Whither Away ?

Each month over the winter season we drive up to Ottawa, put ourselves up in the condominium for one, two or three nights and then head back to Deep River. It is a lovely drive most times, unless the weather turns on us. We will attend four or five plays at the Great Canadian Theatre Company plus a number of performances at the National Arts Centre and, this season, nine Met Opera Live in HD performances at the Coliseum Theatre. We visit friends and museums and enjoy seasonal outdoor markets and concerts..

There has been a dawning realization that it would be less costly and less hassle to put up in a comfortable hotel on those occasions when we needed a place to rest our weary bones in the city. So the decision was made ... the condo will go on the market, sooner rather than later.

The next realization came logically enough .... if we actually lived in Ottawa we wouldn't be obliged to rely on the hotels. Admittedly, this was but the last of several realizations which we'd accumulated in our wandering passage thru the summer and past autumn. Winter is here now and I am almost ready. I expect it will be the last we see on the lane.

Burke's Bluff Lane has been good to all of us.  Soon the time will come to leave.

A Message From Romeo Dallaire

Remembering is a duty, but how we remember is a choice.

This duty and these choices mean that as Canadians we face the world with open eyes, whether as individuals, or as a nation.

This Remembrance Day I choose to honour the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, past and present, and their families, by imagining the world they’ve fought to make possible.

It is a world without child soldiers; where cluster munitions and landmines no longer litter countrysides. It is a world where the threat of nuclear proliferation and future genocides have ceased to exist.

These ideas may seem bold. Even unbelievable. But consider this.

Until 1957, the soldier was known only as an instrument of war. That year, a Canadian, Lester B. Pearson, imagined a soldier could be an instrument of peacekeeping, too.

One bold idea, one cause, and one nation had the power to change how peace is kept.

This Remembrance Day, we can choose to honour our men and women in uniform, and their families, by recognizing their sacrifice. But we can also do more than that.

We can imagine that the world our soldiers fight and die to protect is possible.

And we can build it to honour their sacrifice. Because that, too, is a choice.

Sincerely,

LGen the Honourable Roméo Dallaire, (ret’d), Senator (Quebec)

The Eleventh Hour

11:00  ... This morning Beverley and I joined a circle of people surrounding Deep River's Cenotaph ...  There, positioned at each corner, soldiers stood motionless with hands resting on inverted weapons while, close by, their comrades paraded with the Legion colour party.

We found a place with Leslie and Lauren and Bruno an exchange student from Brazil ... and when the moment came, Lauren and I, as we do each year ( today accompanied by a young soldier ) laid a wreath bearing the names and images of Donald Taylor (WWII), Frank Little (WWI) and Duncan Matheson (Lebanon & Gulf War)  ... Uncle, Father-in-law, Nephew ... or .... Great Grand Uncle, Great Grandfather, First Cousin once removed.

These were the loved, known and unknown, chosen to represent the men from our family who went to war ..... and the one who never returned.

The Problem With Twitter Is You Have To Tweet

Oddoldguy has for some time now had a Twitter account and two followers (son Mike and daughter Andrea) who rarely bothered with it, since he never had anything to say ...... literally. Believe that or not as you will, but it was actually true. I was not much taken with Twitter, until I recently started following the cartoonist Cam Cardow and began to see Twitter as a resource.

My disaffection with the current government is large, but my only outlet for expression of it has been on Facebook sites such as  'Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament' and 'Radio Free Amigoville'. CAPP was a pro-active site which grew to 250,000 and and for a while was an interesting and effective non-partisan forum ...... but its very openness led it into unpleasant disarray and decline. Amigoville is a sort of civilized spin-off which blocks bad behaviour while maintaining an open stance on dialogue, ideas, music and humour. I avoid the first, but periodically engage companionably with the latter.

So, Oddoldguy took up blogging .... still  ignoring Twitter.

Today I returned with new a Twitter strategy as 'Boondoggletweet', where I am able to put down observations and links about my reactions to the actions and inactions of the government of Canada. I have donned the robe of political activism ....... except I actually did that back in January when we attended the CAPP rally on Parliament Hill .... This stuff is contagious.

Harper is as Harper Does

Going several years back in my mind I recall with great clarity Annabel's visceral first impression of Stephen Harper. Glancing at his image on the TV screen she observed "That man cannot be trusted". She never wavered from that view, adding only later her opinion that "His eyes are too close together".

I had some undefined misgivings at the time, but in watching how Harper triumphed in melding  the PC Party and the Alliance into the new Conservative Party of Canada I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. What he'd managed to do was unquestionably impressive, in a tricky way.

That was then and this is now.

These days I always look past what Mr. Harper says into what he does or ofttimes doesn't  .... or, more likely, at what he obliges some unfortunate Minister to do .... only to leave the poor soul hung out to dry. This summer of stupidities and blunders has seen our Prime Minister push the envelope on unaccountability. Minister after Minister has lost personal credibility over actions ostensibly his or her own, while speaking from ridiculous scripting foisted on the unfortunate by the PMO ..... while the Prime Minister ? ..... He conveniently and without a blush has stepped out of the line fire every time.

Annabel was right. She was always right. I should'a knowed