Tag Archives: Ottawa
An Ocean of Ice – II
More ice sculptures from Sparks Street in downtown Ottawa, part of the 2023 Winterlude festival. (I’m ignoring the Super Bowl today, though I may watch the game – I bought some good snacks.)
An Ocean of Ice – I
Ottawa’s tourism people are probably cursing the weather these days. We’re halfway through Winterlude, the annual winter carnival, and the Rideau Canal skateway, around which many of the activities take place, has yet to open for the season. And with temperatures above freezing in the forecast for every day next week, it is unlikely to […]
The Aftermath
Jordan Peterson has come and gone, and Ottawa is none the worse for the experience. And Monday, the day he was in the city, the Dilbert comic strip made reference to the attempts by the Ontario College of Psychologists to have Peterson submit to some sort of reeducation program to bring his message into line […]
Cast Your Vote
They’ve started to unveil the ice sculptures on Sparks Street, part of Winterlude, Ottawa’s winter carnival, which starts Friday. It’s a competition, with the public getting to choose the winner. You can vote if you like. So far this has been Ottawa’s third-warmest winter on record, but just because the Rideau canal is still closed […]
Still Troubling
More reflections from Freedom Convoy 2022, originally published shortly before the police finally moved in. You don’t expect to hear the words “secret court hearing” when it is the Canadian legal system being discussed. For those who believe in the fundamental principles of justice it is a little unnerving. Those behind the class action lawsuit […]
Memories of 2022
More from the Freedom Convoy, first posted last February. I took a detour from my usual route Wednesday and walked through a couple of blocks of the ongoing truckers protest in downtown Ottawa, Freedom Convoy 2022. I figured it might be my last chance to observe first-hand. Police were suggesting that they might actually start […]
Stuck!
Ottawa’s transit commission has said that this winter they will keep their articulated bus fleet off the road when more than 30 centimetres of snow is forecast. Buses not on the road don’t get in stuck the snow Problem is, 30 centimetres isn’t a magic number. As I headed downtown this morning there was a […]
Christmas Comes Early
When I arrived downtown Monday, I noted that there were film crews near Parliament Hill. I thought it might have something to do with the first anniversary of the arrival of the Freedom Convoy, but I was wrong. Turns out it was a Christmas movie. Yes, in January, when there is actually snow on the […]
Shut Him Down?
Celebrity psychologist Jordan Peterson is coming to Ottawa on a lecture tour and a coalition of community groups want to see him banned from the city instead. They don’t like his message. Peterson rose to prominence in 2016 when he made headlines over his refusal to blow with the prevailing winds and use preferred pronouns […]
The Red Chamber
The ongoing renovations in Canada’s parliamentary precinct means there has been a certainly amount of shuffling as buildings close and reopen Canada’s Senate, for example, is now located in the government conference centre, moving there in 2018. The building was a railway station when I first was in it, about 1966. Then it sat empty […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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