much forgotten Canadian chanteuse. Her life and music deserve to be remember by more of us.

2011-05-31T11:37:00.004-04:00

I Smell the Lilacs

My lilacs are in bloom. I love them. They make a great display and smell so nice.

(click on photo to enlarge)

A bouquet I brought indoors to make the room smell so fresh and pleasant.

I have two mature bushes, on either end of my verandah. The one above gets morning sun and is on the east side of the verandah. It has smaller blooms which are slower to fully develop.

This is the more fully emerged bush on the west side of the verandah, which I must pass to enter the house. There are many more blooms than last year.

To sit on the porch on the swing with Heidi is always pleasant but now we can also smell the lilac sand watch the pair of hummingbirds darting around to feed at the feeder.

I have two smaller bushes which be a couple of more years before they put on much of a show.

One is white and the other is another blue one.

It is a lovely day today. The warmest so far. It may reach 30 C. Might I be tempted to go for a swim. Humm! the water will still be quite cold. It will be painfully refreshing. I may wait a couple of weeks. :)

2011-05-26T16:03:00.008-04:00

Freedom Riders Reunion

This past week a group of Freedom Riders reunited for the 50th anniversary of their challenge to the Jim Crow laws in the Southern United States. I became aware of the Civil Rights struggle as a result of these dramatic events. From Canada, many watched with interest. Some even found their way to the US to directly participate in civil rights demonstrations.

(If you want to follow the events of the reunion meeting in Jackson Mississippi you can watch a video here . )

African Canadians, were inspired to demand more fully their rights and challenge discrimination in their communities. There roots ran deep in American as many came to Canada prior of the Civil War, via the Underground Railroad. They stayed in Canada while many of their friends and relatives returned to the United States full of hope of change during Reconstruction. Little did they know their lot would be worse before it got better 100 years after the Emancipation.

For me this was the beginning of my religious convictions of pacifism and the power of civil disobedience and direct action as a political strategy to changed laws. I had decided that there were things worth dying for in a struggle which did not require you to kill others.

It is inspiring to seen students and other using non-violence against violence in Arab states: Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Bahrain in particular. By confronting the evil of violence they have lost their fear. Some have died of their convictions but others continue to be inspired by their example. Such was the model of Gandhi, Martin Luther King and others.

The bus of one of the first groups of black and white students trying to desegregate the interstate bus facilities in the South. It was set on fire by the KKK outside of Anniston, Alabama.
The other bus came under attack in Birmingham, Al.

(click on photo to enlarge)

The routes of the Freedom Rides

The video below was made a few years ago when a group of college students followed the route of the Freedom Ride in an attempt to understand it's significance. It is worth watching to remind us of a time past and the progress that was made as a result of the courage of a few, who believe in non-violence and who where called to accept the risk of their lives to achieve, equality and justice.

I am surprised that this 50 Anniversary of the Freedom Riders was not a widely celebrated event in the United States. It did make the news on some networks but it is fascinating to me that the best article I read on it was one in the British Manchester Guardian newspaper.

During the time of the Reunion President Obama was seeking his Irish roots, which he only knew about because of some dogged geneologists. While he is an American of African heritage he certainly is not an African American with deep roots in the American historical experience.
Otherwise, he would have been present at this event in Jackson Mississippi.

At a time in the United States, where there are some efforts to roll back some of the gains of the civil right struggle, it is important to remember those dramatic events of the 60's. I was surprised to learn that this history has not been taught in the schools in Mississippi until recently. It makes me wonder how well history is taught throughout the country. I know Canadian history is very badly taught in Canada but when I went to school it was given less time that American and British history. Only by knowing the history of one's country can one be an effective and intelligent citizen.

I shall always remember the lessons of American history I have learned and partly lived through in the civil rights era. I continue to study it and try to understand it's significance for then and now.

These days I am thinking of my black seminary friend, Johnny, who lived through the early civil rights struggle in his home town of Jackson, Mississippi. His minister and Mentor was shot and almost killed for his stand on civil rights in that community. He was inspired to go into the Unitarian ministry. His minister saw that he got to Boston to study.

I recently, located Johnny living in Durham, NC. One of these day I hope we may get together again and remember our years together in Boston. I know the history of the Freedom Riders and the struggle for civil rights were part of a reality that shaped his life.

2011-05-23T15:29:00.000-04:00

Victoria Day

"The twenty fourth of May is the Queen's birthday,

If you don't give us a holiday we will all run away!"

As a child, I remember chanting the above couplet. It is a holiday in Canada that we celebrate Queen Victoria's Birthday. It has also become a day when we also celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's birthday. I never understood then that it was a unique Canadian tradition. My friend Lynne tells me that they cannot believe that we celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday in Canada.

It was always a special day for us as children. There was often a street party with fireworks.

In a real sense it was also a celebration of the end of Winter and the beginning of Summer, for the warm growing season has arrived. Even now those in the southern part of Ontario, believe that the risk of frost is so minimal that one can begin planting the garden. For children, we knew that the end of school was close. In a month, we would be enjoying summer vacation which for us as children seemed to go on and on before we would have to begin back in school for another year. For some, there would be camp and for others, off to the cottage, and all the joys of these summer delights. Those less fortunate, there was also the adventures in the neighbourhood: biking, visiting friends houses, evenings on the street in front of our house playing games until the light faded and there were trips to the river and lakefront to see what fun we could make for ourselves there (if only my mother knew, she would have worried more than usual.)

We knew little about Queen Victoria other than she was famous way back when and we were thankful for the holiday. I think we also know she was our Queen, the Queen of England and she had had 9 children and dressed in black of all they years she lived after her husband died, at age 42.

Queen Victoria ( reigned 1837-1901)

Queen Elizabeth II (reigned 1953-present

It is interesting to compare and contrast these two duty bound royal women. They both did not expect to become the British Monarch when they were young. Events beyond their control put them in line for the throne. Both inherited the throne at a very young age (18 and 25, respectively). They married members of their extended families, Victoria married Albert, a first cousin and Elizabeth married Philip, a third cousin, related through Queen Victoria, who had 9 children who married into most of the royal families of Europe.

It has always amused me that the British Royal Family were really Germans as were many royal families in Europe. They are of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha . Through two world wars they found themselves on different sides with other members of their family. They changed their name to Windsor, to distant themselves from their German roots.

As a foot note to history, Princess Diana, had deeper noble British roots than the Royal family, being a Spencer. No wonder her brother spoke at her funeral with distain for the British royals.

Both Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II have reigned a very long time. It appears that Elizabeth will surpass Victoria in the longevity of her reign. Queen Victoria reigned during the rise of the British Empire culminating with her becoming Empress of India.( the jewel of the Empire) Queen Elizabeth has reigned over the dissolution of the Empire, which has been reduced to the Commonwealth of Nations, with some in Australia and Canada, who believe that the ties with the Monarchy should be broken, having their countries become Republics. I for one think to do this would be the loss of some great and unique traditions of Canada. Queen Victoria was our first Monarch of Canada with Canada beginning as an independent country in 1867 and in a way Queen Elizabeth completed this process with the repatriation of our Constitution, signing the Constitution Act of 1982 I like to think the longevity of these two Monarchs as well as those in between have been a steadying influence on Canadian political and social life institutions over the years.

Queen Victoria saw Britain rise to the heights of the Industrial Revolution. It was a time of growth and prosperity. The stress of the World Wars and the Depression hurried the demise of a great Empire. (Should this be a warning for our militaristic neighbour to the south which seems to have Empirial ambitions?) The age of Empire of over. Queen Elizabeth has graciously brought dignity and respect to the adjustments of the Commonwealth. Many former countries of the Empire have continued to support one another in the evolution of their democratic nations while being head together with a mutual respect for the British tradition in social and political governance.

I think there is much to celebrate in the lives of these two great Queen. It is good to remember our history and the contributions of their reigns. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

2011-05-20T06:45:00.029-04:00

" Now is the End, Perish the World"

It is at times like this that I think of the skit of the Beyond the Fringe satirical review entitled,"The End of the World". It has always made me smile and in a way gave me hope. I recommend it to you. I regret that it is not one of the skits posted on You Tube so you could see and hear it performed.

In our family, we grew up on Beyond the Fringe and a couple of other British satirical reviews.

We, as a family, listened to the records of them over and over again. It got so we knew many of the reviews off by heart, so much so, throughout our lives when a situation prompted us we would quote a phrase or line from one of the skits and the rest of the family would laugh being reminded of the humour of the the whole skit. It became a form of our family language code. I wonder if other families have coded language they enjoy?

There are some You Tube videos available of part of Beyond the Fringe. My favourite skit, if one can have a favourite, when you still laugh out loud at them all, is the one by Alan Bennett, "Take a Pew".It is a parody of a sermon. It became even funnier to me when I came to try to craft sermons for a living. Here it is for your enjoyment, while you are waiting for the end of the World. Perhaps, you will find meaning in it as to how you should have been living your life. :)

Needless to say, I don't put much stock in the idea that the World is about to end. but just in case I have it wrong this time, and this will be my last post I want you to know how much I have enjoyed keeping this blog and getting to know, enjoy and even cherish you, my circle of blogging friends. My only regret is that we never have, and never will, if predictions come true.

The end . . . . . . .or to be continued. . . . .

2011-05-14T12:04:00.032-04:00

Number Two and Trying Harder.

A couple of those comparative studies that fascinate me indicate that Canada is"the second happiest country" in the World and Toronto is "the second best city world wide" (behind New York City). Who would have thought it? As one who is always aware of the shortcomings of my country and the city I grew up near, I wonder if this is as good as it gets for surely we could do a lot better. And what about all those other countries lined up behind us, who need to do better for their citizens. It is depressing when you think too hard about it. How bittersweet a reality it is for this Canadian.

Oops! I am supposed to be a happy Canadian and want to move to Toronto. I forgot for a moment.

The study on happiness of countries is interesting. I am genuinely surprised that Northern Countries with the challenges of weather would be the happiest. I guess challenge in life is not a negative factor. Denmark is the happiest country and several other Northern Countries are among the top group. What surprises me is Venezuela , with all it's social problems is sixth seemingly out of place in the list and ahead of the United States in twelth place among the nineteen counties that are above 50% in the "thriving" category. I correspond with an email friend in Venezuela who has made me aware of life in that Latin American country with 80% of it's population being poor and 20 % being privileged. (They are the ones who can afford a car and enjoy state subsidized gas at 14 cents a gallon). There are large Barrios that house the poor in the hills around Caracas, a city that has a record of gun violence that rivals the most dangerous cities in the United States. Under the political leadership of Hugo Chavez, that my friend despises and I admire, the country's politics is volatile as grand social experiment in improving the lives of the poor. Is it in spite of or because of, that they rank high on the happiness scale.

As I have come to expect in these studies, the United States is lower on the list. Americans like to think they are doing OK and some even claim to be the best country in the World when on almost any scale in various studies they are not. As an admirer, (and critic) of the United States, I know it has the potential to be so much better than it is if it could only start pragmatically tackling its problems rather than ideologically deny them. The United States and Canada, to a lesser degree, are moving in the direction of Venezuela with a very large underclass and a small privileged class. Perhaps, the growing awareness of this explains the lower "Happiness" position in the "thriving" category for the United States. This study is fascinating to read and dissect to understand the reasons for the differences. I leave that for those interested in such things.

Here is Toronto's modern day skyline. I find the virility and productivity (fertility) of the city symbolized in the iconic phallic CN Tower and the egg shaped skydome beside it, respectively.

I like Toronto and think it is a wonderful city with much to offer but seeing it ranked as the second best city in the World is a little startling when I think of all the great and historic cities there are. As a city, Toronto is an upstart. It has only become a Metropolis since 1950. It was not even the largest city in Canada in that year. It had just over 1 million people ( Canada had 12 million then). It now has about 5 million (Canada is at 35 million.) All of this in my lifetime. It has been a great transformation.

Until the early 50's Toronto had been a largely provincial city shaped largely by English protestant values (held over from the Victorian age.) It was called "Toronto the Good" back then.(Need I mention; few restaurants were open on Sunday and bars had entrances for "ladies and escorts). In so many ways it was hardworking, pious and dull. Often Toronto was contrasted with "Montreal, the Bad", which by contrast was French-Canadian Catholic, fun loving and had a vibrant "joie de vie"; home to a rich jazz scene and night life, where African Americans could come and find an acceptance they did not enjoy in many of their own cities. Toronto has come a long way in the past 60 years. It is a culturally rich city, with a very diverse population made of up large groups of people from virtually every country of the World. Somehow the ethnic mix of the city works, groups getting along and add to the rich cultural mix. Few cities are as cosmopolitan, as safe and as clean. I am not quite sure why. The transformation has been dramatic and Toronto stands as a testament to the great contribution immigrants make to a city which embraces them.

Speaking of Toronto the Good, here is an article by an American who moved to Toronto from sunny California and her positive impression, "Try Great"

Before I get too strong in my praise there is another study that says Toronto is the "most miserable" (unhappiest) city in Canada. It scored 4.15 out of 5 on the scale of this study while the happiest city Sherbrooke ( the city that just sent a 19 year old student to parliament as it's MP) scored 4.37 out of 5. The only explanation of this is that the study failed to differentiate very much between the highest and lowest on the scale. It seems that Toronto is made up of the unhappiest people in the the second happiest country, but not a great deal less than Sherbrooke, the happiest city.

This is the skyline of Toronto, in my youth, in 1950. It had a lower profile in many ways then. It greatest claim to fame might have been the Royal York Hotel, once the tallest building in the British Empire. It is now dwarfed by not only the CN Tower but also all the banking skyscrapers and even the downtown condominium apartments. In its short history there have been many changing views of the Toronto Skyline since 1980.

I hope Canada and Toronto will always be number two in the World as a country and a city. This recognizes them as something to be proud but also something that can do better. There is much room for improvement to make our country a cherished place for all the generations yet to come and our great cities as places which meet human needs and enrich our lives as well as house of bodies. As for me, I will continue to find the countryside as a place to feed my soul while still enjoying the occasion sojourn into the wonderful city of Toronto.

2011-05-09T14:08:00.012-04:00

Feels Like Spring

When the daily temperatures rise to double digits celcius consistently day to day and my lilac bushes begin to swell their blooms, I feel I can really say Spring is here. Some root crops could be planted in the garden and in a couple of weeks crops that can withstand a light frost can also go and then in early June the rest of the garden can be planted.

Heidi and I went for a walk to see the river.

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Heidi enjoyed getting her feet wet and have a long drink of the cold water.

Looking back across the plowed field you just see the house.

Looking across the river there is the cabin. I don't often walked down from the house and get this view of it.

The river is full after some recent rain and the final melting of the snow in the bush in the Temagami highland area up stream. You can see the cabin downstream from here on our bridge. (click on photo to enlarge it)

2011-05-06T10:34:00.018-04:00

Death of a Man

Since the beginning of the week I have been wanting to write about my response to the death of Osama Bin Laden. I was feeling strange because my response seemed to be so different from so many reported on the news.

My immediate response was "how sad and dreadful" as I do for any man who I read about who dies violently or tragically. For in the words of John Donne," any man's death diminshes me" always spring to mind of such occasions (the result of too much education.) Then of course, I assured myself that maybe it was a necessary evil since he would no longer be able to lead a movement that has been the sources of so much death and destruction. Of course, his martyrdom would remain a sources of inspiration for others. So what has been gained?

I found myself out of step with so many others, particularly American's whose news dominates the airwaves. People poured out into the streets at night in places like Washington and New York to celebrate in a riotous outpouring of bravado and jingoism that degenerated into drunken vulgarity as if a sports team had won a victory. It all seemed so inappropriate over a death of a man.

Of course, even for my favourite sports team I would only have a smile and polite applause so maybe it was me being inappropriate.

Slowly other more sobering opinions were being expressed. I w as pleased that no Canadians who lost loved ones on 9/11 expressed ecstatic joy. Many were pleased but saddened for they had to relive all those memories over again. One response in particular affected me. A Canadian woman who lost her husband that day and shortly after gave birth to their son reported telling him the morning after in straight forward but sketchy details that American soldiers attacked his home in Pakistan and killed him. The child's reaction was, " what gave them the right to do such a thing and kill the man." Awe from the mouth of babes!

As the news continued to come out the story modified. At first, there was a fierce firefight and a helicopter was shot down. Then the story changed a little; there was at least one person who shot back and was killed and the helicopter had problems and the soldiers had to destroy it because it had high tech aspects to it that they did not want others to learn about. We also are told that Bin Laden's wife attacked the soldiers and that Bin Laden was reaching for a possible gun.
Who knows where this story will end. Such is the fog of war.

It seems Bin Laden was unarmed and killed by two bullets, one the the body and one to the head. There was not great firefight. Several others where killed included possible children. Bin Laden's 12 year old daughter witnessed her fathers death. Does not seem like such a heroic Rambo style military adventure to me.

In fact, the mission was to kill Osama Bin Laden or bring him back alive if possible. ( the second half of this is public relations). The mission was to murder a man, to be blunt. The greatest military country in the World, had to resort to a murder, an assassination, an extra judicial killing. The shot to the head might have been that final shot to finish him off ( a war crime on the battlefield) so he could not be brought back alive.

One article I read described the special forces team that carried out this raid as the military equivalent of "Murder Incorporated" ( a Mafia group that killed people for profit). It turns out, while Americans are willing to celebrate this military event as a great victory it was nothing more than State sponsored murder outside the law. Most Americans like to think it was a legally justified event when in fact, in international law, it was quite illegal.

I find this quite chilling. It seems to say the American government believe it has a right to go anywhere in the world to kill anyone they want and it is legal. Does this mean that other countries should also have the same right in the name of national security? Might they claim the right some day to kill fellow citizens who disagree with the government in such a way) George Bush, Jr. claimed this right but, now Obama!! I used to have a higher opinion of Barack Obama, who has actually studied and taught the law but now they are no different.

Slowly more sober people have been commenting on this. Today I read that the Archbishop of Canterbury find this very troubling. Earlier in the week, I read that a religious scholar had misgivings. And there are others in you care to look for them.

I feel somewhat reassured my view is not out of step. I belong to a denomination that is not always included among the Christian Churches and I, with may qualifications might call myself a Christian, but not always. I do though believe in what I understand as Christian morality. This in itself may allow me to consider myself a Christian. I am often reluctant to be identified as a Christian because I have great respect for "true Christians" and consider myself unable to attain such a high standard. I certainly to not want to be identified with those who very self righteously claim to be Christian when in fact their behaviour is any but.

With the death of Osama Bin Laden I kept hearing Christian moral lessons in my head. "Vengeance is mine saith the Lord." Love thine enemy". Lot offering up his daughters in place of giving up the strangers, his guests, to the rabble outside. etc,,

As a pacifist, I take it serious that "thou shalt not kill." How a society can claim to be Christian and have the State "legally" or illegally kill people I have serious problems, whether it be war, extra judicial killings or legal State sponsored killing in the form of Capitol punishment.

For me the celebration in the streets should have been occasions of somber reflects and prayers for forgiveness for the State deciding, in our name, it was necessary to kill a man.

I doubt if any church opened its doors to such a service. I would like to think some peace church did. Shame on all those that didn't, they have failed to learn the Christian lessons.

There has been much discussion of the historic nature of the photo in the White House situation room as deciding group watch in real time a streaming video of the attach in Pakistan. Historically it is seen as significant because it shows for the first time a black man a the "protector of the Nation" and two women among the powerful. I don't don't know if it is all that historically significant. Time will tell. My reaction when I learned what they were watching was. "How ghoulish!
They were watch a video of a man being killed. Is this not the same as a "slasher film where a person is in a drama in which they are supposed to be killed, and they are actually killed. What ghouls watch these! For me the President looks small and powerless with an anguished look on his face (perhaps I am being generous and hopeful), Hilary Clinton has her and over her mouth as if she is trying to not cry out in horror at the scene in front of her. Vice-President Biden has largely his back to the screen as if he does not really want to watch. The rest in the room are stone fast appropriate for the cold blooded killers they are.

I hope I shall always feel badly when another person dies violently, particularly at the hands of the State in my name. My native neighbours, out of their native spirituality show game animals they kill for food respect. They offer up gifts of tobacco to the spirit of the moose, bear, deer etc, and ask for forgiveness for taking their "brothers" life so they may live. They believe they are related to the spirit of the animal and thus owe it respect. Should we not, likewise see ourselves in all men and reduce no man to an object to be disposed of first by taking his life and then by dumping him in the sea like so much garbage off the stern of a cruise ship.

How we treat others, no matter how badly they have behaved, in not a judgment on them but a judgment on ourselves. May we be forgiven for our short comings.

2011-05-03T12:16:00.018-04:00

The People Have Spoken

It was a bittersweet result in the election last night. The most important thing to me was to deny Stephen Harper a majority government. Most of the polls indicated that it would be a minority but they were wrong. The polling numbers were not all that wrong but they failed to predict how the distribution of seats would turn out. This is hard to do in a multiparty system.

Some seats are efficient with votes and the win is just by a few votes and other riding get a win with a large number of votes for the winner, which is inefficient. Popular vote levels do not measure this. As it turned out with vote splitting between the Liberals and New Democrats and the abandonment of the Liberal party for the Conservatives and not the NDP, the Conservatives got more seats than expected. I won't comment more on this except I grieve for the damage the Conservative Party can wrought on Canadian culture. They intend to drag the social and political culture to the right so that the Conservatives are the centrist party, which most often forms the government, the position held by the Liberals historically. Years ago Stephen Harper said he wanted to destroy the Liberal Party so that Canada would be a more or less two party State with one on the right, the Conservatives and one on the Left. This is now the New Democratic Party as the Official Opposition. Perhaps, sometime I will write about why I think the Conservatives are so dangerous to Canada. Even with there victory here they still are only supported by 40% on Canadians. Such is the nature of our "winner take all" multiparty system.

The sweet for me in this election was the unbelievable expansion of the New Democratic Party.
I have supported it all by life. In it's 50 year existence it has been the conscience of the parliament, a gadfly and often a power broker in minority governments, when it held the balance of power. It dreamed of some day being a governing party but saw that happening a long way down the road. There was a time when it was a feared "socialist" party. Many years ago, it abandonned it's more radical socialist ideas such a nationalizing major industries and moved to the right. (I have personally never been happy with this but I continue to support it as the best choice) In doing this it crowded the center which was occupied by the Liberals and to some extent by the old Progressive Conservatives. In the years since, attitudes have changed and people have become more accepting of the New Democratic Party, particularly when many provinces have had good NDP governments without the sky falling in.

Well something happened that was unexpected and will transform Canada and the NDP. The people of Quebec, decided they wanted to participate in federal politics by supporting a federal party rather than continue to park their vote with the regional separatist party the Bloc Québécois. Gilles Duceppe put it in terms of Quebec wanting to give Federalism one more chance. It was as if they decided with one mind all of a sudden.

The NDP had been working for and hoping to make inroads in Quebec for many years. Quebec is very social democratic in it political and social culture. They finally won one seat in a by election a while back. They were hoping to gain two or three more this election. That would have been a hopeful sign and a beginning to build on. The NDP only ever got a couple of percentage points in the popularity polls in Quebec so there would be a long process of gaining acceptance.

Dramatically, as if out of no where a CROP poll reported that the NDP was polling higher than the BQ. This was two weeks before the election. One April 21, Justin Trudeau, a Liberal MP from Quebec, was informed of the results of this poll and his reaction was that the NDP would get only their one seat and there was some doubt about that. I am sure he wishes he could take his remarks back. Such denial!!

He was not the only one. Even the NDP could not believe their good fortune. They were still talking about a great victory of maybe 6 seats. The polls continued to hold and hope rose but it all seemed unreal. No one could predict how it would translate into actual seats. The NDP always ran a distant third. Well when all was said and done the NDP won 58 seats and reduced the BQ to a rump of 4 from their 43, in the last parliament. They also reduced the Conservatives from 11 to 6. This is more seats than the BQ ever had in its hay day.

The growing enthusiasm for the NDP was contagious and other parts of Canada saw increasing support for the NDP. There was great hope for 80 seats, an historic high. The most they had ever gotten was 43 and there was a time they had so few they almost lost their party status.

At the writ coming down the NDP had 36 seats. Well the results in Quebec and in other places in Canada saw the NDP end up with 102 seats, beyond belief, let alone expectations. The Liberals were reduced to 34 seats. The leaders of the Liberals, Michael Ignatieff and the BQ, Gilles Duceppe lost in their own ridings and resigned as the head of their parties.

I have been wondering about who these 58 Quebekers are who did not expect to win and now find they are members of parliament. Parties often find candidates for ridings where they cannot win who are just filling a space. This is where women used to get a chance to run. They are not serious candidates. Where a party has a chance to win they find a well qualified person with a lot of local recognition who has been involved in local politics or agencies of change or help. Well virtually all the Quebec NDP candidates fall into this category. They had no expectation of winning. They may even be new to the party. Most probably have not met the leader Jack Laydon. He in turn knows little or nothing of them.

The new Quebec MP's for the NDP will probably not fit the usual mold of a member of parliament. I began to search some of them out. I wish I could find a place that listed them and their biographies. So far they seem to be teachers, social activists in their communities, trade unionists, civil servants. There is one woman who is a young nurse who had served in the military. There is a retired teacher. There is a young woman concerned about rescuing abused animals. there is a brick layer, . etc. Ther are four university students; one only 19 years old. There are some quirky situations too. There is the young woman, an assistant manager in a restaurant, who decided to go to Las Vegas prior to the election date. She also does not speak much French. There may be others who do not speak much French which is required and expected in that Province. There is the Martial Arts enthusiast, a federal researcher and former member of the Communist Party. He defeated an important Conservative cabinet minister. I have not found many businessmen or lawyers. Thank God!

Most seem to be fairly well educated and young. I did read about a 71 year old woman who won and no one seem to be able to locate her. (I trust they did not run any dead people. That would be embarassing). Many of these candidates are women. The NDP encourages women to run. The NDP will have 40 women MPs more than all the other parties combined. (This is good). Parliament will definitely have a different look, at least on the Opposition side.

It will take a great effort to get the new NDP member in shape to serve. They need to get to know everyone else in the caucus. They need to learn how parliament works and how to organize an office with a staff. Some may find themselves taking French lessons. Usually, an experienced parliamentarian is assigned to mentor a new MP. with only 36 or less (we lost two NDP member here in Northern Ontario) each experienced parliamentarian may have two of more inexperienced MPs to mentor. It will be a busy time for all. I wish them well and we should be glad there is a majority government so that there will not be another election for at least 4 years. It will take that amount to time to turn a large inexperienced, never before Opposition party, into a solid credible effective unit. ( A good place to find the statistics on the election is here.)

PS: I was pleased that Elizabeth May finally won a seat in parliament after three tries. She is the first and only Green Party member. I like her. She will make a distinctive contribution to the Ottawa political scene. I hope the NDP mentor her a little. She will end up with a seat in parliament with the four rump member of the PQ, in the wilderness.

2011-05-02T14:19:00.005-04:00

Voting Day

I have been waiting with great anticipation for today. This is particularly true in the last couple of weeks when my party, The New Democratic Party, NDP, appeared to be doing exceptionally well. Half way throught the election season (about five weeks long) since the writ was dropped after the opposition parties defeated the government on a motion of non-confidence. it being found in contempt of parliament, the NDP showed some real life and strength. It began with a CROP poll in Quebec indicating the NDP was displacing the Bloc Québécois (the regional separatist party), in attracting the largest popular vote.

The race was on. For reasons, analysts will be arguing over for years to come, the citizens of Quebec decided to no long withdraw their partipation in Federal politics by parking their vote with the PQ and vote for a federal party. This is good for Canadian democracy. Quebeckers generally are social progressives so they dislike the Conservatives. The Liberals, under Trudeau, are still blamed for defeating the sovereignty referendum, oh, so many years ago, so the NDP was the party left to vote for. Jack Layton having been born in Quebec and being a charming person who easily mixed with people and obviously enjoyed it became the Everyman one could trust and thereby vote for his party, the NDP.

With the Quebeckers showing the way the people of the Maritimes, Ontario and British Columbia decided to join in. Many were waiting to vote for someone "other than Harper and the Conservatives." Even the Prairie provinces showed increasing support for the NDP. It looks like the NDP will have seats in every province and territory this time out. It will be a truly national party.

I have been following the polls carefully every day. Checking them sometimes twice a day to see if they had changed and if the increasing support for the NDP was continuing. I particularly liked the EKOS polling which seem to be more slanted toward the NDP,.The NANOS poll , one of the TV Networks depends on, along with a Toronto newpaper, was not bad. The Compas polling made me really nervous as it favoured the Conservatives strongly.

Last night I got out of bed and came to check to see if the final poll was in before voting day, today. (It was then that I learned of Osama Bin Laden's death. I started out to write something about it today but I was having trouble sorting out my thoughts. I may try again in a day or two.) There is a site that tries to amalgamate all the polls and make sense of them It is
Three Hundred and Eight . Com Here is the latest EKOS poll. In the popular poll they have the CPC (no that is not the Communist Party of Canada in is the Conservative Party) 33.1%, The NDP, at 31.2%, LPC (Liberal) at 21.0%, Green Party at 6% and BQ, at 6.4% (only in Quebec).
What I like about this poll you will notice if you visit it, they predict Elizabeth May, the head of the Green Party will win her seat. I hope so. The NANOS poll showed an similar outcome. CPC, 37.1%, NDP 31.6%, LPC, 20.5% BQ, 5.7% and Green, 3.8%. There are other polls but they all are telling a similar story just before election day.

Of course, the only real poll is who actually comes out to vote. This depends of the enthusiasm of the supporters of a party and the strength of the party machinery to get the vote out. This is what makes me nervous for my party. While they are doing twice as good the best federal showing they ever had when they got 45 seats they may not turn the votes out to the maximum. They enthusiasm is high but they do not have much of an organization in Quebec to turn out the vote.

Since the NDP popular vote dipped to a low of 14%, it has made a steady climb until last night where it was over 30% with room to grow today.One phenomena I am hopeful for is party switching at the last moment. On the basis that 60% on Canadians do not like Harper and the Conservatives (they have failed three times to get an majority) and the Liberals are in a big decline, more Liberals will switch to the NDP to stop the Conservatives from getting a majority. They Conservatives after five weeks of trying have not increased their popular vote. They have few people who see them as their second choice so they have no way to grow their numbers. On the other hand the NDP has been increasing its popular vote count right up to the end and they are indicated as the second choice by the largest number of any party. Strategic voting and "anyone but Harper efforts " may see the NDP do well and block the Conservatives from gaining a majority. There are lots of ways you can analyse the figures from national, provincial and riding levels, and it is fun to do so. But now it has come to stress me out.

They best estimate now is that the Conservatives will not get a majority. They will fall short of the 155 seats necessary for that. They will form a minority government. The NDP will win the second largest number of seats (a record high for them) and the Liberals will be reduced to the status the NDP used to hold. The BQ will have fewer seats. How many is the big question. It could be so low they lose their official party status and all the perks that go with that. I hope there numbers will be so low that if the NDP and the Liberals withhold their confidence in the Conservative government, they will be given a chance to form a coalition, formal or informal, so that they may form a government without having to depend on the BQ. In any case, we certainly are having a lesson in parliamentary democracy with this election.

When all the smoke clears, in a year or so, Jack Layton may be the only leader of a party left.
Harper will lose support from his party as he could not lead them to a majority after four tries. We are not a far right country and the Conservatives have been too rigid and ideological.
Ignatieff, the Liberal, could not sell himself or his party to the electorate in spite of great personal credentials. Elizabeth May, the Green, Party leader, if she fails to get a seat will have tried three times in three different provinces to win a seat and come up short. She may move on to some other environmental cause. Gilles Duceppe of the BQ was ready to retire soon anyway and his party will be a shadow of its former self. (I like this former communist who became a skilled politician did well for his Province within Canada.)

As you can see, this can be an historic election in any number of ways. Tomorrow we get to rehash all the results of the voter's choices. right down to the local ridings. Lynne and I will have to find something else to talk about on the phone in the evening. . . . . . . . . We can always talk about American politics, which go on all the time, year after year, after year.

Voting is the most important thing a citizen can do. It is not a choice it is a duty to vote. In Canada the number of people getting out to vote has been falling off. The last election it was down to 59% where for years it was consistently up around 70%. Perhaps, this is a year when interest is high and there will be a big turn out of voters. I hope so. Of course, the statistics show that when there is a higher turnout with lots of young people voting it is good for my party, The New Democratic Party.

2011-04-28T13:15:00.013-04:00

The Wedding

William Kate picture
i keep seeing
diana

John Tiong Chungkhoo

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no, it is an ever-fixèd mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his heighth be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

I am thinking of my sister, Penny, these days. Last weekend she flew off to London (after casting her vote in an advanced poll) to be present at the wedding of Prince William and Katherine Middleton.

She has been looking forward to going. As soon as she heard the announcement of their marriage she knew she had to go and be there. By the time I had talked to her about the upcoming nuptuals she already had a plane reservation.

At the time I commented to her, how much mother would have loved to have gone to such an occasion. (She being an admirer of the Royal Family). Penny had thought the same thing. Our mother had died many years ago when she was only 61.

Just before my sister left she sent me this email:

" Happy Easter, Phil. The election is certainly making me anxious. Part of me is sorry I will miss all the details of election night. I love all the political analysis that tries to explain what happened. I'm leaving tomorrow night. I feel mom is travelling with me. " (We share in interest in the federal election and a dislike of the Conservative government)

I replied,

"Bon Voyage to both of you. I am sure you will always be telling yourself how much mother would have loved this."

In response.

"For sure"

It seems my sister and I are sympatico. We share an interest in history and civics and we live our lives with an ongoing influence of our mother. Her lessons have been learned.

I hope she has a memorable time. Her daughter, Elizabeth lives in London. Hopefully, Elizabeth will talks her into spending the nights at her place. Penny had said she was prepared to camp out on the street in order to get a good place to view the comings and goings of the wedding party. She is an experienced and a adventuresome traveller so I can imagine her living on the street and chatting up the others in the encampment. Still I worry a little for her at age 70 roughing it.

I look forward to her return and hearing all about her adventure and seeing some pictures she managed to take. I regret I did not go with her.

William-Kate royal wedding
i feel the joy of youth
again

John Tiong Chunghoo

2011-04-27T10:58:00.014-04:00

The Election Got Exciting

I recently wrote in a blog entry that the election campaign in Canada was boring.

Well! No more. It has gotten quite interesting. The New Democrat Party, which is usually the third "also ran" party after the Conservatives and Liberals, finds itself ahead of the Liberal Party and gaining on the Conservative Party in the polls. This mild mannered social democratic party loosely called "socialist" has historically been the social conscience of parliament and exercised power by making deals for support from the major parties in minority governments. They have never formed a federal government. They have formed governments in several provinces.

I am a life long supporter of the New Democratic Party, except for the year in the US when I worked on behalf of the Communist Party in Connecticut. I am use to often supporting a local
candidate who does not get elected. For the first time in my life I live in a riding with a New Democratic member of parliament.

These are exciting days for me and long standing supporters of the New Democratic Party.

NDP leader, Jack Layton. An all-Canadian who loves his beer and hockey. This is a photo from April 14 when he was charming the voters in Quebec. A week later, he moved ahead of the Bloc Quebecois party in that province.

( for my American readers, the BQ is a regional party that only runs candidates in Quebec. It is a separatist party that hopes to seen Quebec become a sovereign Nation some day. In the meantime they are always trying to get better political deals for their province. They control about 50 or the 75 seats from that province. The New Democrats had 1 in the last parliament. )

Quebec residents have decided to vote for the New Democrats in large numbers and are abandoning the BQ, in favor of the NDP on the strength of the attractiveness of Jack Layton.
He is seen as a man of the people. who is enjoying running and making his case among people.
By contrast the other leaders appear tense and angry.

For my American readers, to help you understand this tsunami in Canadian politics I encourage you to watch the humorous video below where Rick Mercer explains Canada and Canadian politics.

The above video was made a while ago when the Liberals and New Democrats threatened to defeat the Conservative government and form a coalition which would ask the Governor General for a chance to form an alternative government. The Conservative just before the economic collapse had been denying there was a problem for Canada and nothing had to be done. Ideologically they were going to stick by their laissez-faire economics at a time when governments were looking to stimulate the lagging economy by infusions of government money funding job creation programs. The Opposition parties wanted the government to act in the face of an economic crisis. Stephen Harper avoided his party's defeat from a vote of non-confidence
when he convinced the Governor General to prorogue parliament before a vote could be held.
This is a very unusual parliamentary device.This gave his party time to put together an economic program that would satisfy parliament.

I would remind everyone that this present election was brought about by the government being defeated (lost the confidence of parliament) when it was found guilt of being in contempt of parliament by failing to supply the necessary financial documents for the Opposition to do it's proper function of criticizing the government as the honourable opposition.

At the dissolution of parliament the New Democratic Party has about 17% of the popular vote with the Liberals around 28% and the Conservative around 38%. The NDP is usually around 20 of the popular vote.

The Conservative said they were seeking a majority government. They deserved it for being good managers of the government and the economy for 7 years. The Canadian public has never quite trusted them in previous elections to give them enough seats to form a majority government. One needs to have at least around 40% or the popular vote to achieve this and the Conservative have been tantalizingly close.

For a couple of weeks these percentages did not change much although the NDP did drop to 14% when people seemed to be willing to support the Liberal Party as the rightful alternative to the Conservatives, a traditional problem for the NDP.

After the leadership debates it seemed a lot was not going to change. No leader made any bad faux pas , each was praised by their supporters. Jack Layton was the most relaxed and charming, apparently more so in the French debate. He was raised in Quebec and speaks French of an E nglish kid who learned it on the street playing with the french kids. Michael Ignatieff, (Liberal) is an academic who taught at Harvard for years and speaks parisienne french while Stephen Harper (Conservative) is a french emmersion French speaker. It seems Jack Layton made an impression upon many Quebec residence mainly the soft nationalists who had been parking their votes with the BQ of Gilles Duceppe. It seems they where tiring of their support for the BQ and still did not trust the Liberals and Conservatives. En masse they have swung behind the New Democrats. A week after the picture above a CROP poll reported that the New Democrats were even or ahead of the Bloc in the popular vote. This made Canadians wonder what was going on in that province. Was it an uptick or the real thing. It has proved to be sustainable and a rising curve of support. At first commentators were saying due to the " winner take all" aspect of riding voting the increased support of the New Democrats would just translate into a few additional seats, maybe as many as 5 or 6. At the time this seemed really good but I have now seen that the NDP may get as many as 51 seats in that Province.

Nationally, there were responses to the phenomena in Quebec. Canadians began to not buy the line that the only worthy party to defeat Conservatives was the Liberal Party/ This arrogance and the arrogance to the leading Conservatives saw people choosing the NDP. No longer was Jack Layton the only believer to say he was running to become the Prime Minister. Parliament ended with the New Democrats having 36 seats. the most they have ever had in any parliament was 45. Suddenly, I began reading that nationally they might get as much as 60 seats. Suddenly they were tied with the Liberals in popular votes. Briefly, the Conservatives looked like they might get their majority due to the splitting of the votes on the left. The increase support for the New Democrats has continued. They began to cut into even the Conservative vote.

Now they are ahead of the Liberals who are fading at 22% of the vote, the New Democrats have in about a week and a half increased their percentage from 19% to 30 % and the Conservatives have fallen back to 35%, well away from the 40 % which might see them get a majority government. It seems possible now that there will be a reduced minority government with the New Democrats leading the Opposition Parties. I have now seen a poll that gives the New Democrats as many as 97 seats in Parliament. The trend upward for the NDP is continuing.
There have even been mutterings that they might overtake the Conservatives. Is there enough time left before the election on Monday for this to happen? The other three parties are attacking the NDP and their platform with a venegance I heard today the business community is speaking out in opposition to the possibility of an NDP government (they must be doing something right in my opinion). So far these attacks have not slowed or reversed the support for the New Democrats. Maybe, just maybe, real history is about to be made.

I, personally, think the Conservatives will hold on to their lead position and the New Democrats will have the next largest number of seats. The Conservatives may have a problem governing with the consent of Parliament. They have already said they would not form a coalition and think it is undemocratic and not part of parliamentary tradition. This is wrong of course. The largest party in our system can only govern with the consent of parliament. Without a majority of seats the government ruling party must compromise. It could happen that the Liberals and the NDP in a coalition could govern with the consent of parliament. If the Conservative cannot form a government the Governor General may ask another party (s) to try rather than call another elections soon after this one. It will be a great lesson in parliamentary democracy as it works out.

Briefly, three other interesting factors have come int0 play. The Conservative Party made a real effort to woe the "ethnic vote". They may not have succeeded in this. Stephen Harper is very stiff and not very relaxed in his public appearances. His addressing a South Asian gathering as "you people" reflects his discomfort and has tainted his appeal. He is a control freak and is not very spontaneous. He is not a very urban person. Jack Layton has a long career in urban politics. Is married to Elizabeth Chow, another member of parliament of Chinese descent. He speaks Mandarin. He is very comfortable around the rich ethnic mix of Toronto. At the recent Khadsa Day of the Sikh community he was roundly cheered while Michael Ignatieff was politely received.

Women in large numbers support the NDP as a result of its social programs and promotion of the agenda of women's issues. Half of all NDP candidates are women). Jack Layton has gone out his way to speak to women.

It seems the youth have been mobilized. If you can get them out to vote they tend to vote for the NDP. Below is another rant by Rick Mercer to encourage young people to vote. It seems to a have worked as there is much enthusiasm on college campuses with rallies to get out the vote.

I find all this very interesting. I get up in the middle of the night to check to see if any other polling results have been posted or another interesting article has been written on why this is all happening. On the other hand, I am a realist and know all this can evaporate if on political gaff is made or enough fear about the NDP program and power is generated.

Time will tell. "Prime Minister Layton", it has a nice ring.

So far there seems to have been very little comment on the Canadian election in the US. I am waiting for Fox "news" to notice it. This organizations feeds off the ignorance of Americans who cannot differentiate between or among liberals, social democrats, socialists, communists and potential terrorists. I can see the headlines now about the socialist coup in Canada and how the northern border will need to be more fortified against Canadian terrorists. Canadians love this attention and laugh themselves silly at the lack of understanding by a large segment of the American public.

Hopefully, after Monday and the election I will not have to explain how all of this failed to result in significant vote changes.

2011-04-24T12:49:00.012-04:00

Easter in the City

One of the nice things about living in the city (Yes I confess to some admiration for urban living) is that on any particular festive occasion there is a wide variety of things to do to participate in it.
As I look over the activities in Toronto this Easter I find things from the Divine to the rediculous (or just fun and playful). The activities are both religious and secular something for everyone. There are sunrise services, passion plays, great musical concerts ( Handel's Messiah and Bach's Easter Oratorio). There are the community Easter Egg hunts for children as well as the very large one of Center Island.

One event I always associate with Easter is the Easter Parade in Toronto. I remember the one along to Boardwalk at Sunnyside, not that I ever experienced it (Maybe once) but because my mother told me all about it. It was a stroll really when people, particularly women, showed off their new Easter outfits and and enjoy the Spring weather. Sunnyside was beachfront amusement park on the west side of Toronto. It was important for my parents generation but actually closed down in 1954 so the ugliest cityscape of Toronto could be built, the elevated Gardiner Expressway, an accommadation to the automobile.

This early Toronto Easter Parade was in the spirit of the New York Easter parade and the inspiration of the movie "Easter Parade".

You know the song. I like this version by Sarah Vaughan and Billie Eckstine. Mainly, because I love Sarah Vaughan and consider myself to have been privileged for having seen her perform live once near the end of her career in Dallas, Texas.

In the early part of the 20th Century amusement parks were a major source of entertainment for urban dwellers, (before the automobile, TV and computers) Toronto in those early days was a small city of about 50,000 people. There were three amusement parks, on the east and west of the city and on the island. They were well used, as few could afford to escape the city in the summer. It was my generation that came to enjoy cottage life in rural central Ontario.

There is still an Easter Parade in Toronto but it is a standard street parade with little regards to showing off fashions. It is sponsored by the Lion's Club in the Beaches area of Toronto.

There was a time that Easter would be a time to only find Christians out in the streets and parks celebrating. But Toronto is a rich multicultural city with almost every religious and ethnic group represented in significant numbers. Today the Sikh community is having their Khalsa Day parade. They have a large parade each year to celebrate the beginning of their religion. Ten of thousands participate. Here is a video of the parade in 2007

The Sihk parade finishes in Downtown Toronto. It is interesting that the leaders of the New Democatic Party and the Liberal Party, will address the the Sikh rally since we are in the midst of a federal election. It seems the Christian's don't merit this special attention.

What ever you are doing this Easter, may you find it enjoyable and hopefully life affirming.
For me, this is the deep meaning for the Christian Easter message that Life should be lived in the fullness of God.

2011-04-21T09:48:00.020-04:00

God Save the Queen!

Today is the Queen's birthday. Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II, is 85 and going strong.
She is the Queen of Canada as well as the Queen of Britain. ( I mention this in case any Americans do not know that Canada is a Monarchy.) May she reign for many more years.

I lifted this picture from the Toronto Star Newspaper.

I thought it was a nice one of the Queen. She is always nicely turned out and almost never without a hat. (It reminds me of the Prebyterian minister's wife of my youth whose different hat every sunday was more of a subject of discussion than the sermon. ) She has been everything that we sing about in "God Save the Queen" She certainly is gracious and noble. She has reigned over us for longer than any other British monarch. Her life has been one of duty so there is no expectation she would step down. We expect she will be with us for many more years. Her mother, the "Queen Mom" lived in good health until she was 101.

You have to feel a little sorry for Prince Charles who is now the longest waiting heir to the throne. His whole life he has a preparation to become king. It must be strange to have to wait for your mother to die before you can take up your purpose in life. In fact, he may never be king.
There are those who would prefer Prince William to be the next monarch.

Speaking of the young Prince. We are all waiting for his wedding. There will be many of us getting up at 3:00 AM on April 29 to watch him marry the lovely Katherine. I am amused at how interested Americans are in the Royal Family. I think there are those who in their hearts wished they had a noble and royal family. I think they are more interested in the Royal Family than the French Canadians, who I find are largely indifferent to the Royals.

My sister is off to London to see the wedding. She will be among the throngs to line the streets to see the Royal processions to and from Westminster Abbey. She has said she may even sleep on the street to make sure she has a good viewing spot. At 70 years old she certainly is a gamer. It has been hot in London so the weather should be nice. I trust all will go well.

I will be in Ottawa for Canada Day (July 1) where I may have a chance to see the new Royal couple there as part of their visit to Canada.

Speaking of "well"!

There are some who have asked me how my well drilling went. In the picture above you will see the well head showing in the new fallen snow. The well was drilled to 420 feet most of it through the bedrock of the Pre-Cambrian Shield.

Heidi trying to figure out her shadow.

This snow will be gone by the end of the day as it is going to warm up on this bright sunny day.

2011-04-20T15:21:00.006-04:00

Winter Revisited

Just when I thought Winter was over with most of the snow on the ground melted away, Winter weather returned. We may have six inches of snow before this is over. It was enough to cancel the school buses.

This week I am more than aware of missing the warm weather as my friend Lynne is off in Barbados for a rest. She went with her daughter, granddaughter and her friend, Pat, ( who went to China with her last year). It seems it was a girls only outing. I didn't qualify.

I miss our daily telephone conversations. Next week she will be home and I will hear all about her tropical vacation.

The beginning of the snow.

Last week, Heidi and I went to the river. There is just a little snow along the fringe of the river.
The water is now, symptomatic of our Winter drought. The light spot in the middle of the river is a large boulder we dive and swim off. Every year I try to decide it has moved. I thing it is slowly lowering into the river either by moving deeper into the channel or have the gravel beneath it washing away. I think with the river this low it should be above showing above the surface. I could be wrong.

Whatever the weather, Heidi is more than happy to just sleep the day away. Here she has her head on the arm of her chair.

2011-04-14T17:31:00.011-04:00

Thoughts on the Election Campaign

I have been busy trying to follow the federal election campaign which I will use as an excuse for not posting a blog entry for so long. It is painful to watch this election campaign. It is boring and many very important issues are being ignored. ( such as climate change and the environment, funding of the arts, high speed rail travel). Worst of all it looks like the Conservative Party lead by Stephen Harper will get a plurality of seats in parliament and be asked to form the government once again. He hopes for a majority government. I hope it is no more than another minority government. Time will tell.

Sadly, the media consortium, that organized the debates of the party leaders this week, decided to not allow Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party to take part. In spite of the Old Boy's Club token comments that they would like to have her part of the debates none of them exerted real power to insist upon her inclusion. While her party holds no seats in parliament it is an aspiring national party which has important issues high on its agenda that the other parties are ignoring. Plus, in the last election she took part and made a significant contribution.

I am hopeful she will win her seat in British Columbia so that her party will be represented
in parliament.

The debates were broadcast this week. I watch some but not all of them. The debate in English was Tuesday. It was a largely dull affair with few issues really debated. It is said Harper won by not losing.( a rather back handed victory praise) The opposition party leaders did not manage to rattle him and have him show his famous temper and his real attitudes toward Canada, Canadians, opposition politicians and his political agenda. Wednesday , after rescheduling the debate from Thursday in order not to interfere with the hockey game in Montreal (Only in Canada, you say!) the debates in French was held. It was a livelier affair with sharper debating points being made and contrasting policies being revealed. It is too bad the French debate was not held first so the it might have warmed up the English debate, which has a larger audience.

(Left to Right )

Stephen Harper Conservative
Michael Ignatieff Liberal
Jack Layton New Democratic
Elizabeth May Green
Gilles Duceppe Bloc Québébois

I guess it is not a secret that I am not a fan of Stephen Harper or the policies of the Conservative Party.

I do not find him a person one can trust. His personal political convictions are to the right of his party, which makes him quite extreme within the liberal Canadian culture. He has political views that he has been forced to temper only because he is the leader of a government which is a minority one. If he were ever the leader of a majority government I suspect he would do even more damage to the Canadian institutions and political tradition.

Stephen Harper is arrogant and and treats other with contempt. He exhibits the attitude we have associated with George Bush in the United States, "You are with us or against us." This is foreign to the Canadian political parliamentary system which is less adversary than the American system, particularly so when Canada frequently has minority governments where the governing party has to compromise to continue to govern.

A Canadian government can be defeated with a vote of no--confidence by parliament. On two occasion the Harper government avoided this by the rarely used device of proroguing parliament. There finally defeated when the Speaker of the House found their were ground for finding the government was acting in contempt of parliament by not giving the parliamentarians the necessary financial information for them to fulfill their legislative duty. A committee of parliament held and hearing and agreed. As a result, the government was defeated and an election called. I find this unique event was a harsh judgment on the Harper Conservative government. Harper's continue contempt for parliament showed when he brushed this all off of the "other three leaders ganging up on him". It was not just another instance of being outvoted.

There are many examples of Stephen Harper's contempt for others. It goes back to an earlier election when he publicly stated that he did not want to only defeat the Liberals but he wanted to "destroy" them. He is also well known for turning on members of his own party that disagree with him. In this election his contempt for the electorate is his parties rules that only allow those who have pre-registered to attend his public meeting. They are them vetted. It turns out with the help of the RCMP (which is illegal) he barred individuals because of viewing their Facebook site, find some Liberal connections. Studies in particular have found it difficult to attend his meetings. Also, he claim to be interested in ethnic communities by visiting them and wooing them. It is interesting to realize that it is just some ethnic communities he is interested in. We have yet to see him publicly meeting with Muslims, Tamils or First Nation communities.
I could go on with other examples of his contempt for others but I think I have made my point.

Stephen Harper is well known as a control freak. Nothing in his government is said or done without his approval. His ministers are often muted by him and all comments come out of the Prime Minister's Office. This, of course, dovetails with his contempt for others.

Stephen Harper, to stay in power has avoided his social conservative ideas and persents himself as mainly a fiscal conservative. I think many Canadians still think of the Conservative Party of Canada as being the same as the Progressive Conservative Party, which is one of the parties that merged to form it. Canada was used to the Progressive Conservative Party which was fiscally conservative and socially progressive. If the current Conservative Party ever had a majority I think the socially conservative agenda would come forward. Stephen Harper is a social conservative. He is a evangelical Christan who attended a church that is opposed to abortion, favours the death penalty, is homophobic and is opposed to same sex marriage. With a majority government these issues would be raised and the liberal culture of Canada has long accepted these issues as settled. With a majority parliament I think we would see the Conservative Party weaken or destroy Canada's National Health Care system, our government supported cultural institutions (CBC, NFB, Support for the Arts, public funding of political parties, etc). Also a majority Conservative governments would weaken our already weak legislation to protect the environment. We are already criticized internationally for doing too little. Harper are repeatedly said he would do nothing until the US decides what it is going to do. He feels we have to follow their lead. We deserve better leadership in this area. One suspects the Conservative Party of Canada is always looking for inspiration from the Republican Party in the US.

It is with great anticipation I wait for the outcome of the election on May 2. Thank goodness our electoral season is only six weeks long and not two years as is the case in the US.

2011-04-01T14:54:00.000-04:00

April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day reminds me every year of one special day. It was the April Fool's Day that I left the United States and returned home to Canada. I had resigned my pastorate in New Haven to return to Canada to both find a church in Canada to serve and to make sure my son was raised a Canadian. He was about to enter the first grade and I knew if he went through school in the US he would be acculturated as an American. He was born in the US and held duel citizenship with a special birth certificate as a "Canadian Born Abroad." You are what you live, not what is one the documents. It had always been my ambition to have a church in Canada. The time seemed right. I felt I had done what I could for the church in New Haven. I had also managed to be both a minister and a single father for the last two years of my tenure there so I felt I could fullfil both roles in a new charge. I was feeling quite optimistic for the future.

My brother, Richard and his first wife, Lynn, came down to New Haven from Toronto and helped me pack up all my worldly possessions and stuff them into the largest U-Haul I could rent. The last thing to fit in was my canoe. Everything just fit. I don't think I properly thanked my brother and his wife for there generous effort. Thinking back on it, I realized it was a substantial commitment on their part. Maybe, he saw it as payback for the time I drove with our father to Mankato, Minnesota to bring him home after he graduated from University. In any case, I remain impressed with this act of generosity and caring on his part.

With my son, Parker, in the passenger seat , in a truck like the one above, we left on a great adventure up the Connecticut Turnpike, across the Massachusetts Turnpike and then north and west on the New York Thruway to the border crossing at Buffalo, New York and Fort Erie, Ontario.

The moment of truth at the border, when you pray the border agent doesn't follow any hunches.

I approached the border check point with much trepidation. Crossing the border always seemed a little scary to me. I know that you are in a no man's land between the American and Canadian agents. You could find yourself unable to go forward or back. While the Canadian border agents we always pleasant ("Welcome to Canada") the American agents always seemed like a tough bunch. "What's your citizenship.Where are you going. How long will you be in the US. " with a wave of the hand you are either waved into the US or directed to the side to be thoroughly questioned and searched.) I can just imagine how intense crossing must be these days in the present climate of fear.

In any case, there I was five minutes before midnight with a large truck full of all my worldly goods driving up to the US agent. I had prepared a detailed inventory of what was in all my boxes. There was among all that stuff 75 boxes of books. I knew I could be asked to unload everything and have the truck thoroughly searched. It was a slow night. There was little traffic.

Was the agent bored and wanting something to do? I opened the back of the truck for the agent to see my load. A long painful pause ensued. Finally, with a wave of the hand he had me close the door of the truck and he sent me on my way.

Two minutes after midnight I was waved passed the Canadian agent on the other side of the bridge. "Welcome to Canada." It was now April Fool's Day. I was safely in Canada with my 500 pounds of marijuana. . . . . . . . . . "April Fools!"

These were emotional days for me. The next morning I went out of my father's house and opened the back of the truck. There was everything I owned. Some of it had minor damage for the way I transported it. I lifted my Salem rocker off the end of the truck. Sat down. And, I cried.

Life had changed for me. I left a home, a job, a community of friends and a wife behind in the US.

I had no job, no house, few local friends, a unfinished suite of rooms in my fathers' house, a son who may need help to adapt without his mother near by and a new school and friends. I also was anxious about how my mother was going to behave. Two years earlier when I was facing divorce she had impulsively said "Come home, I will look after Parker." I had to tell her that I would look after Parker, he was my responsibility. Now here I was at her home just a flight of stairs would separate us. Was my mother going to try to take on the mothering role. I would have to forcefully say we would live separately. Their needed to be a lockable door between our homes. Also, Parker and I would eat together and not just be joining my mother and father for our meals. In the end, my mother had come to realize that she no longer had the strength to be doing everything for the two of us. I have no regrets about Parker have a few lovely years with my parents close by. At the time, It was all very stressful and depressing for me. What was our future be like?

I had been looking and interviewing for another church position. I had turned down an offer to become the minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Oneonta, New York. I decided to hold out for a position in Canada. To this day, I wonder if that decision was the right one. Oneonta is a lovely small city far enough away from larger cities to have it own integity. I liked the community and the church. It I had not had Parker, I probably would have accepted the charge. It is nice to see it is still a lovely town and a solid church.

I never did go back into the ministry full time. I had a couple of offers in the next couple of years I was back in Canada. One was to return to the US as the minister of the Third Unitarian Universalist Church in Austin, an inner city suburb of Chicago. Austin is a largely black community, in decay, adjacent to the up scale community of Oak Park. Just as in New Haven, the line between the black and white communities was just a street of two apart. . . two different worlds. At the time, I was very interested in the inner city and the life in the black community. I have lived in such communities in Roxbury, Ma. and New Haven, Ct. Austin was a tough community. For the one and only time in my life I envisioned owning a gun. In the end, the church broke the rules and did not offer me the job. They had heard that their former minister was unhappy where he was and they invited him to return rather than hire me.This is not supposed to happen but I did not protest.

There were a few rejections. The one that was hurtful to me was to be rejected by our church in Winnipeg. They discriminated against me because I was a single parent. In spite of my successful life being a minister and a single father in the church in New Haven, they felt I would not be able to give them my undivided attention. I was insulted and very disappointed that one of our churches would hold such a view and not be supportive of a single parent as their minister. With more than 50% of our minister's now women I imagine ministers that are single parents are readily accepted today.

One last chance to be a full time minister. I let pass. I was offered the Unitarian Church in Halifax. Unfortunately, I got the call the day my mother died. I asked them for a little time to make up my mind. After a week, I declined, thinking I should spend at least a year with my father as he adjusted to being without my mother. I don't know if that was a real reason or an excuse not to go. With that decision, I realized I might never get a chance to serve a Unitarian Church in Canada full time. It was another one or those moment on the road through life when the rest of your life might have been quite different.

It all began with that fateful April Fool's Day, so long ago. In any case, I look to that day as the watershed day in my life that I look backward and forward to what was and what has been working out since.

Happy April Fools. Perhaps, "happy" is not the right word in my case.

2011-03-31T10:40:00.014-04:00

Waiting for Aqua Pura

For the second day the well drillers are working to install a drilled well for my house. They will have to drill somewhere below 300 feet, I understand. Most of this distance in through Precambrian Shield granite. For 30 years I have pumped water from my beloved river. It's water is lovely, cold, flavourful, crystal clear, sparkling and soft. I love the water from the river. But over they years I have had problems with my pumping arrangement from time to time which has seen me having to haul water until I got inspired to repair the pump or motor. It is amazing how much inconvenience a person can put up with before tackling an annoying task. In recent years, the periods of time without water have become more frequent. I am now at an age when rural plumbing is really annoying. I have taken advantage of a government program to fund a drilled well. This program is designed to help old people to stay in their own home. I had to admit I was old and qualified to finally make an application. This is in the form of a forgivable loan. I will now have water from deep in the terra firma. It will be hard water with minerals in it like iron and hopefully no sulfur smell or taste. I shall miss the river water but I guess from time to time I could go to the river and fetch some just for drinking or washing my hair in it softness. I will now have a more dependable source of water at the house. I guess that is good and makes it worth while.

(click on photo to enlarge)

Bouffard Well Drilling equipment hard at work beside the house.

The Temagami River near where I used to pump water the four hundred feet to the house.

In a day or so I will have the luxury of a shower. No more washing my dirty parts in a glass of water. :) If I am lucky my sore left shoulder will heal. (It is painful from lifing pails of water. )

I trust I will continue to be a careful user of water. If not I may have to get a new septic system.

Spare me that other rural plumbing problem.

2011-03-26T16:06:00.019-04:00

I'm Back!

I just got back from the South, southern Ontario that is. It seems I had to travel 250 miles south to find new fallen snow. The Toronto area had six inches of snow after I got there, while back home the snow was rapidly disappearing. Such is the weather in March in these parts.

I had planned to stay a week to help my friend Lynne celebrate her birthday. We did have a few days together when I learned that the other female in my life needed me. Heidi my long legged bitch needed me to return to care for her. It turned out my son's plans changed and he had to spend the weekend away with his kids while they played hockey. Heidi ,the Great Dane, was waiting for me. I had cut my visit short. Duty called.

It seem like it will be quite a while before life around the pool and in the hot tub begins.

Farewell to Lynne's suburban home for a while. By the time I return she will have had a visit to Barbados. I, on the other hand, will get to experience the sights, sounds and smell of Spring emerging in the North Wood.

I shall not be without distractions. Canada is going to have an election on May 2. Yesterday the Opposition defeated the government with "a vote of no confidence". Prime Minister Harper visited Governor General David Johnston today and it was agreed there should be an election.

The vote of no confidence was the result of the government being found in contempt of parliament because it failed to present the necessary financial information to parliament for it to fulfill it's responsibilities. This is the first time in the history of the British Commonwealth of Nations that a government has been found in contempt of parliament.

It was not for one thing but for three. The government, in it's contemptuous and secretitive way of operating refused to deliver to parliament the cost estimates of the proposed acquisition of new and expensive F-35 jet aircraft from the US, the cost of the Conservatives anti-crime legislation and finally, their failure to tell parliament the amount of the corporate tax deductions suggested. It seems the Conservatives would rather there be little or no debate on this expensive legislation.

Canada should not be purchasing, without tender, (if at all,) expensive fighter aircraft. In my opinion to satisfy the Americans, and to pretend that Canada can be a big time military player in the World. Canada has no enemies that would require this high tech air power unless those in power expect Canada to always join the US in their military adventures. These billions could be used to more important government programs if not to lower the deficit.

Similarly, Canada does not have a crime problem. The Conservatives, for ideological ,not rational reasons, believe we should be arresting more people, keeping them in jail longer and building more jails. Sound familiar. They want to make Canada more like the US in this area. If keeping more of a nation's population in jail, and longer, makes a country more crime free, the United States would be the most crime free country in the World. Well we know this approach is a failure. Any professional in the field would gladly tell the Conservative this reality if they were interested in a rational approach, rather than appealing to the right wing supporters of their party.

This is no time to be giving Corporate Tax breaks while increasing the deficit and national debt after a decade of deficit free government, under the Liberals, before the Conservatives came to power. Tax breaks and expensive unnecessary expenditures in the face of deficit financing makes no sense.

I could rant on. . . and on. Harper has been described as Nixonian. He has also been called paranoid. Need I say more?

At last we can have another chance to vote against the Conservative government. It has not been one that I have admired at all. (I guess you have realized that by now.)

It is not their economic programs that offends me the most. I am more offended with their style of leadership. Prime Minister Harper is a control freak. Nothing is said or happens without his approval. He is a very secretive person who wants to control everything. He is mean spirited toward members of parliament and arrogant toward the Canadian people. He acts as if he has had a clear mandate to govern when he has always only had a minority government. The four other parties , to the left of the Conservatives politically, represent the majority of Canadians. A minority government needs to work closely with the opposition parties to properly govern. Openness and cooperation is called for. Two things that are out of character of Harper and his style of leadership.

Most offensive to me is the way the Harper's Government has failed to go to the aid of Canadians in trouble in other countries upholding their rights. The most glaring was the way the government failed to speak up of Omar Khadr, the child "soldier" prosecuted and persecuted by the United States. In the eight years the Americans imprisoned him both governments refused to honour the UN Protocol on Child Soldiers, the international agreement on the rights of the child, and the Constitutions of their countries. He was tortured and even prevented from having any schooling because he was treated as an adult prisoner and the US had no responsibility to educate any adult as they would a child. All those years, in spite of several Canadian court decisions that ruled against the Conservative government, Harper's government did little or nothing. In the end, they were in contempt of a Supreme Court decision which came too late. Omar plead guilty in a plea bargain to crimes he, as a child, really was not guilty of in order to avoid a truly draconian sentencing in the US. Next year, Omar Khadr will be returned to Canada to finish out his sentence. In spite of him being a Canadian citizen the Conservatives would love to find a way to prevent him from returning. If for no other reason it would be nice to have another party in charge of the government on his return.

There were other cases against Muslim Canadians, citizens and residents that the government failed to support. It took the federal courts to get them to finally do something. I could go on with other issues such as having little or no environmental program to protect the environment or counter climate change, but I have said enough.

Sadly, with four political parties to their left, the Conservatives could end up in power after the election, once again. Hopefully, at worst, it will be another minority government. A majority government would see more ideological conservative programs out of step with the Canadian ethos.

A lot of things can happen in six weeks. Hopefully, the opposition parties can make their case and defeat this Conservative government. If not, for me, the pain will continue.

2011-03-17T11:08:00.009-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day

It is hard for me to get very excited about St. Patrick's Day. I have tried to resist feelings of dislike of the Irish all my life. I am not quite sure why but here are some reasons.

My grandmother was English. She was a kind gentle soft spoken woman but she had little use for the Irish. She was a Methodist who took the pledge when she was 16 and never drank in her life. She was a proper moral woman. Her view of the the Irish was that they were Catholic, shiftless, carousers. In short, they know how to have a good time. For her, the fact, that they could confess their sins, be forgiven and continue their bad behaviour was not a respected view of Christian morality.

I am old enough to remember the Orange Day Parade in Toronto., when it was know as Toronto the Good. This was the protestant alternative to the Catholic St. Patrick's Day parade. I guess I picked up some of the attitude when Toronto was an English protestant parochial city.

I learned that the American and the French Canadians liked the Irish because they shared a dislike of the English. Irish orphans were taken in by French Canadian families and allowed to keep their names. This is why today their are French Canadians with Irish last names.

While the Americans embraced the Irish it was the hard working thrifty Scots the left an historic impression on Canada as the Hudson's Bay Company Agents were most often Scots, Hence, Northern Ontario Cree to this day play Scottish tunes on the fiddle. Many evfen have Scottish names. And, of course, the Scots settled Nova Scotia, particularly Cape Breton, where you can attend a Gaelic College even today. That is why whenever Canada has a ceremonial occasion they have a piper in a kilt, often more than one. And,there are, every Summer Highland Games across the country.

I learned of the Fenian Raiders in school. These Irish Catholic terrorist attacked Canada from bases in the US.

One cannot but be impressed with the "troubles" in Northern Ireland between the Catholic Irish and Protestant Irish (who mostly were lowland scots who settled in Northern Ireland.) From an English point of view the Catholic Irish are just trouble makers or even terrorists.

I went to school in Boston, a most Irish city. It had a long history of corrupt Irish politicians and Irish Gangsters, sometimes it is hard to tell them apart. The most notious Irish American mobster is "Whitey" Bulger, who has been on the run for years. His brother, William Bulger was a leading Democratic politician. Such is the Irish influence in Boston. Among his many crimes Whitey Bulger tried to smuggle arms to the Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland. (Should I mention the Kennedys and the Fitzgeralds? No you can explore their Boston roots yourself.)

Well those are some of the things that have continued to influence my thinking of the Irish. Recenly, I have felt sorry for them. There is the dreadful Catholic Church sex scandal in this most Catholic of all countries and there is their economic collapse with the end of Ireland as the
"Celtic Tiger." Irish culture has been shaken to the core.

Of course, I know prejudicial feeling is wrong what ever the group. One has to resist such judgements.

Not all my feelings are negative. I do love and and appreciate Irish literature and history and know of the wonderful beauty of the Irish countryside. I am well aware of how badly the English treated the Irish at one time. Swift wrote. A Modest Proposal, to expose this historically bad relationship. To purge myself of these feelings, I think I need to visit Ireland soon. Here is a website of some lovely picture of Ireland.

To all who love and appreciate the Irish, that fun loving lot, Happy St. Patrick' Day. Enjoy your green beer. I will toast with a cola or milk. ( Did I mention my grandmother was a teatotaler
:) )

A Toast

Saint Patrick was a gentleman,
Who through strategy and stealth,
Drove all the snakes from Ireland,
Here’s a toasting to his health.
But not too many toastings
Lest you lose yourself and then
Forget the good Saint Patrick
And see all those snakes again.

'Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!'
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-14T16:29:00.009-04:00

Π Day 3.14

Today is International Pi Day. (It almost got by me.) Pi is a mathematical constant that makes possible the calculation of the area of a circle, the volumn of a cylindar , the volumn and suface of a sphere and their derivatives. How life and would be so different without Pi.

The famous Greek mathematician, Archimedes is credited with discovering Pi.

Pi is an approximation. Here is Pi worked out to 2000 places after the decimal point.

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
82148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128
48111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
44288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091
45648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
72458700660631558817488152092096282925409171536436
78925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094
33057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548
07446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912
98336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798
60943702770539217176293176752384674818467669405132
00056812714526356082778577134275778960917363717872
14684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235
42019956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960
51870721134999999837297804995105973173281609631859
50244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881
71010003137838752886587533208381420617177669147303
59825349042875546873115956286388235378759375195778
18577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989
38095257201065485863278865936153381827968230301952
03530185296899577362259941389124972177528347913151
55748572424541506959508295331168617278558890750983
81754637464939319255060400927701671139009848824012
85836160356370766010471018194295559619894676783744
94482553797747268471040475346462080466842590694912
93313677028989152104752162056966024058038150193511
25338243003558764024749647326391419927260426992279
67823547816360093417216412199245863150302861829745
55706749838505494588586926995690927210797509302955
32116534498720275596023648066549911988183479775356
63698074265425278625518184175746728909777727938000
81647060016145249192173217214772350141441973568548
16136115735255213347574184946843852332390739414333
45477624168625189835694855620992192221842725502542
56887671790494601653466804988627232791786085784383
82796797668145410095388378636095068006422512520511
73929848960841284886269456042419652850222106611863
06744278622039194945047123713786960956364371917287
46776465757396241389086583264599581339047802759010

If you do not believe me, work it out for yourself! It seem it is a number that is never exact no matter how far you calculate it. Those that care about such things are forever using computers to try to complete the calculations.

This is a good day to think about this mathematical constant 3.14 or 22/7ths and how usefull it is. It is a good day to talk to children about the wonders and mysteries of numbers and mathematics.

Think also of it as a religious sign. Those who think the Universe is one of order and a design with a possible Designer (God) might point to this as a "proof" that we live in an orderly Universe. The mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan, a devote Hindu , espresss it this way, "An equation for me has no meaning, unless it represents God." This is what is know as the argument from design for the existence of God. I am unconvinced but it has been put forward through the ages. That does not mean I do not find mathematical order in the Universe excitingly mysterious.

I am fascinated with "magical" numbers. The one that I believe shapes our mind, or is an aspect of our mind that shapes our reality, is 3. How often do we see things in threes. There is the Christian Trinity, Marxist, dialectic, Freudian, Id, ego, superego. It seems we most easily make sense of our world or remember things most easily if we group them in threes. You may have your favourite number. Three works for me and my analytical mind.

Happy Pi Day!

2011-03-14T10:44:00.011-04:00

Still Some Snow

I always believe that Winter ends around here beginning tomorrow, March 15. I don't think it will fail this year. Starting tomorrow the day time temperatures, promise to be above freezing.

Here are some pictures of the last of the snow.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Looking up the road toward my house. In a day to two the road will be bare gravel once again.

Heidi was eager to jump up on the snow bank to get a better view.

Snow drifts by the road.

Lovely weather for a walk.

2011-03-12T09:26:00.009-05:00

Make This the End of Winter!

In spite of it being another mild Winter with less snow than normal, I am tired of Winter and wish it were over. I must be getting old.

This is normally a nice time to enjoy the Winter season. The weather is mild enough that one can be outside enjoying activities ( ice fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, Winter camping, snowshoeing, etc) without having to fight the cold. In fact, on a sunny day one can get sunburned from the warming sun and the glare from the snow. I think I need to get myself together and get out and enjoy the weather. I could be suffering from cabin fever!

We were supposed to have rain that would wash away much of the last of the snow. Instead, the percipitation came in the form of snow, the wet sticky kind. Not a lot, normally, but in a Winter drought it was a good amount.

This is looking toward town just after the plow passed. For a road that only has three homes beyond mine and where there is little traffic, we do get good service at having the road cleared of snow.

This is the road during the snow storm. It is looking up the road toward the bush. My neighbour's house a quarter of a mile away is not visible.

I have been reluctant to post much lately. Let's blame it on the weather and my mood. There certainly are a lot of issues to rant about both in the US and Canada., not to mention the rest of the depressing suffering world. It just seems too much trouble to put my thoughts together.

Yesterday, something caught my eye and imagination. It is fascinating how one's exploration of the Internet leads one on. It began by noticing a CNN article on unpublished photos of Hitler by Eva Braun.

I decided I would like to see them and went to the Life.com site they were on. While there I notice another series of photo of Hitler's lovers over the years. This was a fascinating group of women. I visited some sites on them , in particular on Eva Braun and her family. My over all suprise is that almost half of the women Hitler was involved with died a violent death. Most by suicide. His young niece, with whom he had an infatuation may have been killed by Hitler. Not a nice guy. . .well we know that all by now.

One of Hitlers lovers was Unity Mitford, ( this video is one of five about her relationship with Hitler) an English minor noble woman. She tried to kill herself and failed. She may have had a child by Hitler, which she gave up for adoption. I how fascinating is that as a footnote to history.) She came from a fascinating British family which was both famous and infamous, for writings and politics. There were six sisters and a brother in the family. North Americans of my age may remembered Jessica Mitford, who moved to the United States and wrote a book on the funeral business."The American Way of Death". Several of the sisters were writers, not quite as famous as the Bronte sisters but all fascinating.

What interested me was the politics of the family. Two of the sisters, Unity being one of them, and the brother, were fascists and admired Hitler. Jessica was a communist. She shared a bedroom with Unity a young woman. Apparently, they have a line drawn down the middle of the room with memorablilia of Lenin and company on one side and Hitler, et. al. on the other. It must have been an arena of interesting debate.

If you want to read a little on this fascinating family and group of sisters you could start here and here. Here is a interesting essay of the sisters.

Of course, you could google each of the sisters. Don't you just love the easy access to material on the Internet that would have required hours searching through a library.

What really peaked my interest was that the father of the family, David Freeman-Mitford, Second Baron of Redesdale, owned gold property North of where I live in the Timmins-Kirkland Lake area goldfield. He visited this area often.

Now if you enjoy ironies in history how about this one. Unity, their daughter who became a party girl with Hitler was conceived in Swastika, Ontario. It is a small town near Kirkland Lake on the Northern Ontario Railroad line. It had it name long before the Nazi's adopted it and to this day are proud of it. They resisted changing it during the war.

I just love discovering these little footnotes to history. It enlives the dreary days of Winter.

2011-03-01T08:08:00.006-05:00

My Get Away

Last Week I escaped to the big city. I decided to go south to Mississauga and spend my birthday with my friend Lynne. Yes it was my birthday. Happy birthday to me! But a lot of family and friends all ready knew this. It seems at some point I have entered my birth date on some sites on the computer, mainly Facebook, which I hardly use, and this social site alerts your "friends" on the site, of you big day whether or not you want them to.

It is getting harder to sneak around and keep some information about yourself , to yourself.

I thank all of you who left a comment on the occasion of my birthday. It is nice to be remembered and noticed. I wonder though,. . . . . . . .will Facebook still be reminding people of my birthday 40 years from now when I have died and am hopefully in blessed Oblivion. What will happen to all the stuff we have on the computer? Will it have eternal life when we no longer do. Humm! It seems it would be appropriate that postings on a computer should have a natural ending to their existence.

I had a lovely time; all too short. Lynne is always good company. There is always lots of talk, some Scrabble, TV ( including the frustration of trying to operate her complex system when we want to watch a movie on it) and food.

Going out for dinner is a real treat for me. We did this twice. Once to a local pub on the way to a movie, "The Tourist" and to actually celebrate my birthday a fancier place a little further way, La Castile. After a meal in the dining area we went to the bar and lounge complete with a lovely lounge singer, Rhonda Silver, at the piano. She played our requests and we danced a little. It has been a long time since I did this sort of thing. There was a time when I fancied myself an urban man about town. I wish now I had all the money I spent back then wining and dining the ladies. This night was my night to be wined (a solft drink for me) and dined. It was thoroughly enjoyable. At the end of the evening Ms. Silver gave me a copy of her disc of some of her original songs as a birthday present. (pictured below) I suspect we will return sometime.

Books: The Shack, Around the Rock in a Bad Mood and my new disc. Twelve Pieces of Silver.

I tried once again traveling to Toronto on the overnight bus. This takes the shortest time, (just over 6 hours) getting into Toronto about 7:AM. It has lots of stops along the way on the 250 mile trip. The first time I used the bus I found I could not sleep on it but I thought I would give it another try. This time I think I slept part of the way which made the time go faster. I prefer traveling on the train where I can pass the time reading and even talking to other passengers.
The overnight bus does give you an extra day at the other end if you are not too tired to enjoy it.

I came back on the train, joining the morning rush hour crowd on the GO (Government of Ontario) Train which passed just by Lynne's neighbourhood. It efficiently gets one to Union Station in Toronto. It always makes me think of the movie Silver Streak where the train comes crashing thought the wall of the station's great hall. )That was Union Station playing the part of a Chicago Station)

At Union Station I got the Ontario Northland Railroad's Northlander. This is the train that goes due north in Ontario. North Bay is about half way. It goes on to Cochrane, where one can get the Polar Bear Express to Moosonee on James Bay. Someday I am must go there to see Ontario's ocean coast and this four hundred year old outpost settlement.

I borrowed a couple of books from Lynne to read on the train (pictured above) ; The Shack and Around the Rock in a Bad Mood. The Shack caught my eye since it features an encounter with "God" in a Shack. I have spend all my life trying to know God in one way or another. It has yet to reveal itself to me in other than momentary fragments. In this book, God is a heavy set Black Woman. What a surprise! The other parts of the Triune Mystery are equally as surprising. It is an interesting and touching read. The author, Wm. Paul Young, is just as interesting and complex as this religious book. He is well to the right of any of my religious convictions. I would enjoy a personal conversation with him.

The other book is a self published book, Lynne purchased it from a man at her door who was the author. It is an interesting real life adventure of kayaking around The Rock, the Island of Newfoundland, part of our tenth province. I love these wonderful paddling adventures that are still possible in Canada, where we still have some truly wild places.

It was good to get home after stopping to collect Heidi who was spending a few days at Parker's house. Now that my birthday is over, I know Spring is just around the corner. My mother always said so. And mothers don't lie! She was kept in the hospital for two weeks when I was born (it was what they did back then. I think they thought women were frail and needed this rest). So when she came home with me it was March in Toronto, the beginning of Spring there. Winter, here, will make me wait for April. In any case, the melt will be on soon.