You Must Not Vote For Mitt Romney If....

If this is not the first time you are reading something political issued from my keyboard, then you probably know I will be approaching this piece from a position left of centre. I believe in full disclosure in these matters so let's be perfectly clear: I am not a Conservative. But then neither is Mitt Romney. The rise of the Tea Party in the States has led to a far-right Neo-Conservative movement which has so dangerously unbalanced the political arena—and not just in that country—that old-school Conservatives are virtual Centrists in the new ideology. If you live in the States and you vote Republican because all of your ancestors voted Republican back to the very top of your line, you really need to understand that the "Republican" representative on tomorrow's ballot bears almost no resemblance to those that your forebears supported. Therefore, "my family has always voted Republican" is no longer a valid defense for putting an "X" next to the name of a man who I feel may, if elected, be the worst President in the 236-year history of the United States. Bearing this in mind, today I am going to advocate something which ordinarily would go against all of my best instincts: if you absolutely cannot see your way clear to voting for Obama—and your ballot does not offer you a third-party choice—then I urge you to stay at home and not vote or, if you prefer, spoil your ballot. I have subscribed in the past to the "Anyone But X" theory of voting (which did not work particularly well in the last Federal Election up here in Canada) but this time I truly feel that an "Anyone But Obama" position could be potentially ruinous to the USA. I am not a particular fan of the incumbent, either, but he is at least an intelligent, sentient human being who is capable of making well-reasoned decisions. And Romney? Well, as I posted on Facebook over this past weekend, Romney has (or should have) alienated so many different factions of Americans that he should be running at under 10% in the polls right now. I just cannot understand how the math is working out the way it is: no woman, impoverished person or youth, to name but a few "groups", should ever vote for this man and that doesn't even begin to take into consideration non-Caucasians. Well, it begins to take them into consideration, I suppose.

But enough of the preamble. You know where I stand politically; this piece is about far more than that, though. It is about the absolute and utter inability Mitt Romney would have to run a country, completely aside from his political stance. He is one of the most profoundly unenlightened men I have ever seen reach his level of power in the States. Not all that long ago, he would have been running for a fringe party. Now he is neck-and-neck for the position of "Leader of the Free World". This cannot be allowed to happen. So I present to you:


"You Must Not Vote For Romney If......"

Missing Kenora

A tile wall mosaic at the Kenora Skate Park

A friend of mine is currently on a solo bike trip from Toronto to Vancouver (and blogging about it); sort of a One Week without the health issues. She's in Saskatchewan right now, but the first part of her trip took her along the same route that Sarah and I follow when we drive to Kenora, a place I like to get to as often as possible. I didn't make it there last year for mainly financial reasons; those reasons persist and I won't be there this summer, either. I was dealing with this pretty well until I started following my friend's blog and seeing the pictures that she took between Toronto and Winnipeg. Now I'm sitting in the stinking heat of a Toronto summer that is suffocating in every possible meaning of the word, wishing with all my heart that I could instead be perched on a dock in Northern Ontario on the incomparable Lake of the Woods, watching the float planes take off and land, feeling the cool, clear air off the water and listening to the loons.

Canada Day Hangover

The midway tonight at 8:30; these people do nothing fast

After all the sun and fun of Canada Day it was pretty hard to drag ourselves out of bed this morning, to be sure. But we had made a date with our friends Louise and Mike (the latter here on a very short visit from England) to have brunch with them at Flo's Diner in Yorkville. It was a special treat to be downtown early on a Holiday Monday because it seemed almost like a ghost town (Louise said she kept expecting to see zombies coming from around the corner). We got a great table outside under a huge umbrella and spent the better part of two hours with our wonderful friends. I'm really glad we were able to see them today, but let me tell you: it had to be a special occasion indeed to get us out of the apartment because we were absolutely zonked this morning.

The Transformation of Stan Wadlow Park

They're cutting it a bit close this year...

Every year since we moved into this apartment overlooking Stan Wadlow Park in the fall of 2005, I've looked forward to the last couple of days of June and the makeover the park below us receives in anticipation of East York's Canada Day celebrations. I've taken pictures of the slow transformation most of those years; in 2009 a strike caused the cancellation of the event and, for some reason I can't explain, in 2008 I simply didn't photograph the events at all. Tomorrow, July 1, is the really big day around here as the view from our balcony of the midway and other activities is incredible, surpassed only by the eye-level fireworks display that counts as not-to-be-missed for as long as we do live here. I'm a bit concerned about the scope of the midway this year, however, as this picture was taken at dinnertime tonight and as of this writing - about 9PM - there have been virtually no additions to what you see in the photo above. I realize that many of these ride and midway technicians are used to working through the night to get everything set up and today was not the best day to work outside due to the heat; however, this is the most incomplete I have ever seen the park as the sun has set on June 30. I guess I'll have to see what happens when we get up tomorrow for the parade.

Another "Pleasant Valley" Sunday (and Friday and Saturday, too!)

Relaxing on the porch with coffee and the Globe and Mail

Yesterday I wrote about the wonderful Art Fayre in Dunvegan over the weekend; now it's time to tell the story of the rest of our road trip to the Ottawa Valley. It began on Friday morning, around 11AM, when we had finally finished packing and Tim's bag (he cat-sit for us) had been picked up and delivered to our apartment. We fueled up at Timmy's first, then we had to make a stop in Leaside to pick up some fireworks for a Solstice party on Saturday night (at the request of Sarah's mom). We swung back down to our neighbourhood to pick up Tim and drove him up to an interview for Co-op placement for this fall (it went very well) and then we were finally on the open road, headed for the Hawkesbury region. We had more time than we needed so we decided to take a more scenic route than simply Highways 401-416-17 to get there. Part of our scenic route included a jog down to the St. Lawrence along the Thousand Islands Parkway.

The Late, Lamented Ontario Place

One of the "pods" suspended out over Lake Ontario
cc Flickr user: sookie

I miss Ontario Place. Weirdly, though, I don't know if I miss the actual, concrete and glass Ontario Place or the idea of it, the spot it holds in my heart.

The Forum in its early days
Toronto Star File Photo

I miss the concerts at the Forum, free with admission for many years. My folks took me to see the Toronto Symphony Orchestra perform the 1812 Overture more than once, with the cannons on the HMCS Haida (which used to be moored there) providing the percussion for the final movement. I miss the rotating stage which meant that, at some point during every concert, you would be positioned in the best seats in the house. I miss lying on a blanket on the grass of the surrounding hills, staring up at the stars while the sounds of Chuck Mangione or Spyro Gyra carried me away.

Happy Solstice!

Ready for the Solstice in Virginia Beach
credit:Lorraine Eaton | The Virginian-Pilot

At 7:09 PM EDT last night, summer "officially" began. If you live anywhere in Southern Ontario, however, you would be excused if you let out a little scoffing noise upon reading that information, for it has been almost unbearably hot in these parts for at least a few days. Tomorrow Sarah and I are heading for the Ottawa Valley to visit her mom and attend Art Fayre; it's been even hotter there than it has in Toronto. How hot is it? Well, I'll tell you: it's been so hot up that way that our friend Nat had to give her ducklings a watermelon to eat in order to help them stay cool.

June is Bustin' Out All Over!

♪ June is bustin' out all over!
All over the meadow and the hill!
Buds're bustin' outa bushes
And the rompin' river pushes
Ev'ry little wheel that wheels beside the mill! ♫

Our view of Lake Ontario (Woodbine Ave. is at the far right)

What a beautiful day it was around these parts. The sky was a deep, clear blue and I could see for miles (all right, kilometres) from our balcony. It was such a pleasant temperature - once the sun wasn't shining directly into our windows - that I was able to turn off the air conditioners for a while and bring Addie outside with me for some fresh air. I loved the little ring of clouds around the horizon: it really lent some depth to the vista. You won't be able to tell from this picture, but the camera was pointing towards Niagara Falls; the day was clear enough that I was able to make out the silhouettes of the Skylon and the hotels surrounding it. It's a pretty incredible view on a clear day; it's even better at night. Last night it was so clear that I could see the lights of Hamilton, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and even Fort Erie, all along the west side of Lake Ontario to the Niagara Escarpment. On clear winter days we can actually see the steam rising off of the Falls. And on Canada Day we can see seemingly infinite fireworks displays in that same direction.

Happy Victoria Day!

Another "May Two-Four" weekend has come and gone and what an incredible spell of weather we had here in Toronto. Sunny and warm (although not as hot as in the Ottawa Valley, I've heard) each and every day of the first long weekend of the Canadian summer. For those of you reading this who don't understand the significance of this weekend, it's a Canadian statutory holiday that falls on the next-to-last Monday of May every year in celebration of Queen Victoria's birthday. The ol' gal was born on May 24, 1819, which is one of the reasons we call it the May Two-Four weekend; the other reason is because in Canada a case of beer (or 24 bottles or cans) is what we call a "two-four" and this is the first party weekend of the summer at cottages, campgrounds or just the backyards around town where the beers are pretty free-flowing. In any event, it's always the weekend before Memorial Day in the States and it's a pretty big deal to those of us who have survived another bitter winter in the Great White North.