Pictures of Claire and Miriam

See my Picasa album of Claire

Claire Boothroyd

What Canadians Want and Don't Want

Don't you love the way some people talk about "Canadians" in such a manner to imply "all" or "the overwhelming majority" of Canadians. Mostly, it's politicians who use the word "Canadians" in this way to tell us what "Canadians" want or don't want. The latest example is in the rhetoric around the long-gun registry.

The reality, however, is that we Canadians are a pretty divided bunch. In politics we seem agreed on what we don't want, but cannot agree on what we do want. If this were not the case we would not have elected two minority governments in a row. It's time politicians of all stripes accept that fact and spend less energy on deceptive spin and put more motivation and energy into working together. It's only all the politicians together, government plus opposition, who are reflecting in parliament what "Canadians" want. If Canadian voters elect a minority government, or a coalition government, then suck it up and make it work, please.

Vacation in Quebec - Part 2

The Sainte-Anne Canyon

Canyon Ste-Anne, upper falls

On Sunday we went to the Sainte-Anne Canyon. We took it slowly and made the most of some of the spectacular and beautiful views, taking dozens of photos.

Canyon Ste-Anne, lookout points

Some of the 187 steps to the lowest bridge

The canyon has been grooved into rock that is 1.2 billion years old at a rate, if I recall correctly, of about a millimeter per year.

lowest bridge

The waterfall, at 74 meters top to bottom, is higher than the Niagara Falls. The volume of water varies immensely during the various seasons. I would love to see the Spring melt.

Foofie Slide

There is also a zip slide at the highest point for the adventurous. We used to call it a foofie slide :-) I understand they have them at a few places in South Africa now, as well as Vic Falls.

This is a video I took of the rapids behind Ingrid and me in the picture above. Unfortunately I took the video with my camera tilted 90 degrees so you have to tilt your head to the left to watch it :-(

Vacation in Quebec

Clem's place - start and finish

On Friday 10 Sept we drove down to Shefford, Quebec,  in the Eastern Townships between Montreal and Sherbrooke where my old friend Clem stays and slept over with him for the night. He is a gracious host and was only too happy to have us use his home and hospitality as a staging post at each end of our holiday - Friday 10th and Saturday 18th.

Evening view from Clem's front yard

On Saturday 11th we drove up to Saint-Ferréol-Les-Neiges which is NE of Quebec City along the St Lawrence River. More of that in forthcoming posts. Suffice to say we had problems getting through Quebec City because I missed a turnoff and then could not take the route that Samantha wanted me to take because of construction. (Samantha is the patient lady who gives me directions on my GPS.)

A week later, on Saturday 18th, we took the trip back to Clem in Shefford. This time Quebec City itself was no problem. The curved ball came from construction on the highway when a detour forced us onto the north-bound lanes and prevented us from taking our off ramp - and the next three off ramps. Samantha took us through back roads and little villages where the locals had never seen English speakers before. We had lunch in a little place called St Christine. Ingrid and I practised how we were going to ask for an egg sandwich. It all turned out better than we feared because they had a menu and we could point to what we wanted. It turns out that Clem's mother came from that place.

Clem's place. Definitely Québécois

Line dance - Weekly dance for seniors

Clem is on the board for a seniors' association and took us to the weekly dance that is locally organised. There may have been one or two people there who were younger than us. It was quite an experience. Ingrid and I were very impressed with the strength of the local community.

Le musée du chocolat - Terry, Clem, Ingrid

Breakfast at Le musée du chocolat

Sunday morning after mass we had breakfast in the chocolate museum across the road from the church.

I will tell you about the intervening week in future posts.

Accountable government through transparency.

Crown agency expense reports cleaned up before release.

This was the headline on the front page of Saturday's Toronto Star (Sept 4, 2010).


The headline and the revelatory style of the article made it sound like something foul was afoot because the provincial integrity commissioner is going over each expense report in detail, querying improper expenses and having executives reimburse the agency before any reports are made public. Apparantly Premier Dalton McGuinty said last autum that these would be published starting 1 April. Apparently Kevin Donovan expected these reports to be fully available on 1 April.

Whatever. It works for me. Transparency, I mean. The fact of the matter is that provincial executives are not being allowed to get away with improper spending. Why? Because of transparency, their accountability to the public.

It may be going more slowly than some would like but Dalton McGuinty is actually doing at a provincial level what Stephen Harper said (during his election campaign when he first defeated the Liberals largely on this issue) he would do federally but isn't even bothering about going through the motions of doing: introducing accountable government through transparency.