A community portal about Ontario with blogs, videos, and photos. According to Wikipedia.org: Ontario is the most populous of Canada's ten provinces and second only to Quebec in area. It is located in east-central Canada and is considered...
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A community portal about Ontario with blogs, videos, and photos. According to Wikipedia.org: Ontario is the most populous of Canada's ten provinces and second only to Quebec in area. It is located in east-central Canada and is considered one of the provinces of Central Canada. Its capital is Toronto, which is also the largest city in Canada. Ottawa, the capital of Canada, is also located in Ontario. As of July 2006 there are an estimated 12,686,952 people in Ontario, representing approximately 37.9% of the total Canadian population.
Perhaps the most frequently cited argument against minority governments has been with respect to the ongoing political uncertainty of a stable government and the cost associated with too many elections. While a majority government can ramrod their agenda through without regard for opposition party concerns, a minority government needs to consider program agendas that have a broader appeal. The success of the federal Conservative government in advancing some of their program objectives is due... Read Full Story
Canadians are accustomed to surveillance cameras in their surroundings. Whether the cameras are along highways, at busy city intersections, lobbies of buildings, scattered throughout stores, at ATM’s or elsewhere, they have become so commonplace that they are now an accepted reality of life in the 21st century. The installation of video cameras is driven by need and that need is often based on risk assessment, prevention considerations or other security concerns. Those that identify the need... Read Full Story
Okay, will someone please tell mother-nature that it’s supposed to be summer! Here it is mid-July and Ottawa area residents are still waiting for summer to start. I was in Costco the other day and they already have the children’s snowsuits out for sale…..how depressing is that? It is likely just a matter of days before they have the snow-blowers out as well. The Queen of England in a New Year’s Day address once used the latin words “annus horribilis” (horrible year) to describe events of the... Read Full Story
If there were medals assigned to how people react to local civic issues, then the residents of Ottawa would surely qualify for the gold. The “NIMBY” approach to most kinds of growth or change thrives in Ottawa. Whenever there is any discussion about the construction of low-income housing or a group home in a particular neighbourhood, the NIMBY placards are out in full force. Over the past many years, officials have discussed the need for another bridge between Ontario and Quebec. When... Read Full Story
This afternoon I'm talking about cities and greenspaces and whatnot at Hamilton's GritLit festival. The event's title is provocative: Hamilton is, after all, Canada's Steeltown. But it's more than that. The pictures are ones I took a few years ago when I was working on Green City: People, Nature and Urban Places . Hamilton was one of the 11 cities I examined, much to the surprise of some. Windfall tax revenue from the construction of all that industry was used at the beginning of the 20th... Read Full Story
An Ottawa man, a former caregiver at a local long-term care facility, was sentenced to eight months in jail for abusing and assaulting those entrusted to his care. Ontario Superior Court Justice Colin McKinnon was too lenient in his sentencing of Allan Foubert. Placing a family member in a long-term care facility can be a heartbreaking and self-doubting decision. That decision can be a little less agonizing when you have been assured that your loved one, some vulnerable and dependent from... Read Full Story
Powassan - Matthews Maple Syrup The warnings of warm weather kept Dave Matthews up all night Friday. The third-generation maple syrup producer was testing equipment and waiting anxiously for the sap to flow from the 15,000 trees he tapped on his property just outside of Powassan. Though next weekend marks the official start to the season , Matthews and his wife have been out in woods tapping trees and preparing 15 kilometres of tubing and 80 kilometres of pipes that bring the sap to their... Read Full Story
I just picked up the Domain Name cottagecountry.com on the web , with all the crazy domain names now being registered, like Zimbio,for instance , who would ever think that "cottage country" would be available. I could have registered cottage country.com- for a mere price tag of $10,000.00 but that seemed a bit gauche - I settled on attaching "ontario" to it and mitigate my losses. It takes a bit longer to type and I am confined to keywords revolving around one out of ten provinces... Read Full Story
The silo shown in the photo has been a fixture in this area for generations. Once used for agricultural purposes, the silo now sits abandoned as it awaits its fate, the wrecking-ball. While there are still some older homes on larger properties in the neighbourhood, urban expansion is gradually taking over the remaining vacant land. The silo, situated on land recently under the City of Ottawa ownership, has been turned over to a developer to construct both residential and commercial... Read Full Story
Another suspicious death has occurred in a long term care home in Ottawa. While the death of Frank Moir must be initially addressed as a police investigation, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care also needs to reassess the type of care provided to those in dementia units. Unlike the mental stability that may be found in the regular long term care areas, the unpredictable behaviour of those with a dementia related illness necessitates a more qualified and appropriately resourced... Read Full Story
