The parks feature small groups of people laying about in the shade, breathing enough to stay alive.
I am appalled, appalled I tell you, to see even you Augustine succumbing to the demotic use of lay instead of lie. At least, I hope these people were not engaging in public sex in the shade rather than simply lying in the shade.
Here I was, simply trying to make myself understood to the masses, and all I get is sniping from the back pews. They were behaving themselves as far as I could see, although in the Ottawa Valley recourse is usually had to nearby bushes, if Presbyterian and RC social events be any guide.
According to Statistics Canada, in 2016 580 people in Brockville had French as their first language. Having visited there many times over the years, I have never heard the language spoken. While even the RC parish has no French services, I have discovered that there is École élémentaire catholique Ange-Gabriel, cheeringly located in the Loyalist Park, serving 330 students when it's not closed on account of the plague.
But plenty of Loyalists. I'm quite connected to the Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes NDP.
BTW that riding has the longest name in the House of Commons. I have suggested they seek spelling relief next Redistribution. Around the NDPs Eastern Council we cheekily call them Leeds-Grenville and Tourist Marketing.
But plenty of Loyalists. I'm quite connected to the Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes NDP.
BTW that riding has the longest name in the House of Commons. I have suggested they seek spelling relief next Redistribution. Around the NDPs Eastern Council we cheekily call them Leeds-Grenville and Tourist Marketing.
How about Consultant-Power-Point-Presentation as a riding name?
One hopes Shefford and Simcoe North can hold out; they're the last two riding gs in the house under the same names and mostly same boundaries since 1867.
"My riding name isn't sufficiently descriptive" in the Commons is like "Point of Order" at an NDP Convention: it isn't a valid matter of procedure, it's actually just a pathetic tactic to grab attention.
One hopes Shefford and Simcoe North can hold out; they're the last two riding gs in the house under the same names and mostly same boundaries since 1867.
"My riding name isn't sufficiently descriptive" in the Commons is like "Point of Order" at an NDP Convention: it isn't a valid matter of procedure, it's actually just a pathetic tactic to grab attention.
I don't know if it's still the case, but in the 1980s bills to change the names of a district also had the effect of changing the Returning Officer, which was sometimes desired by the MP in question.
What's with opening up while there are still so many active cases and community spread? We're super cautious in this neck of the woods. I'm not sure which strategy is best. Strange feeling, mind you, to have no tourists around.
I continue to be quite cautious-- my GP told me that if I thought I was overdoing it, I was probably doing it right. Accordingly, I held my first social gathering since March, and had a drink (Empress gin and tonic, with a bit of lime to turn the gin's colour from purple to pink) with my neighbours two doors down, on our chairs in their parking space, at easily 2 metres distance.
My artsie friends have been trying to make ends meet by crafting masks, and I now have some very snazzy ones with Indonesian fabric. We are now to wear masks on public transport, but I was caught in the rain yesterday and took the local bus, and noted that there were a few maskless passengers. My neighbour informs me that this is more strictly enforced on the underground tram, as access points are staffed with officious young folk, while our generally Trotskyite bus drivers, shielded in plastic, are blasé about it.
What's with opening up while there are still so many active cases and community spread? We're super cautious in this neck of the woods. I'm not sure which strategy is best. Strange feeling, mind you, to have no tourists around.
What’s the situation in PEI now?
I think the Ontario analysis is along the lines of zero is not an achievable number but the infection rate is sufficiently low that they are comfortable with a careful return to opening more stuff up in more places. It’s a difficult balancing.
It certainly sounds like masks are going to be the obligatory fashion accessory for 2020. A friend made us rather nice (and very thick) cloth masks which unfortunately we have been finding difficult to use. So at the moment we have reverted to the disposable blue masks that everyone seems to be wearing.
Opening up to Phase 2 as of Wednesday did strike me as being hasty, but I'm going to avail myself of a patio.
I have no intention of abandoning my masks, but I still fatigue more easily, and I find that the mask in the heat and humidity impedes my breathing a little.
We've had no cases for two months now and never had any community spread. But now, we are open to people who own property here to come, with pre-approval, from all provinces. They must self-isolate for 14 days on arrival and had to prove they had support to follow through on a plan. However, some are used to the far more lax restrictions in other places and have just stopped off here and there to pick up things for their 14 day quarantine. Big face palm for those of us who have been so careful so far. Daily, all through this, I see photos on Facebook of people in Ontarion who are engaging in activities that have been completely forbidden here.
Hmm - you’re in a different situation from us and I can see why people might want to keep it that way.
I don’t think there’s going to be any big change personally for a while while we’re in phase 2. We’ve had a few people over (one at a time) for physically distanced drinks and/or takeout on our backyard patio over the last few weeks - we sit at one end of the table, and they at the other end. Work may be gradually opening up on an as-needed basis - mostly still working at home though.
July 3rd - all official and everything. Which, as we all know, means that for the next eight days, half of our friends will be rejoicing and saying it is about time and the other half will be saying that we are all doomed.
We've had no cases for two months now and never had any community spread. But now, we are open to people who own property here to come, with pre-approval, from all provinces. They must self-isolate for 14 days on arrival and had to prove they had support to follow through on a plan. However, some are used to the far more lax restrictions in other places and have just stopped off here and there to pick up things for their 14 day quarantine. Big face palm for those of us who have been so careful so far. Daily, all through this, I see photos on Facebook of people in Ontarion who are engaging in activities that have been completely forbidden here.
We're quite similar in Sask with 55 active cases, though there's a trickle of community spread: daily new cases between 0 and 10 most days. With opening up, people are attending funerals and barbeques etc. Which scare me. We had 15 and 18 days related to such events. The latest is a farm colony of Hutterites. And periodically in the far north, there's a problem when substandard housing doesn't allow isolation. Everything is "advice" here. No coercion and people are following the rules except please don't go to a funeral or barbeque. I have aversion to out of province people. And am glad that there is no international airport in Sask.
Of course, we will be building a wall on the US border and Trump will be paying for it.
The solution to this (I know it has been suggested before) is to round up the millions of unemployed in the US and get them to dig a few more Great Lakes instead of a wall. The soil and rock could be used to extend the Rockies eastwards. This is why we still miss the Rhinoceros Party - they could always be relied on for useful, constructive ideas like this.
This weather is unspeakable: hotter again, humid, and no wind. But the other side of this is that it seems to suit the fireflies. We can lie in bed around midnight and see the garden lit up with hundreds of their little bright lights - one of the most beautiful natural things I have ever seen.
Strange weather here - cloudy and humid this morning, then a bit of rain, and now glaring sun and humidity together. Nevertheless going to try to take my bike down to the lake in a few minutes hopeful of encountering some kind of breeze.
I used to love watching fireflies when we lived in Fredericton. I can truly say I don’t miss the hot, humid weather though!
It was a bit warm and sticky here in Edinburgh the last few days, but we got some blessèd relief in the form of thunder, lightning and heavy rain today, and temperatures back to the mid-teens - that'll do nicely!
Fireflies again. There was a distant lightning flash around midnight last night and suddenly, the garden was full of their little flashes. Did they think this was the arrival of The Great Firefly? It deserved some really spectacular music.
An unusually quiet Canada Day here. No public activities and no fireworks. Definitely the strangest Canada Day I have ever experienced. Have my Terry Fox shirt on and will try to find something to do.
I plan to celebrate Dominion Day (yep - still DD to me) by visiting my local shawarma shop. I couldn't think of anything more Canadian than patronising the very nice Syrian man and washing down my beef shawarma with a decent Merlot from Niagara. I will miss the group outing to listen to the live music at Harbourfront and the picnic to watch the fireworks. Next year, we'll be on the lakefront. Life will go on. It always does.
I have my Canadian flag flying at my home here in North Carolina. (I’ll switch in a day or two for the Fourth of July, and in two weeks it’ll be the French flag for Bastille Day.)
There's a house in my neighbourhood that had a vast collection of flags, and observed any number of national holidays. It was always fun to walk past and see who was being recognised.
We have neighbors who like to try and identify the flag and figure out why I might have it out. Sometimes the reasons (and some of the flags) are obvious; sometimes, not so much.
It's a bit late, here, but I posted this elsewhere, and a friend told me to post it here for Canada Day:
Happy Dominion Day!
Yes, I still think of it that way, in part because of my participation in the the Dominion Day Regatta, in part because I am a historical contrarian. And I'm not even a Tory.
Why do I love this country?
1) Twice this year I've been in the hospital. It didn't bankrupt me. My fellow citizens paid for it. I owe them in return, and will do what I can to repay the debt by being a good citizen.
2) We're nice, polite people, but tough as f*ck. Ask The Netherlands. They thank us regularly. They make a habit of it. Why? Because they also are nice, polite people who acknowledge a good deed. They thank us. We thank them.
2B) I had a conversation with a French man who told me a story about Canadian soldiers coming through his village in 1944, and how nice they were. And this conversation...
3) ... was because even though I went through a publicly funded school system with a lot of other working class kids, I came out speaking French. And pretty good in calculus. And other things. Why? It was because of a good educational system.
4) I grew up in a beautiful place where I was a banquet for mosquitoes and other insects in summer, and victim of climate in winter. And I love it. Mon pays, ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver, mon chemin ce n'est pas un chemin, c'est la neige... Ma maison, c'est votre maison, froidure,/ ... entre quatre murs de glace *... which is how it often feels in XXX, as I walk home from the XXX Hotel in northern Ontario.
5) We have a lot to answer for to our First Nations, Inuit, and Metis. We're not perfect, but if we live up to our self-regard, we'll try harder. We have to.
6) On the street I was asked which way to the mosque. Thinking about the nearest one I asked if it was the Turkish one. Yes, the couple said. Ah, I said, I m going in that direction. So I led them down the street and pointed the way down the block. Not because I'm a saint, but because it's what we do.
7) The Anglos and the French bitch about one another all the time. We wouldn't be the same without one another. We are an old couple.
8) I could go on. But in Canadian diction, Not bad, eh?
I don't think that I've ever done anything like this before.
***
*In deference to the hosts on SoF, this is from a Gilles Vigneault song, Mon Pays. The lyrics I quoted:
My country isn't a country, it's the winter, my road isn't a road it's the snow... My house is your house, the cold/ ...between four walls of ice/ (two different verses). By Gilles Vigneault, one of the great quebecois chansoniers.
Interestingly, O Canada was Calix Lavillee, Mon Pays by Gilles Vigneault, and Gens de Pays by Gille Vigneault and Gaston Rochon. Vigneault was a quebecois nationalist, but he captured in a way that few anglophone songwriters have been able to do, capture the feel of the Canadian land. Remarkably Gens de Pays has become a birthday anthem, somewhat changed.
As worthy rivals I'd nominate "Northwest Passage" by Stan Rogers. It captures the modern Canadians' dauntedness at the sheer vastness of our country. How can we all see Nunavut, Newfoundland, Alberta Badlands, Quebec City, Toronto, Yukon, Haida Gwaii? His comparison of himself to Mackenzie and Thompson as he drives across Canada captures the improbability of our nation. As a wedding guest I was asked to be a backup singer for Northwest Passage. I sing bass-baritone, but the groom, who was lead singer, told me to take, in the Stan Rogers arrangement, the lines of "a land so wide and savage, and make" because he knew that I could barely reach them and that it would have a wild screeching quality. Well, he was right, and it hurt like hell, but it got the effect that he desired. So, he got two wedding presents from me - lost money, lost voice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVY8LoM47xI
We looked like this, almost as scruffy, but in black tie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9G4BZlnnA4
And, more traditionally, although a deliberately rough rendition with a tempo slightly too quick to my taste, Farewell to Nova Scotia. This is an unapologetically personal choice, with a direct family reaching back to the late 1780s, shipping from Labrador to Boston. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkLgGSG7PF8
And finally, if I could find it, there's a Gaelic song from a Selkirk settlement. I'll try to find it. In Scots fashion, it sings, I freeze in my tweed to get the water. I would not wish this on my worst enemy.
There's an interesting contrast between the Franco an Anglo songs. Franco songs emphasise their connection with the land. Anglo songs seems to emphasise travel, difficulty, and alienation of distance. One is not better than another, but they might go some way in explaining our different identities: One stays, and retains all; they other travels and loses part of themselves. Just a conjuncture from musical themes. I understand the francophone attitude, but I'm at heart an anglo, but I couldn't be who I am without the francophone.
Despite my wretched street French, I still miss the sights and sounds of Montréal. It just isn't all that hard to acquire enough of the language to understand the signs and other basic stuff. Working with French speaking people added a new dimension to life that was almost always enjoyable and fun. There was the bloody-minded senior management at a Big Plane Factory that insisted on holding meetings in French when the universal language there was English, but somehow, we survived it and enjoyed it.
And the sorry history of Canada's aboriginal treaties continues. This isn't my first time having a political headache with them either.
CBC aired a documentary yesterday called "Cottagers and Indians" about the Pigeon Lake Rice Bomber. And now I have to apprise the NDP higher-ups about it.
It concerns Upper Canada Treaty 20 lands, and that document stinks. No hunting or fishing rights reservations.
And the sorry history of Canada's aboriginal treaties continues. This isn't my first time having a political headache with them either.
CBC aired a documentary yesterday called "Cottagers and Indians" about the Pigeon Lake Rice Bomber. And now I have to apprise the NDP higher-ups about it.
It concerns Upper Canada Treaty 20 lands, and that document stinks. No hunting or fishing rights reservations.
If memory serves me well, there is no Lands Use Agreement under Treaty 20, but somebody else likely knows more. It might be worth a check.
More usefully.... when I was at Trinity College, Dublin, the Maoists had a song about Norman Bethune to the tune of "Fare Thee Well Nova Scotia." It is so obscure that it cannot be found on youtube but shipmates in want of a project during the pandemic might try their hand at lyrics.
To the Maoist group in my undergrad years, Enver Hoxha was something of their hero. Some went so far as to (claim to) study Albanian. That was not the only claim of theirs that I found suspect. They loathed the Trosktyites and Marxist-Leninist clubs, and most of all, Social Democrats, more than garden variety capitalists. I think that the capitalists, not being members of the fractious family, were merely on the "to-do list".
As a footnote, some wag wrote a letter to the editor in the student newspaper, parodying the Albanian Maoist club, and signed it Nathan (I think it it was) Skanderberg. Brilliance.
Comments
Here I was, simply trying to make myself understood to the masses, and all I get is sniping from the back pews. They were behaving themselves as far as I could see, although in the Ottawa Valley recourse is usually had to nearby bushes, if Presbyterian and RC social events be any guide.
According to Statistics Canada, in 2016 580 people in Brockville had French as their first language. Having visited there many times over the years, I have never heard the language spoken. While even the RC parish has no French services, I have discovered that there is École élémentaire catholique Ange-Gabriel, cheeringly located in the Loyalist Park, serving 330 students when it's not closed on account of the plague.
BTW that riding has the longest name in the House of Commons. I have suggested they seek spelling relief next Redistribution. Around the NDPs Eastern Council we cheekily call them Leeds-Grenville and Tourist Marketing.
How about Consultant-Power-Point-Presentation as a riding name?
"My riding name isn't sufficiently descriptive" in the Commons is like "Point of Order" at an NDP Convention: it isn't a valid matter of procedure, it's actually just a pathetic tactic to grab attention.
I don't know if it's still the case, but in the 1980s bills to change the names of a district also had the effect of changing the Returning Officer, which was sometimes desired by the MP in question.
My artsie friends have been trying to make ends meet by crafting masks, and I now have some very snazzy ones with Indonesian fabric. We are now to wear masks on public transport, but I was caught in the rain yesterday and took the local bus, and noted that there were a few maskless passengers. My neighbour informs me that this is more strictly enforced on the underground tram, as access points are staffed with officious young folk, while our generally Trotskyite bus drivers, shielded in plastic, are blasé about it.
What’s the situation in PEI now?
I think the Ontario analysis is along the lines of zero is not an achievable number but the infection rate is sufficiently low that they are comfortable with a careful return to opening more stuff up in more places. It’s a difficult balancing.
It certainly sounds like masks are going to be the obligatory fashion accessory for 2020. A friend made us rather nice (and very thick) cloth masks which unfortunately we have been finding difficult to use. So at the moment we have reverted to the disposable blue masks that everyone seems to be wearing.
I have no intention of abandoning my masks, but I still fatigue more easily, and I find that the mask in the heat and humidity impedes my breathing a little.
I don’t think there’s going to be any big change personally for a while while we’re in phase 2. We’ve had a few people over (one at a time) for physically distanced drinks and/or takeout on our backyard patio over the last few weeks - we sit at one end of the table, and they at the other end. Work may be gradually opening up on an as-needed basis - mostly still working at home though.
Which is about to happen, according to CBC...
Sounds like the Atlantic provinces have been both fortunate and careful in their approach so hopefully things will turn out.
We're quite similar in Sask with 55 active cases, though there's a trickle of community spread: daily new cases between 0 and 10 most days. With opening up, people are attending funerals and barbeques etc. Which scare me. We had 15 and 18 days related to such events. The latest is a farm colony of Hutterites. And periodically in the far north, there's a problem when substandard housing doesn't allow isolation. Everything is "advice" here. No coercion and people are following the rules except please don't go to a funeral or barbeque. I have aversion to out of province people. And am glad that there is no international airport in Sask.
The solution to this (I know it has been suggested before) is to round up the millions of unemployed in the US and get them to dig a few more Great Lakes instead of a wall. The soil and rock could be used to extend the Rockies eastwards. This is why we still miss the Rhinoceros Party - they could always be relied on for useful, constructive ideas like this.
I think we can only use Republican labour.
Would that be more effective than Republican management?
It was a bit warm and sticky here in Edinburgh the last few days, but we got some blessèd relief in the form of thunder, lightning and heavy rain today, and temperatures back to the mid-teens - that'll do nicely!
(I love Canada!)
I have my Canadian flag flying at my home here in North Carolina. (I’ll switch in a day or two for the Fourth of July, and in two weeks it’ll be the French flag for Bastille Day.)
Happy Dominion Day!
Yes, I still think of it that way, in part because of my participation in the the Dominion Day Regatta, in part because I am a historical contrarian. And I'm not even a Tory.
Why do I love this country?
1) Twice this year I've been in the hospital. It didn't bankrupt me. My fellow citizens paid for it. I owe them in return, and will do what I can to repay the debt by being a good citizen.
2) We're nice, polite people, but tough as f*ck. Ask The Netherlands. They thank us regularly. They make a habit of it. Why? Because they also are nice, polite people who acknowledge a good deed. They thank us. We thank them.
2B) I had a conversation with a French man who told me a story about Canadian soldiers coming through his village in 1944, and how nice they were. And this conversation...
3) ... was because even though I went through a publicly funded school system with a lot of other working class kids, I came out speaking French. And pretty good in calculus. And other things. Why? It was because of a good educational system.
4) I grew up in a beautiful place where I was a banquet for mosquitoes and other insects in summer, and victim of climate in winter. And I love it. Mon pays, ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver, mon chemin ce n'est pas un chemin, c'est la neige... Ma maison, c'est votre maison, froidure,/ ... entre quatre murs de glace *... which is how it often feels in XXX, as I walk home from the XXX Hotel in northern Ontario.
5) We have a lot to answer for to our First Nations, Inuit, and Metis. We're not perfect, but if we live up to our self-regard, we'll try harder. We have to.
6) On the street I was asked which way to the mosque. Thinking about the nearest one I asked if it was the Turkish one. Yes, the couple said. Ah, I said, I m going in that direction. So I led them down the street and pointed the way down the block. Not because I'm a saint, but because it's what we do.
7) The Anglos and the French bitch about one another all the time. We wouldn't be the same without one another. We are an old couple.
8) I could go on. But in Canadian diction, Not bad, eh?
I don't think that I've ever done anything like this before.
***
*In deference to the hosts on SoF, this is from a Gilles Vigneault song, Mon Pays. The lyrics I quoted:
My country isn't a country, it's the winter, my road isn't a road it's the snow... My house is your house, the cold/ ...between four walls of ice/ (two different verses). By Gilles Vigneault, one of the great quebecois chansoniers.
***
Here are youtube links to the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W02V_RcpFTQ
or a smother, more photogenic, and symphonic versionbut less authentic version:
https://www.google.com/search?q=youtube+mon+pays&oq=youtube+mon+pays&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l7.6170j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Interestingly, O Canada was Calix Lavillee, Mon Pays by Gilles Vigneault, and Gens de Pays by Gille Vigneault and Gaston Rochon. Vigneault was a quebecois nationalist, but he captured in a way that few anglophone songwriters have been able to do, capture the feel of the Canadian land. Remarkably Gens de Pays has become a birthday anthem, somewhat changed.
As worthy rivals I'd nominate "Northwest Passage" by Stan Rogers. It captures the modern Canadians' dauntedness at the sheer vastness of our country. How can we all see Nunavut, Newfoundland, Alberta Badlands, Quebec City, Toronto, Yukon, Haida Gwaii? His comparison of himself to Mackenzie and Thompson as he drives across Canada captures the improbability of our nation. As a wedding guest I was asked to be a backup singer for Northwest Passage. I sing bass-baritone, but the groom, who was lead singer, told me to take, in the Stan Rogers arrangement, the lines of "a land so wide and savage, and make" because he knew that I could barely reach them and that it would have a wild screeching quality. Well, he was right, and it hurt like hell, but it got the effect that he desired. So, he got two wedding presents from me - lost money, lost voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVY8LoM47xI
We looked like this, almost as scruffy, but in black tie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9G4BZlnnA4
I'd also nominate, The Canadian Railway Trilogy, by Gordon Lightfoot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjoU1Qkeizs
And, more traditionally, although a deliberately rough rendition with a tempo slightly too quick to my taste, Farewell to Nova Scotia. This is an unapologetically personal choice, with a direct family reaching back to the late 1780s, shipping from Labrador to Boston. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkLgGSG7PF8
And finally, if I could find it, there's a Gaelic song from a Selkirk settlement. I'll try to find it. In Scots fashion, it sings, I freeze in my tweed to get the water. I would not wish this on my worst enemy.
There's an interesting contrast between the Franco an Anglo songs. Franco songs emphasise their connection with the land. Anglo songs seems to emphasise travel, difficulty, and alienation of distance. One is not better than another, but they might go some way in explaining our different identities: One stays, and retains all; they other travels and loses part of themselves. Just a conjuncture from musical themes. I understand the francophone attitude, but I'm at heart an anglo, but I couldn't be who I am without the francophone.
IMHO, a lovely country with lovely people.
One of Canada's treasures is the National Film Board, and this came through with their newsletter yesterday: https://blog.nfb.ca/blog/2020/06/26/canada-in-all-its-glory-circa-1966-curators-perspective/?utm_campaign=612558_2020-07-03 (Scroll down to the Niagara Falls picture to run it).
CBC aired a documentary yesterday called "Cottagers and Indians" about the Pigeon Lake Rice Bomber. And now I have to apprise the NDP higher-ups about it.
It concerns Upper Canada Treaty 20 lands, and that document stinks. No hunting or fishing rights reservations.
If memory serves me well, there is no Lands Use Agreement under Treaty 20, but somebody else likely knows more. It might be worth a check.
More usefully.... when I was at Trinity College, Dublin, the Maoists had a song about Norman Bethune to the tune of "Fare Thee Well Nova Scotia." It is so obscure that it cannot be found on youtube but shipmates in want of a project during the pandemic might try their hand at lyrics.
" We ain't got no capitalists in Albania,
We ain't got no corporate tentacles
No multi-nationals mar our misty mountains
And we think Enver Hoxha's pretty swell.
As a footnote, some wag wrote a letter to the editor in the student newspaper, parodying the Albanian Maoist club, and signed it Nathan (I think it it was) Skanderberg. Brilliance.