Well, I made it about an eighth of the way to work today, and turned around and come home. We got 20 - 25 cm of snow over night and the highway is a snow-covered mess.
I’m not dying for work.
The amount of snow was supposed to be 5 - 10 cm overnight, but still, you would think the trans-Canada highway would be bloody ploughed.
Do we need to send in the army? 
Get your history straight. People in the Ottawa area are prepared and can dig themselves out, we’re used to it. It just takes a long time.
It was Toronto that called in the army to shovel driveways.
On a positive note, my backyard rink is ready to be packed and flooded tonight!! Game on!
There’s no way we’re calling in the army this year for a few reasons:
- The army expects the city to pay for their time, Mayor Ford objects to spending money on snow that is actually frozen.
- Could the army be bribed to overthrow local government? Risk too large for Robbie.
I remember that year fondly. It was before I could work remotely and I couldn’t get out of my driveway for over a week.
Contrary to what many in the non-GTA parts of Canada think, the army never shovelled out Torontonians’ driveways in the storm of 1999.
The army shovelled out cross-streets. Plows on major roads (say, Yonge) just went down the road. They created berms at curbside. All well and good, but these berms also blocked cross streets. No problem for major cross streets that were plowed (e.g. Lawrence, Eglinton, etc.), but smaller residential streets that hit the majors were totally blocked by these berms. These were what the army helped to clear.
How else do I know that the army did not shovel out Torontonians’ driveways? Because I myself shovelled out my elderly Dad’s driveway in downtown Toronto, and no soldier offered to help. Soldiers were, however, active at the end of the street, digging out the berms left by the plows where the street met Yonge.
Mayor Ford is very enthusiastic when there’s a lot of snow in Toronto…
I was kidding but to say they never shovelled a driveway is false.
The soldiers were callded to aid with emergency measures and brought heavy equipment to help out with clearing cross streets but they also dug out cars, trucks, busses, taxis, sidewalks, walkways, bus shelters, catch basins, and yes a driveway here and there.
As their CO Brigadier General Walter Holmes stated, “We are equipped with shovels. We’ve learned from our experience of the ice storm of last year (1998 in Quebec) and we’re come equipped to do whatever we’re asked to do, whether it’s in the form of chainsaws, generators or whatever we’re asked to do.”
How do I know this? I am from the Petawawa area and know many of the 438 troops that were deployed there.
While embarrassing to Torontonians, Mel Lastman made the call for help because he realized that Toronto was overwhelmed and unprepared, people were snowed in, and emergency vehicles, etc. could not navigate the streets to get to them. He did not want the citizens to be at risk and made the call.
Personally I think it was the right call, albeit a great source of T.O. ribbing material and you have to admit riding in the tank was a bit much.
It also convinced the city of Toronto that their equipment was woefully insufficient and they have tripled their snow removal equipment since then.
I was in T.O. for the snowstorm last weekend and was impressed at how quickly and efficiently the roads were cleared. Unfortunately, it didn’t improve their drivers any, but that’s another story.
We’re getting that fat, fluffy snow right now. I love that snow - the guy at Sobey’s called it “Christmas Eve Snow”.
Offers accepted on the house tonight. Looks like my house hunting trip will be next week 
Holy crap no kidding. We were coming home from Belleville and from Ajax to Rouge Hill there were 8 separate accidents. (Maybe 10km between those two points) I think the issue was that it was very slippery but there wasn’t a lot of snow so most people didn’t slow down. It got better as we got further along but I still put my daughter on the subway instead of driving her home. I’m pretty sure she was safer on the train. Got to the 427 and suddenly the sky was so clear I could see the stars. Was a very localized storm at that point.
We were in Brantford Saturday afternoon then returned to Toronto about 7pm and as we came down the escarpment in Hamilton the storm hit us. There were cars in the ditch and accidents the whole way. I even saw a car balanced on it’s side with a bunch of people trying to push it back onto it’s wheels.
But we also saw the plows and salt trucks working and the roads were clear by the next morning when I got up at 7:00 am to go downtown for breakfast.
And then Rob Ford got himself elected vowing to cut taxes?
Some of our newly elected councillors here in Calgary are going on about taxes and services. “Sure a main library would be ‘nice’ to have”. Gah!
Sounds good!
I LOVE CANADA AND ALL OUR NOT-URBANE SHIT
Thank You
You Easterners all look alike to me. 
That drives me out of my frigging tree - all these citizens who seriously want more services and to pay lower taxes. I guess they’ve listened to too many politicians making impossible promises and they think that they actually can get more services with lower taxes.
What value is there to a library in an electronic age? Better to spend the money on scanning books into electronic format and allowing me to access online than bother with storing books in air-conditioned mausoleums.
We sorted your history out, now we gotta work on your geography?!
I would think a flop house would be cheaper to operate, but by all means let the taxpayers spend inordinate amounts of money to mimic Starbucks, schools, daycare, etc.