Regarding the Rob Ford story, I hope he stays in office for a while longer because he is an accurate mirror image of the Toronto “905” suburbs in many ways, and they should get their faces rubbed into it a little. Many young Toronto suburbanites I knew were cheeky, semi-lovable, arrogant, prejudiced and proudly “conservative”, but self-destructively wild in their personal lives. I saw a pic of young Rob Ford (google his Miami arrest mugshot) and I was instantly reminded of them.
That’s a pretty big paint brush you have there.
Well, a lot of people from outside the area seem to think that Torontonians are a bunch of Margaret Atwood / David Suzuki clones, and that Rob Ford is a bizarre aberration from Planet X. (I’m hearing things along those lines in the recent media coverage.) I’m saying that, on the contrary, Rob Ford represents a very real culture that exists in greater Toronto.
Latest Rob Ford press conference here.
Too soon?
On the contrary; should have happened months ago!
Snow. Fuck.
We’re in the mountains this weekend (just watched the Kootenay Ice play in Cranbrook last night), and we knew snow was forecast for this weekend, but we were hoping it would, you know, just not happen. Oh well. We’re off to Radium Hot Springs to soak in the hot pool there for about 10 hours today. 
We had a very small amount of snow in the NDG area of Montreal last evening.
Snow here too.
My day is full, so I’ll wait until tomorrow to shovel.
Brings back some fond memories. Sheltering in the wind behind great piles of shore ice. Bright sunny days made all the brighter from the reflection off the snow. Snuggling up together, gaining warmth from each other and from the most enjoyable of winter sports.
I thought I had posted this yesterday, but it seems the hamsters ate it.
I wanted to post a link to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial. This is a site for looking up memorials of soldiers in our various wars - parts of the site are for the assistance of family members trying to locate soldiers’ graves, parts are simply a respectful remembrance of those who have fallen.
On the home page linked above, there is a daily roll call to honour those who fell on this date in history. One of today’s is particularly tragic - Private Wilton Munn died on November 10th, 1918, just one day before the armistice. Rest in peace, Private Munn, and may we ever be grateful for your service.
For anyone interested, here is my Great-Uncle, Capt. Peter McNaughton, who was the first superintendent of the Rossdale Power Station in Edmonton, and who was killed at Ypres June 15th, 1916.
My Great Uncle John Clarence Milne, also a Captain, died the next day in the same battle, the Battle of Mont Sorrel at the Ypres’ salient. His company’s trenches in Hooge along the Menin road were blown up from underneath by German miners on 6 June 1916, and he too is memorialized on a panel in Ypres’ Menin Gate (panel 18-26-28).
The 1914 First Battle of Ypres stopped the German’s Race to the Sea, but introduced trench warfare to the war. Great Uncle Milne’s 28th Battalion arrived in Flanders and joined in the fighting around Ypres in September 1915, toward the end of the Second Battle of Ypres, during which the Germans introduced chlorine gas attacks and flame throwers to the war.
The 1916 loss of Hooge was primarily by way of German miners tunneling below the Commonwealth trenches and blowing them up, leaving Great Uncle Milne’s battalion in the front line “wallowing in death” (Fraser). Great Uncle Milne was a Captain in Company A, which was in trench 70. After a seven hour heavy artillery barrage, four massive mines were exploded under trenches 70 through 75. Company A , who’s men came from The Lakehead, was almost wiped out by the mines. “The 6th was the blackest day in the history of the unit, and while the casualties in the ranks were exceptionally high, some of the noblest and most experienced officers were lost. These included Captains Milne and McGovern, of A Company, both killed.” (Hewitt)
Hey, my parents retired to Cranbrook and Radium Hot Springs was where I found out that it wasn’t swimming that I hated so much as it was cold water. Enjoy the soak!
Le Ministre, thank you. Your link helped me find my cousin, Jody Hunter. He rests in the Reicshwald Forest War Cemetery, Germany. He was in the RCAF, and as I understand things, he was shot down over Germany.
Family lore says that cousin Jody enjoyed a drink. Please, friends, join me as I raise a glass to my cousin Jody on November 11.
My family was lucky: three uncles and two aunts in uniform in Britain, and all came back safely. One uncle was transport officer for his regiment at Dieppe and had the job of drawing up the casualty list as they came back to Britain. :(. He didn’t talk about it much.
We did. 
My paternal grandfather apparently lost all of his brothers in wars (I think it was the Boer War), and he himself was a marksman in the Queen’s Own Rifles. My mother’s side are Mennonites - with those opposing backgrounds, I support soldiers, but I don’t support wars. They had a colour guard and recited Flanders Field and played the Last Post at the Kootenay Ice game on Saturday night - it was very moving.
As a cadet (eventually temporary 2nd Lieutenant), my grandfather ran the lines carrying dispatches (I have his dispatch can) in the British regular Army’s Leicester Regiment in Palestine in WWI. He survived, so I exist.
My paternal grandfather (in Scotland) lost two of his brothers in the Great War.
According to Wikipedia the UK had 886,939 military deaths in WWI, or 2% of the population.
Wow.
Some scenes from our weekend in the mountains -
A windmill a little east of the Rockies.
Some very low clouds on the mountains.
Mount Doom is apparently in southern Alberta!
A couple of bighorn sheep wandering around in Radium.
A ram just kicking back, taking it easy.
A bull moose nibbling at the side of the highway -we were going by pretty fast, and unfortunately, the shot didn’t come out as well as I hoped. 
And a bonus shot of a squirrel in my back yard who seemed to be sunning himself in a tree.
Terrific!
Those are wonderful pictures and they actually tie in with the Remembrance Day theme of honouring our war casualties and being thankful for the marvelous country that we share. Thank you.