Tag: canada

The Eclipse, April 8, 2:12 pm

April 12, 2024

Kathy said we should see the eclipse. She said:  It happens once in a lifetime; the next one will come in forty years. And it is fantastic! The news media estimated a million people would visit Niagara Falls to watch the eclipse; hotels tripled their room rates there. After reading about how to watch the eclipse, Kathy ordered appropriate sunglasses from Amazon, and the package also came with a cover for the camera lens.

Kathy also said that her friend invited us to view the eclipse from the deck of a cottage facing the St. Lawrence River in Brockville, Ontario, where it was supposed to be 100% covered. That sounded too good to pass up until Kathy received a phone call from her friend disinviting us; apparently, not all the details of our visit met the cottage owner’s approval. Kathy was a little annoyed that her friend did not discuss alternative locations where we could meet.

So now, I wondered, why should we leave Ottawa and go elsewhere to view the eclipse since we would see 98.8 percent of the sun covered by the moon in Ottawa? In Brockville, I read that the coverage will be one hundred percent. OK. Does that make a huge difference? I doubt it, but I said let’s go and drive south towards Brockville, searching for an attractive venue for viewing. 

 The news media projected massive traffic for April 8, with people trying to drive to be under the eclipse’s pathalong the St. Lawrence River. To avoid traffic, we chose to go south on a secondary road, Highway 15, towards Brockville. We decided to make an outing to get there early “to avoid” the traffic.  So, we brought along a picnic.For the picnic, I bought some black forest ham, Swiss cheese, sourdough bread, and a bottle of wine (Ventoux, a French rose from 2022). 

On our drive south, we first checked out the parking lot at the Crosby fleamarket. It is a gravelly lot with no attractive landscaping surrounding it, so we drove further south and stopped at the parking lot at the entrance to the Cataraqui Trail, a rail-to-trail path where there was lots of open space to see the sun. There were already two other cars on this sunny and balmy day; the temperature was 15 degrees Centigrade (60 degrees Fahrenheit).

Mothers with children disgorged from one of the cars and started walking along the Trail. They were from Ottawa and told us that the Ottawa school board had let the children off on April 8 to view the eclipse. The people from the other car had just returned from walking the Trail and reminded us to wear our eclipse-viewingsunglasses.

A box from Costco was our table, and a beach chair and a folding bridge chair provided seating forour picnic lunch. Sitting on the beach chair, as I was opening the wine and getting ready to enjoy my lunch, Kathy motioned to me with bad news. She pointed to two nails in the back tire next to where she sat. I looked over and thought, what a downer on a marvelous sunny day, looking for the eclipse. I said we’d be lucky to drive back to Ottawa without the tire deflating, to which Kathy replied: do not take the nails out, orthe tire will deflate!

While enjoying my lunch, I thought about changing the tire with the spare in the car. So, after finishing lunch and worrying about what to do with the tire, I looked at changing the tire.  I lay down on my back, looking for the spot under the car where the jack would go. As I slithered towards the back of the car on my back, where the tire with the nail was, I noticed that the head did not look like a standard nail-head, and as I touched it, it just fell off the tire! It was some dried-out grass clump wedged between the grooves of the tire!  With the problem resolved, it was time for another glass of wine.  

Relieved by not having to change tires, fortified by a glass of wine, an hour to go before the eclipse,we decided to walk on the Cataraqui Trail. It is flat and straight, with swamps on both sides. The birds and frogs made a racket that was pleasant to the ears. A half-hour later, and with gathering clouds, we thought the better part of prudence was to turn around and return to the car, especially with the darkening clouds.

Suddenly, it became dark, and I told Kathy we had better rush back to the car; it looked like it was going to storm. In our rush back on the trail, we noticed the sun becoming dark and realized that this was the eclipse coming on! We grabbed our sunglasses, and I put the screen on the camera lens to take some pictures. At the same time, the frogs and birds became quiet, and an eerie silence descended on us. I kept shooting. I did not get a classic image of the eclipse with the moon fully covering the sun; taking photos through the unique lens was a challenge, but I got some decent shots.

As the eclipse passed over us, the sky lightened up again. We walked back to pack our picnic gear, listening to the birds and frogs, who seemed to come back to life as soon as the sky lit up. The sun was shining brightly when we got back to the car. A phone message awaited us from Kathy’s friend about the excellent view she had of the eclipse from the cemetery in Brockville. Our location was probably better because we shared our experience with birds and frogs rather than the souls of dead people.

Zooming with Cottage Neighbors

April 2, 2024

I push the join button on Zoom and face 18 somber people on the screen, members of our cottagers’ association. Nobody speaks. With a look of expectation on their faces, they appear serious. I ask: can you hear me? Some say yes. I grab my glass of wine while Kathy brings our dinner at 7 pm. We decided to eat our dinner during the Zoom call.

Looking at the Zoom participants, I ask who is from Ottawa. A woman says she is 100 km from Ottawa in Madoc. Then I recognize Kit joining us from Florida, Ry, who lives in New Hampshire, and a few from Toronto. The association’s President lives in Toronto and called the Zoom meeting to discuss issues concerning the group.

A revised constitution and the transfer of land used as pathways from the island’s original owners to our cottagers’ association are on the agenda. These topics leave me cold; I have never been interested in constitutions, and the land transfer has no impact on our enjoyment of the island. We already have legal access to walk on the pathways with all other cottagers, so who owns it is irrelevant.

I would have been more interested in the Zoom call if the agenda had proposed some new activities and developments for the upcoming summer. Bureaucratic matters, especially constitutions, leave me cold, but I looked forward to seeing some cottage neighbors.

After tent camping and trailering, we bought the cottage a few decades ago, envisioning a permanent summer venue we could visit every weekend. It never involved Robert’s Rules and land transfers. It was “getting away” from urbanization and work. It had to do with living on a lakefront with all the lake’s benefits, like swimming, canoeing, kayaking, sailboarding, and even walking on the pathways in the back.

But here we are, having dinner with a glass of wine when the President puts the revised constitution on the screen and explains proposed changes. What a bore, except for a few quirky items. He says we could have more than the current membership class, consisting of property owners on the island.

Less than half of the current cottage owners belong to the association, and the President suggests we could have the non-paying cottagers become another class of members. Huh? What does that mean? Why should you be a member if you do not pay the membership fee and cannot vote? Some people on the island may not even be aware of the association, but we make them members?

But wait. The President also suggests another member class: people who do not even live on the island. Who could these people be? Relatives, potential cottage property buyers? I think we do not need these artificial membership classes.

Another peculiar suggestion the President makes to include in the constitution is that only people with no history of bankruptcy can serve on the association’s executive. Someone asks how we can filter these individuals out of consideration. How can we ascertain that the individual volunteering to serve on the Executive Committee has no bankruptcy history?

Concerning the pathways, I ask: Why transfer the land to the association when we have the legal right to walk on them? What are the benefits? I do not get a response to my question or to the other question, whether owning the land would require liability insurance, which would cost dearly and increase the membership fee.  

However, there seems to be momentum to proceed with the land transfer, mainly from the executive members. There appears to be wind in their sails; I am unsure what drives their motivation. They promise to follow up on suggestions from the 19 members of the association logging in.

I leave the Zoom meeting with mixed feelings. When we bought a cottage on an island, we thought we had left bureaucracy behind in the city. But bureaucracy follows us today and is burgeoning, with big-city people coming to our island and developing big-city organizations with rules and regulations. I may have to reconsider joining the association for next year.

Too Many Power Outages?

February 23, 2024

Our local hydro company representatives came to present “how to make our network more resilient to power outages.” Close to forty people attended the information session held at the community center.

Sarah, the hydro person responsible for “community outreach,” introduced Joe, who introduced himself as the person responsible for metering and substations. Before he arrived at our community center, he said he drove around our neighborhood to check it out. He said our neighborhood is very nice; I am unsure what he meant by that or his comment’s purpose. Was he trying to butter us up in case he expected some people to be critical and unpleasant?

The slide presentation he attempted to give was interrupted immediately by a booming voice in the back row asking why we still have above-ground wiring: he said twenty years ago, he attended a similar meeting where hydro promised to bury all the lines. Well, the six hydro representatives at the meeting did not have an answer. Some discussion of costs ensued, but it is not quite accurate that the wiring is not underground; in my area, the wires are buried, and perhaps the property developments before our subdivision did not have the benefit of underground wiring. Joe should have had a map showing the wires above and underground in our mixed neighborhood.

Joe had very few slides, and I cannot recall more than half a dozen. The first one showed a geographic map of our area. Following it was a map of the hydro network in the area, with the hydro lines following the streets but without indicating where the lines were buried.  The most interesting for me was the slide showing the number of power outages by year and type since 2019. Unfortunately, it was unclear whether the data was for the entire city or our area alone. According to the data, the most common outages result from equipment failure, followed by trees falling on the wires.

I never thought we had a problem with outages; I remember a storm in July 2023 when we lost power for ten hours and had a fine breakfast at a restaurant with backup power. The derecho was a major storm with power outages when we lost the food in the freezer worth a few hundred dollars in 2022. And before that, we had a major ice storm in 1999 when we lost power for a few days. I cannot recall power outages before the ice storm. So, are outages becoming more frequent? I do not know and did not get an answer at this meeting.

But Joe could not present his slides; the next interruption came from the back row, again, someone demanding: “How come the Loblaws store and Denny’s restaurant kept power while we, the residents, were without power last year?” The answer to me was obvious: a grocery store and a restaurant would have backup power, or maybe those establishments are on different hydro lines from ours. Unfortunately, Joe could not give us the answer or even an explanation.

Another person asked how much capacity he could or should install on his roof via solar panels to avoid relying on hydro in the future. The questions came fast, and at one time, I thought of getting up and asking people to hold their questions to the end of Joe’s presentation. But that was the job of the community outreach person, and Sarah could not control the meeting.

Towards the end of the meeting, I learned that “resilience” will be enhanced by “infrared monitoring” of the power equipment that anticipates and identifies equipment failure before it happens. Hydro also has a “tree pruning” program. Although these initiatives are good, I wondered if Hydro had a planned annual maintenance program funded and completed each year. Or did Hydro practice breakdown maintenance? And, has Hydro not had a tree pruning program before? So, what is new here except the infrared monitoring program?  And more to the point, as far as I was concerned – what are those plans for our neighborhood?  They sounded like system-wide plans to me that may or may not be used in our area soon!

Perhaps Hydro has fallen behind in maintenance in recent years, resulting in power outages. For example, hydro has wiring buried in our backyard on an easement that has not been replaced in fifty years. I do not know the standards for replacing wiring, but ground movements may break the insulation on wires, moisture gets in, and rust ensues. There must be standards for such items, which should be addressed in planned maintenance programs (just like when you get oil changes in your car – you don’t wait for it to break down). But when it comes to saving money, maintenance is the first to go.

I found the meeting disappointing; I learned little of substance. Hydro people did not provide the big picture, outlining that equipment is getting old and needs replacement, that the trees that people planted fifty years ago interfere with the wired infrastructure, and that people use more electricity than ever before, including EVs in the garages -all of which can lead to more frequent power interruptions, regardless of weather. I expected some trend analysis with supporting metrics as they affect our area. Specifically, I expected Hydro’s line-by-line itemization of what substation and line repairs and tree pruning Hydro will perform along specific streets over the next few years. Please provide us with some reassurance that Hydro is actively working towards building resilience via improved equipment, technology, and maintenance. We did not get that.

Climate Change: From X-country Skiing to Urban Walking

February 15, 2024

We have always done x-country skiing in Ottawa for fun and exercise during the winter months. Snow could come as early as December but never later than by Xmas. We have always had up-to-date equipment, and nothing was better than being outdoors in the fresh air on a sunny day. Sometimes, it was cold, but layered clothing did the trick, and when it was frigid, we started skiing uphill to warm up.  

But there has been a massive change in the weather over the last few decades. When we moved to Ottawa in 1971, the temperature never reached zero Fahrenheit in January (in those days, we had the Fahrenheit scale). And we had ten feet of snow that month; I had to shovel snow off the roof to lighten the load. Not anymore!

It was so mild last year that the world’s longest skating rink, the three-mile-long Rideau Canal, did not open in 2023. It was open four days this year, in 2024. Balmy weather created risky skating conditions on the Canal, and the National Capital Commission, the agency maintaining the ice surface, deemed it unsafe for skating.

We had some snow in December, but there has been no precipitation for weeks. A few weeks ago, we started walking on snow-covered paths instead of snowshoeing, which has become difficult because of the lack of fresh snow. The snow on the pathways had become compressed by skiers and walkers. It melted during the days with above-freezing weather and then froze overnight. So, we walked with crampons on our boots to avoid sliding on the icy pathways. But walking on uneven, icy surfaces, even with crampons, is unpleasant. We needed a new plan to go outdoors for fun and exercise.

We discovered the city cleared the sidewalks of snow in urban areas. So, we picked a walk downtown, where we found cleared sidewalks. The plan was to walk for a while and then let serendipity take over by improvising the return route, aiming to visit a coffee shop.

We picked a location on Somerset Street West, parked the car at the Suya Palace African Grill, and walked west on Wellington Street, dodging people on the narrow sidewalk. Tinseltown Christmas Emporium was on our left. Further west, we passed the Ember Hair Retreat and the Crows Nest Barbershop. The Tooth and Nail Brewing Company was across the Les Moulins la Fayette coffee shop at Irving Avenue. On the other side of the street was an LCBO (liquor store) and the Ministry of Coffee (another coffee shop). Next to the Moulin la Fayette, we looked into the windows of the Tokyo Smoke shop (a cannabis store), all of these establishments within two blocks.

Walking and discovering the variety of stores was a refreshing change from walking in our neighborhood, where few people ever walk, and when they do, they walk on the streets because of the lack of sidewalks. Our progress was slow, with our attention focused on the various establishments.

We chose a street parallel to Somerset for our return. The changing character of the old residential area to modern architectural houses and small apartments was striking in design and colors. I took pictures of the evolving residential area. Some people walking by me with young children asked if I was a real estate agent looking for a house.

The area was changing with many renovations demonstrating the area’s attractiveness for living. Unfortunately, I thought the redevelopment would squeeze the small pop-and-mom stores out of existence.

The next day, we decided to pick a quieter area with fewer people on the streets for our walk. We chose to walk along Colonel By Drive, next to the Rideau Canal, which, without skaters, we thought, would be quiet. Instead, we met joggers and cyclists in balmy, above-freezing temperatures.

But Colonel By Drive was so noisy with heavy car traffic that we could not hear each other talking. Like the previous day, we chose a parallel street to return, Echo Drive, bordered by stately and some newly constructed homes. It was quiet with no car traffic, and we enjoyed this older but expensive area, looking at the architectural dwellings.

As we looked at the houses, some Jehovah’s Witnesses approached us, asking how we managed in this complex world. It did not appear they were successful in talking with homeowners on this street, so perhaps signing up people on the road for an interactive Bible course was a good substitute. Although they did not convince us that studying the Bible was our interest, we discussed aspects of our lives in an overcrowded world. After our walk, we ended up in a coffee shop, the Stella Luna Gelato Cafe.

Our Sunday walk took us from Ottawa South, going west on Colonel By Drive to the Bronson Bridge, where we crossed over to Queen Elizabeth Drive. We walked east along the Drive to Lansdowne and checked out the Ottawa Landsdowne Market, open only on Sundays. I have not been in this area for years and was stunned by the massive redevelopment around the stadium. The place reminded me of Granville Island in Vancouver, although on a much smaller scale.

A hundred vendors/farmers within one hundred miles of Ottawa come to this market. We stopped to talk with a vendor selling Kinoko mushrooms, which he grows in his garage, and bought some of these odd-looking “gourmet” mushrooms after he explained how he grows them. And, of course, we had to get some micro-greens from another vendor and buy organic, free-range eggs from a farmer who is a “leader in animal welfare.” Before we loaded up with additional purchases, we decided to walk back to the car, except for a stop at the Happy Goat Coffee shop on Bank Street.

We miss x-country skiing on fresh snow on a sunny day, but urban walking is more than a suitable substitute. It provides exercise outdoors, but more importantly, it is a way to learn about our city, its businesses, its people, and its developments that we do not see or hear about unless we walk around the city.

What is Canadian Culture

February 7, 2024

During a lively discussion with friends, I asked: what is Canadian culture? After a surprising period of thoughtful quiet, someone suggested that Canada has musicians, authors, and artists who combine to define Canadian culture. But I said that many of these have made their career in the US. For example, Celine Dion, Joni Mitchell, and The Guess Who (Burton Cummings) have become famous south of the border. When it comes to writers, Rohinton Mistry, although a Canadian author, wrote about India, Michael Ondaatje, another Canadian author, wrote about World War II (The English Patient), and Margaret Atwood’s novels have also enjoyed wide popularity south of the border. So, why would we call them examples of Canadian culture? What is Canadian about their work, except for their citizenship?

I brought up our difficulty when visiting friends and family in Europe; what should we take as gifts that would appear Canadian? We have often taken coasters and shawls with native Canadian themes but not much else. We could not think of other items. Canadian native themes represent a small portion of the Canadian art fabric, although considered very Canadian abroad.

When I think of Canadian culture, the McKenzie Brothers come to mind; Bob and Doug, acting as two dimwitted brothers, swilled beer, and every second word coming out of their mouths was “have another beer” and “eh,” on their popular show called The Great White North. There is something about drinking beer that is Canadian, whether in a ballpark or at hockey arenas during games. Bob and Doug have certainly become Canadian favorites, and I would label their popularity as part of Canadian culture.

Another part of Canadian culture is hockey. It is widely popular, and most children start playing when they are big enough to lace up a pair of skates. One of the most popular hockey commentators on “Hockey Night Canada” was Don Cherry, whose flamboyant suits and analyses of hockey games charmed many Canadian homes.  

Rick Mercer is a Canadian icon whose show was on air for over twenty years. His humor and rants pleased Canadians. His travels in the US interviewing famous people and asking dumb questions to embarrass interviewees were enormously popular in Canada (including one with then-presidential candidate Bush – Rick asked Bush about Canadian Prime Minister “Jean Poutine”). I appreciated his humor but did not like the idea of embarrassing people. But apparently, his wit pleased Canadians, which tells me something about Canadian character.

Founded by the ex-hockey player Tim Horton, the coffee shop chain of his name has become a Canadian institution. Although many Starbucks, Second Cups, and other coffee shops exist, Canadians gravitate to a local Tim Horton for their morning fix. I would call the chain part of our Canadian culture today.

We also enjoy the unique throat singing by Inuit people. In Canada, you hear throat singing on national holidays. I would call it a part of the Canadian cultural mosaic.

So, you may ask: what is culture? I am not an expert on this subject, but to me, it is a pattern of behavior of people living on a usually contiguous piece of geography with common traditions acquired over generations vis-a-vis work, diet, clothing, social interaction, language, religion, likes, and dislikes. For example, think of the French culture of Quebec, their joie-de-vivre, their history with les habitants (the original settlers from France in what is now Quebec), their love of hockey, and their language. And do not forget their food: poutine, tourtiere, feve au lards.

What spawned the discussion on Canadian culture was whether we are losing it. Whether the influx of immigrants, refugees, and the vast numbers of foreign students dilute Canadian culture, and whether the Prime Minister, advocating the concept of the “trans-national state,” supersedes traditional Canadian culture.

While the US embraced the “melting pot” concept for their newcomers, Canada favored “multi-culturalism.” We love the different cultures immigrants bring with them, their ethnic restaurants, and their ethnic community centers, and we support them financially to celebrate their national holidays. We encourage foreign cultures to thrive in Canada; we celebrate them on July 1 each year, Canada’s birthday. The more we do this, the more we dilute Canadian culture with foreign cultures. We forget who we are and what we stand for, except for Canadian society’s equity, diversity, and inclusion slogan.

Let me describe a day when I met three newcomers to Canada that made me think about their knowledge of Canada. A cheerful young fellow took my passport pictures at a pharmacy. Arriving six months ago from Sri Lanka, he has not secured a job in his field, civil engineering. Nobody in his home country told him during his application process he might need to requalify in Canada to work as an engineer. And so, he worked as a cashier and passport photographer at the pharmacy. Hoping for a better future, he has already rented an apartment to welcome his wife and two-year-old child in two months.

The fellow sitting beside me waiting to get his social insurance card at a Canadian service center (I  was there to renew my passport) came from Zimbabwe two months ago. As a pharmacist, he already has a job and awaits his family’s arrival in a few months. He told me he learned how to dress for the cold in Canada in January. He informed me he would stay for twenty years and then return home. He may change his mind in the next twenty years, and I am sure he will learn a lot about Canada that may attract him to stay.

The agent who did the paperwork to renew my passport was born in France to African parents. Bilingual and with a federal government job, he may be Canadianized to a degree, but I wondered how he feels as a black bilingual person in English-speaking Ontario.

These are just three examples of Canadian newcomers I met one day, and I wondered what they knew about Canadian culture. They will undoubtedly learn. Two have experienced the cold Canadian winter for the first time, which involves tuques, mukluks, down-filled gloves, and parkas. Years ago, I worked at the federal immigration department when a program existed with funding to assist immigrants in adjusting to Canadian life. The program does not exist anymore.

Personally, camping in the wilderness, canoeing, and picking wild blueberries on land recently devastated by forest fire, with bears around, is part of Canada. Cottaging around the lakes in Ontario, listening to the buzz of the chainsaw and the hammer sound, is also typical of Canadian culture. Unless we provide time and opportunity for our newcomers to learn to live in our country and engage in activities that have become traditions in Canada, I am afraid that we’ll gradually lose parts of our cultural identity.

Forty-six percent of Toronto is foreign-born. And twenty-three percent of Canada is foreign-born. How can we not lose part of who we are with these numbers? But immigrants are welcome in Canada; immigrants built this country. It could be that our success with immigrants will cause our changing culture.