The winter of 2013

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The tree in my backyard

From the front window

I like the way the snow looks sitting on the fence

As much as I dislike snow, at times like this I can't deny its beauty.

Playing on my iPod: Anne Murray

An odd choice for someone who seems rooted in Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras music. But once again, memories come into play. In the 60's at the height of folk music popularity, CBC Television ran Singalong Jubilee during the summers (also later as part of their winter schedule.) Although Murray didn't appear until 1968 both she and the programme are inexorably tied to my "lazy-hazy-crazy days of summer."

More Anne Murray: Canada's Songbird

"Wynne"-ing ways

In the end, it wasn't even close - 1,150 to 866. Although Sandra Pupatello was leading after the second ballot, both Gerrard Kennedy and Charles Sousa dropped out and threw their support behind Kathleen Wynne and their delegates followed. Wynne becomes the first female Premier in Ontario history and the first openly gay Premier in Canada.

At the convention she didn't shy away from the possible impact of her sexuality.

Let's put something on the table: Is Ontario ready for a gay premier? You've heard that question. Let's say what that actually means: Can a gay woman win? ... I don’t believe the people of Ontario judge their leaders on the basis of race, colour or sexual orientation. I don’t believe they hold that prejudice in their hearts.

In the end it may be a factor for some, but not important enough to matter. What is more pressing is how she will deal with governing in a minority situation, the continuing labour strife with the teachers and, most importantly, the deficit of $11.9 billion. She seems to be making the right moves by promising to call back the legislature next month and to work with the opposition. The opposition, however, must want to work with her as well and, after all, this is politics where despite the lip service paid to putting the Province ahead of ideology that has seldom happened. She is a conciliator, but that can be a double-edged sword. She risks appearing ineffectual and overly accommodating.

None of this may matter. Ontarians have reached the end of their patience with the Liberals; McGuinty's prorogation of the legislature after his resignation as Premier didn't help. Wynne may not have time to change this, even if she can, before the Conservatives and the NDP, sensing blood, pull the plug and force an election.

Is it cold enough for you?

I know it's winter, I know it's Canada, but WTF

The Five and Dime

Source: Local History and Archives, Hamilton Public Library

Start at the northwest corner of King and Hughson, and move slowly up the sidewalk, alongside the old Right House building. It helps if it’s a sunny day. Peer across the street. And there on a slab of stone set into the brick wall, you’ll spot the outline of six big letters pulled down years ago – KRESGE. That name was once on hundreds of stores across the continent. It belonged to Sebastien Spering Kresge, who got his start in 1899 in Detroit. Link to the full article is at the bottom of this post

When I was growing up in the late 40's, early 50's I lived in a small city of about 35,000. Everything was centred in the downtown. The five & dime stores were Woolworth, Kresge, and Metropolitan, The higher end department stores were Eatons and the Right House. Around and among them were clustered all kinds of local stores as well as 4 theatres. You didn't have to travel to find things you needed or wanted no matter what the quality you were looking for or the price you could afford. That, of course, was a function of its time. While there were lots of cars many families, including mine, didn't own one, so the centralised businesses made sense. People went downtown to shop. Saturdays the sidewalks were packed, even more so because the open-air farmers' market was there as well.

The roots of the changes that happened are pretty well the same as in other cities no matter the size - growth, population shift and increased mobility. More people meant that they lived farther from the downtown. When we moved out of the city in 1952 we ended up in the outskirts surrounded by market gardens with a handful of neighbours. By 1958 the tar & chip street had become 4 paved lanes and there was a high school beside us. Plazas sprouted up with stores like Woolco and K-mart, followed by enclosed malls. No one went to the centre of the city anymore because there was no need; just hop in your car, park it for free and shop to your heart's content at the new downtown.

One by one the five and dimes closed as did the department stores. I think the Right House lasted the longest, eventually moving to one of the malls before the company closed its doors. Woolworth, Kresge, Metropolitan, and Eatons, the iconic Canadian department store, are also gone. So too are their replacements Woolco and K-mart. Relics of the past that only exist in photos and in memories stirred by newspaper articles.

Read the complete story A Sign Past Its Time

Samuel Giguère

Perhaps I've been missing out by not going to the Ticat games.

More on Samuel Giguère

Switching teams

Not really. In a previous post on Glen Murray's candidacy for leader of the Ontario Liberal Party I wondered if a gay man would be Premier of Ontario. With Miller's withdrawal on Jan 10th that is not to be, but there is a bit of a silver lining.

He threw his support behind Kathleen Wynne. Wynne, who is an out lesbian, has strong support. However, Wynne leans left and it may be she will be seen as unsuitable by the party members to continue the current austerity programs. We'll know on January 27th. And then the fun begins.

No matter who wins, will there be an election? Will the NDP instead support the minority Liberal government which will then limp on in uncertainty? With Liberal support at a low ebb, will there be time for them to try to rebuild or, like the Federal Liberals, are they doomed to be decimated by an election no matter when it takes place?

World Junior Hockey Semi-finals: Canada vs. the U.S.

After beating Russia 2 - 1 and gaining a bye into the semi-finals, Canada came apart in the game against the U.S. losing 5 - 1. It would be easy to blame Subban who was pulled in the second period after letting in 4 goals, but to be honest he was only part of the problem

The truth is the Americans simply outplayed the Canadians. They controlled the puck, their goalie was at the top of his game and is the best in the tournament and they skated rings around the Canadians. Canada started off weak and never improved. You could see the holes in the Canadian game in earlier match ups, but they became chasms today.

Canada will play for the bronze against either Sweden or Russia.

"I have an emergency"

The oddest 911 calls for 2012 from the Chatham-Kent Police.

• A man attended the Wallaceburg police station inquiring if anyone had turned in his lost dentures. He still had his top teeth, but he was looking for his bottoms.
• A man called police to report that his unlocked vehicle had been entered. Stolen was a winning donut and coffee tab from Tim Hortons. You know you’re Canadian when…
• A man called police to report that two girls damaged his car. However the evidence indicated that the white substance on the car had been left by birds and not girls.
• A man called police claiming he had just been struck by a vehicle. The man even provided a full description of the suspect vehicle. Through investigation, the man finally admitted that due to his intoxication, he tripped over a trailer hitch in the driveway.
• A man called 911 to report that there was a squirrel on his front porch acting in a suspicious manner.
• A man called 911 to report that there was a large snapping turtle on the sidewalk that appeared to be getting ready to jump into traffic.
• A woman called police to report that she has just been threatened by her downstairs neighbour. Apparently as the woman watered her plants, some water dripped down onto her neighbour’s dog.
• A 13-year-old youth called police to report that her mother would not allow her to do her own laundry.
• A man called police in January to complain about the weather report he just heard on a local radio station. They reported "slight flurries" when in fact he was driving in a "snowstorm."
• A woman called police to report that her drug dealer was lacing her crack with drugs that caused her to hallucinate and hear voices. She asked police to make him stop doing that.
• A woman called police to report that she was just attacked by a duck who was now sitting in a puddle watching her. The woman was not injured and officers failed to locate the duck upon their arrival.
• Police were called to a family dispute between a father and his adult son. The son called police because his father told him to brush his teeth and he didn't want to. Police were able to defuse the situation by talking the 20-year-old son into brushing his teeth right away, thus making his 63-year-old father happy.

World Junior Hockey: Canada vs Slovakia

The first period was a disaster, but a great comeback from a 2 - 0 deficit to a 6 - 3 win. Still problems though. Subban was weak in goal, particularly noticeable on rebounds. My guess is he isn't up to the Russians or Americans; Binnington is probably the better choice.

And as usual, some odd officiating. Who waits 5 minutes to call a major penalty? The hit was clean, but then they noticed some blood. Odd, yes, but IIHF rules are stricter on contact than North American ones. Canadians are aggressive, sometimes violent, players. Europeans, on the other hand, know the IIHF rules and use them to their advantage. They too can be violent, but generally manage to keep it under the radar.

A gold medal is far from assured and if they don't tighten up their game and their goal tending even a bronze might not be within their grasp.

Next up on Sunday the U.S. who are coming off a close loss to Russia.

No NHL

But the World Juniors are on in Russia. I watched the Canada - Germany game on demand since I wasn't getting up at 4 a.m. The final score was Canada 9, Germany 3; a good outcome. Not to take away from the achievement, but the defense seemed sloppy and that's something they can't afford since the big guns in Group B - Russia and the U.S. - are yet to come. The key, other than tightening up that defense, will be to avoid penalties, something that has killed more than one team in the past.

The next game is against Slovakia Friday.

Christmas memories

When I was a child my mother owned a millinery shop. She had learned millinery as a trade in Ireland and continued to work at it after she emigrated to Canada in 1930 to marry my father who had arrived in 1928. After my parents moved from Toronto in 1942 she went into business for herself. In those days, women always wore hats; they didn't need a special occasion. While my mother had her own designs that sold well, her customers would often bring her photos from fashion magazines and ask her to create something similar. Some women came from Toronto to buy. She was good, very good.

We lived behind the shop on the main street just on the edge of downtown. By today's standards the entire place was small; probably no more than 20 feet wide by 40 deep including the shop. One storey, no basement, no front yard and a postage stamp of a grassless rear yard. My bedroom was an alcove off my parents'. But when you're five you don't notice these things.

I was always around the shop. At first I would sit in my high chair in the workroom where my mom could keep an eye on me. When I was older she would give me scraps of material and I would make "hats". I was later told I always said they were for Aunt Martha, my mother's aunt. No one had any idea why. I was lucky. Although my mother worked at a time when few married women did, she was always home.

The shop, although small, was a place of wonderment. Drawers filled with hats and their makings. Feathers, beads, boas, artificial fruit, buttons, sequins, fur. Wooden heads that served both to display the hats and to block them (set their shape) when being made stood on shelves and counters. And always people to fuss over me.

Christmas was special. Like Easter, the run up was my mother's busiest period. She often worked 14 hour days, either serving customers or making hats, to meet the demand, easing off the week before. But she always decorated. There were lights around the door and front window. The window display was stripped of hats to become a winter wonderland. Houses with lights inside, papier-mâché figures, Santa in a sleigh, reindeer dotted throughout, little artificial Christmas trees, a mirror laid flat as a skating pond. And all the empty space was filled with cotton batting snow, drifting from between the houses, softening the edges of the pond, fluffed and tufted, sparkling with sequin ice.

I suppose if I were to see it now I wouldn't be all that impressed, but my Ghost of Christmas Past always lets me use rose-coloured glasses.

Laurier LaPierre (1929 - 2012)

If you are Canadian and old enough, you should remember the 60's CBC programme This Hour Has Seven Days. Controversial, a combination of news, interviews and satire. It tilted an the stodgy Canadian windmills, refusing to back down from the difficult stories. You may not have agreed with all it had to say, but it was never dull.

Laurier LaPierre, along with Patrick Watson, hosted the programmme and brought to it a passion that hadn't been seen on CBC. He didn't just report, he tended to become involved in the stories. Perhaps he should have maintained more distance, been more objective, and he managed that on many occasions, but not all.

Unknown at the time, at least publicly, LaPierre was gay. In later life he came out and was actively involved in LGBT causes.

More at the CBC Laurier LaPierre, ex-senator and broadcaster, dies at 83

Why Canada needs Québec

"Some international perspective is all it takes to remind you that the only thing more boring to the world than the enduring mystery of Canadian identity is the eternal question of Quebec's future. But I am old enough to remember a time when Quebec separatists offered the closest thing Canada had to serious political violence. The very existence of the Front de libération du Québec served to satisfy the 'issue envy,' as Mordecai Richler called it, that ever afflicts peaceable, well-ordered Canadians when they view gritty world affairs. ..."

With the resurgence of the the PQ, although in a minority government situation, the idea of Québec separation is once again rising to the surface in Québec politics. The brouhaha about the removal of the Canadian flag from the Québec Legislative Assembly is merely a symptom, but how real is separation? Mark Kingwell has an opinion. Judge for yourself how valid it is or whether it's just ruminations from an ivory tower.

"Doppel Gang" at The Walrus

F-35 Jets. What does the "F" really stand for?

This has been a fiasco for the Conservative government of Stephen Harper. The original cost for 65 jets was set in 2010 at $9 billion over 20 years. That's when it began to unravel.

The parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page estimated the costs would be $30 billion over a life cycle of 30 years because the original costs hadn't included appropriate "sustainment" costs and the lifespan was too short. But the government dismissed his report. Then the Auditor General also called the government on their estimates saying that they would be $25 billion over 25 years, but that life cycle was also too short.

The entire process was revisited by the newly-minted National Fighter Jet Procurement Secretariat who arrived at $44 billion over 42 years as more likely. The audit firm KPMG verified that - sort of. They added another 1 billion for lost aircraft over the life cycle. The cost, including "sustainment", now sits at $45.8 billion over 42 years - for the same number of planes. And that is by no means final.

But those are the Canadian implications. See the link below for the potential broader ones.

So what does the "F" stand for? Fiasco perhaps, but thanks to Stephen Harper and his sidekick Peter MacKay the song that Country Joe and the Fish performed at Woodstock comes to mind - "Give me an f!, Give me a u! . . .

Read Brian Stewart's analysis Super-costly F-35s, a global wrecking ball

You can play

The Toronto Marlies sign the "You Can Play" pledge.

"You Can Play" is a project founded by Patrick Burke brother of the late Brendan Burke and son of Toronto Maple Leafs President & GM Brian Burke. Brendan, a college hockey player who came out in 2007, died in an auto accident in 2009. Brian Burke supported his son's decision, "I wish this burden would fall on someone else's shoulders, not Brendan's. Pioneers are often misunderstood and mistrusted. But since he wishes to blaze this trail, I stand beside him with an axe! I simply could not be more proud of Brendan than I am, and I love him as much as I admire him." After Brendan's death, both Patrick and Brian determined to continue to do what they could to end homophobia in sports. For more on the project, follow the link below.

You Can Play Project

The Group of Seven: Visions of Canada

A. Y. Jackson

Lawren Harris

Frank Carmichael

Franz (Frank) Johnston

Arthur Lismer

J. E. H. MacDonald

Frederick Varley

Members of the Group of Seven

Clockwise from the left: A.Y. Jackson, Fred Varley, Lawren Harris, Barker Fairley, Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer and J.E.H. Macdonald
Barker Fairley who appears in the photo was not member of the Group of Seven. Missing is Frank Carmichael.
(photo: Art Gallery of Ontario)

More at The Canadian Encyclopedia

Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012

"Artists are 'builders.' Making things is at the core of what they do. Visual artists are those individuals who combine ideas, materials and technologies with the view to modelling an original way of seeing and interpreting the world. Curators working with the art of today are tasked with discovering, following, understanding and processing a varied range of production.

"This diversity is reflected in Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012, a survey of more than 100 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, video and multimedia installations created by 45 artists and acquired by the National Gallery of Canada over the past two years."

At the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Nov 2, 2012 to Jan 20, 2013

Melanie Authier

Marcel Dzama

Dil Hildebrand

Vikky Alexander

Will Gorlitz

Qavavau Manumie

More about the exhibition here

Bits & Bites

• In an unusual move, Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, becomes the Governor of the Bank of England. He is the first foreign national to hold the post.

• It's status quo after the federal by-elections. The Conservatives retain 2 seats and the NDP 1. House standings remain: Conservative - 165, NDP - 101, Liberal - 35, Bloc Québecois - 4, Green - 1, Independent - 2.

• Rob Ford the Mayor of Toronto, Canada's largest city, is ousted for conflict of interest. But he's not going without a fight or without blaming "a left-wing conspiracy." Rob, Rob, Rob. You used city property for your own purposes and then, after the Integrity Commissioner called you on it, participated in the Council discussion and vote that determined you didn't have to pay from your own pocket. And your excuse was you hadn't read the conflict of interest guidelines. Conspiracy has nothing to do with it. You screwed yourself.

• Finally, to "un-Grinch" Christmas, $2 million of toys and goods stolen from the Salvation Army have been recovered.

Look in a mirror

I never thought I would post about Justin Bieber, one of the most irritating girl singers I have ever heard, but I can't let this pass.

This is how he dressed to receive his Diamond Jubilee award from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

According to Bieber's tweet:

"The pic of me and the Prime Minister was taken in a room in the arena where i was performing at that day. I walked straight from my meet and greet to him, if you 'Hayley' expect me to have a change of clothes let a loan a suit at that specific time that’s crazy, It wasn’t like it was like I was going into his environment we were at a hockey arena. Wow am i ever white trash hayley peterson lol."

I usually try to be kind, even when I don't want to be, but just one word - twat. Beebs, dress for the occasion! Did you have to wear that mishmash to meet and greet? Of course not. You chose it while you could have easily chosen something that would have been suitable for both events. Yes, Beebs, despite what you say you could have even had a change of clothes. Arenas have changing rooms, you know. There's no need to look like a reject from the cast of "Hee Haw." You have the money to pay to have someone think about these things for you even if you can't. White trash? Don't set your sights too high.

Oh, while I'm at it and because I hate that Twitter makes people lazy, "let alone" not "let a loan."