Picks of Canada

This blog has had occasion to point out excellent service provided by an auto repair shop and others in the Canadian Countryside. But so far disservice has been avoided. However PC Financial Insurance just changed that. I, like the general populace, have been tolerant of the fact that Financial firms primarily in the US but extending to Canada and the rest of the World have played fast and loose with moneys entrusted to them and a)driven the world into a back breaking recession and b)have reduced hard earned savings by a factor of 20-60% depending on circumstances.

The number one problem is that institutional greed now ranks first, second, and third among Financial institutions well ahead of fiduciary trust for clients who have entriusted themselves to the Finance company’s good graces. In short customers are now consistently on the short end of the stick as regards Financial institutions - just check with your bank account statement if you need further proof.

So what did PC Financial Insurance do ? It discontinued its Auto insurance business. But unlike Conquest Travel which just went bankrupt. PC Financial did not inform its customers of the fact. No calls, no emails, no contact whatsoever. The only way I discovered the fact was because I wrote a note on my insurance policy stub - and noticed that my policy was expiring at the end of the month(I had expected it to lastuntil May). What really galls me is that a company that I have paid amply well to provide a service - would discontinue that service and not contact me as customer in due course so I would have the time to change auto insurance providers. Thanks Presidents Choice.

Here are the first pix from this Spring’s Float Your Fanny Down the Ganny in Port Hope Ontario. It was a bit chilly so there were a lot less squirt guns and water ballons on both side - spectators and floaters both. But as you can see from the pictures below that dis not prevent fun on the Ganaraska as its spills through port Hope.

The Riversplits and recombines here

This is the rafters coming into the final stretch.

The Racing Rafts

The fast canoes and kayaks are already through, so now you have the rafting racers - trick: light and fast versus lots of paddling arms. Who wins? Come on out and find out.

Rubber Ducky Fun

Along with vendetta races between rival teams - a lot of the fun is constructing river worthy conveyances and taking them and your fannies down the river.

Sailboating down the Ganny

Here is another example of crafting your way down the river. This sailboat actually travelled well - keeping the draught up above the rivers many snags. Also the pointed bow would deflect off scrunching rocks.

Seat of the Captain

Manny of the vessels have a “Captains seat”; but that gets abandoned pretty quickly in the fast rapids on various stretches of the Ganny.

Rafting’s End

Just before the Ganny hits downtown Port Hope there are a number of nifty little falls - lets say it is a Dunking Reception!

The Mural on the Petting Zoo Building

Warkworth Ontario has some wonderful colors and forms in town and out in the surrounding Northumberland Hills. Here are some recent pictures from in town that help illustrate the visual delights to be found.

The kids contribution to the Petting Zoo Mural

Mondrian View near the Arena

Such rakish colors and angles

Josef Albers would smile  his Relativity Theory of Colors


More of the mural and the wearing of time.

Warkwort, like all good towns, has a  library of good deeds - one is the natural beauty of the countryside. Another is the the artistic expression that is to be found in nooks all around the town.

The Dutch Outdoor Theater Company, Close-Act, is one of the most inventive - literally putting a theater spectacle right among the show-goers. The costumes, make-up, music, and great rotating metal skeleton machines add to the showmanship. And for the second time in four years, Close-Act is featured at the Winter City Festival in Toronto. Its almost as if all you have to do is to wander down to Nathan Phillips Square on Feb 6th or 7th, 2009 by 7:00PM and not get trampled during all the machinations in the show.

Red Machinations

The latest Close-Act show is entitled Pi-Leau and portrays a water world post global warming of the Arctic glaciers. Now the Dutch whohave reclaimed much land from the North Sea and are only a few metres above sea level for large tracts of their countryside - they are very conscious of the potential effects of global warming. So the Pi-Leau vision of a future water incursion is very real to them - and it has a beauty and  beastliness  straight out of WaterWorld. There is a constant theme of red figures drumming and spurting through the waters now that now virtually cover the audience and the City Square. Everything is now swimming or on stilts.

One of the Broken Continental Icesheets 

Throughout the show the music and action alternates between isolated islands and schools of  fish and jellyfish  and caustic red fierce riders straight out of a MadMax world on water. The costumes, flares, and make-up of the players add to the sense of a lurking malfeasance not wanted yet not totally unavoidable.

Scarlet Foreboding

There are many red caustic images in this show there are reminders of Kevin Costner’s WaterWorld imagery - especially the use of flippered sea-goers and great whales. But the mood is menacing and well conveyed with the use of dramatic lighting, smoke spewing red and white flares, and loud beating drums. The tale is moral and apocalyptic, the sound and vision Sturm und Drang - and the ending - ambivalent.

Ogres, like Girls, just wanna have fun.
However for photographers this is must see and click - the number of great shots available are very great indeed.

There is a demonstration by supporters of the Tamil Tigers of NorthEast Sri Lanka at the Toronto midtown corner of Bloor and Yonge Streets. It is notable because this is a continuing series of ever more heated protests so the police and TV media are out to “cover” the protest each in its own ways. I am interested because of the number of victims cited in the above protest sign - 5,00,000 ??? I decided I wanted to see how quickly I could get useful and “non-inflamed” information about the “number” and the situation.

Sincen I was next to the TorontoMuncipal Library - I went there and got on one of the more than 300 free web connected terminals. I did not go to any of the TV stations covering the story - neeedless to say they would not have any links to useful information. Instead I tried the Toronto Star and the GlobeandMail first. The GlobeandMail had the background story but it is Toronto bound. The Toronto Star went well beyond the immediate protest articles and filled in the blanks on the broader Sri Lanka picture very well here. But the best resources were- Surprise Surprise -Google and wikipedia. Google led me to the superb novel by Canadian/Sri Lankan author Michael Ondaatje which tells the story in “captivating” style in Anil’s Ghost. As one finds in the novel, this civil war is very nasty and very brutish on all sides.

So what did we learn about getting quick and cogent info on this flashpoint. TV coverage was lowest on the totem pole, the newspapers of mixed but better value, but Google and Wikipedia the best and quickest.