Small world or what?

We were just having a chat in the newsroom with the city editor and managing editor about the different customs in different cities as Canadians celebrate Remembrance Day. The boss said he had been to so many and began rhyming off the names of different towns, when he said Portage La Prairie. Well, there you go.

Small world eh? I had to chime in about the fact that RCAF Base Portage La Prairie was Dad’s first posting when we all came back to Canada from France. It’s also the town where Debra was born, so I will avoid mentioning the year. I did however recall sitting by the CNR tracks in the north end of town near the Campbell Soup plant to watch the trains coming in – Steam trains they were!  It was a nice place with cold winters. 

Gary, and Ronald and I sure enjoyed some fun times there as kids…. Including the time we begged Mom to let us push the baby carriage over to the next block, where there was a big baseball game going on.  And then we came home. But we forgot the baby.  Hey, it was safe. It was all Air Force families. But when we got back home, mom was wild! Where’s the baby!? So we rushed back to the baseball field and sure enough we found Debra in the carriage right behind the home plate fence. No harm. No foul. LOL

Hoping for toasty toes...

I haven’t given this much thought to winter in years. I think I am beginning to “feel” it a bit more these days. For starters, I take blood pressure medication which has the effect of making my fingers and toes feel cold. Doc said that was to be expected. So I live with it.

Also, when I was visiting Jennifer last week, I had the opportunity to buy a new winter coat. I call it my fall coat, because when real winter comes, I wear my parka. But my parka is just too warm for mild winter, anything that is minus 20 and warmer. So I put the fall coat on this week and it was warm, so I took out the liner. I like it.

Then I bought a new pair of leather gloves. My old ones were about five years old and had some serious holes that only a surgeon could repair.

But the real change has come with my Sorels. These old boots have been my favourites for roughly 40 years. I remember wearing my first pair of Sorels in the Arctic in December and they were fine. These boots are also perfect with my snowshoes. 

This is my second pair of Sorels. They're the original Made-In-Canada brand. Not the new ones that are made in China. 

They’re almost 20 years old and still in good shape. But I bought new liners this week. Not the usual felt-wool liners. I caved to modernity and bought a pair of those synthetic breathable liners.

They’re rated to minus 45. I don’t know how they figure that stuff out, but I know that from living in Timmins, there will be a few days that I will get to test that. I will keep you posted.

Thankful ...

I hated the drive down on Highway 144 on Friday night. There’s always moose on the highway. But the trip was worth it to spend a couple of days with Jenn and her men in Val Caron for Thanksgiving. It’s always so relaxing there, and I go into total veggie mode with a few drinks, a bite to eat, with lots of conversation, laughter and even a few tears. My grandsons are so grown up now. Tyler is first-year university and Nathan is in his final year of high school. We used to have a tradition on Saturday mornings where we sat around in our jammies and ate chocolate cake. Well, I guess the boys are not interested in that stuff anymore, LOL. That’s okay, it was still nice to spend time with everyone, -- even if the Leafs lost on Saturday night.

The best day ...

I was pleased to get an e-mail last week from a friend informing me that CBC Radio is celebrating its 40 year anniversary in Northern Ontario.  I am happy to say I was a small part of that, having spent a few years as an associate producer and producer of the morning program, Morning North.  Then, many years later, after my stint with CTV, I was invited back to CBC as a contract producer and editor.

But let me get to the heart of the story about one of the best days we ever enjoyed with live radio. It didn’t start out very pleasantly.

It was September 7, 1990. It was the morning after the Ontario Election when a huge upset had taken place. Bob Rae had defeated Liberal premier David Peterson. Now you have to understand that elections are big things in the news business.  Whoever gets elected sets the game for your city, your province or your country for the next few years.

Okay so in the days leading up to our election results broadcast I have to say we were stunned to learn that CBC Toronto had been given approval to cover the province. This was ignoring CBC Thunder Bay, CBC Windsor, CBC Sudbury and CBC Ottawa.  

This meant our morning show would be pre-empted in favour of giving the Toronto crew the broadcast from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.  Of course, the journalists in the smaller stations such as ours were livid. We protested, but without any backing from management, we got nowhere.

Only CBC Ottawa was able to complain loud enough to get back the right to cover its own territory. Not us. We would be allowed roughly five minutes each hour to insert news from our region.

That morning we all arrived for work well before 6 a.m. Of course we were excited at the news of the political upset. But that was soon tempered by the fact we pretty well had to sit on our hands and listen to Toronto. We were told to be ready in case Toronto gave us the right to switch back to our own station. Fat chance that would happen.  There was clearly a line between broadcasters and the bureaucrats.

So there we were;  myself, host Peter Williams, newsroom staffers Bill Catalano and Sherry Drysdale, noon show host and producer Benita Hart and our technician and operator Kenny Kauffeldt.

We sat in the front office with the big window overlooking Mackenzie Street and griped and moaned about not being able to do our own broadcast.

Little did we expect how bad it would be. Just as the 6 a.m. World Report news package ended, CBC Toronto came online with a quick wrap of the election upset the night before. Part of the coverage including breaking away to a live report from London, Ontario the hometown of defeated premier Peterson.   

Imagine our surprise when the poor reporter described he was broadcasting live from a local arena in London where the Liberals had been expected to celebrate Peterson’s victory. The reporter said there was no one else there. Just him. Well Duhhhh! It was so embarassing to listen to this. 

So the hour progressed. At 6:30 we did our own regional news wrap and then a brief insert on the local election results.

I remember clearly as we sat there around 6:45 a.m. griping how bad the Toronto broadcast was. Sherry said something like I wish we could just do our own show. Kenny said, “we can”.

I looked at him with surprise. He looked back at me and said anytime you want to switch back to local just tell me and we can go to a local broadcast.  I thought, well they keep telling us to be “risk takers”. So let’s see how this works.

I quickly looked at the faces around the room and asked, do you think we could pull off a good local show?

The response was immediate. Of course, and then they began jumping in with names, phone numbers and story lines and interviews. It was exciting as hell. I looked at the clock, knowing we had about 20 minutes before going live.

One of the reporters was already on the line to Nickel Belt MPP Floyd Laughren to get Bob Rae’s private phone number.

So things were in motion. We pulled together a bunch of live interviews, including an exclusive with the new Premier BEFORE CBC Toronto got him on live. We had live chats with all the newly elected candidates.  We didn’t look back. It was a great program. For the next two hours we did seat-of-the-pants live radio and it worked.

Just before 9 a.m. our host Peter was wrapping up the show with final comments. Kenny was rolling the music to mark the end of the show. The boss came into the studio with a big smile commenting on how good the show sounded.

“When did Toronto give you the okay to cut away to local?” he asked.

“They didn’t,” I replied.

His face dropped. He was horrified.

I knew my ass was in trouble, but I have to say, it was so worth it. It was the best day.

Advice :)

Dropped in to see the doc on Thursday. He said keep an eye on your blood sugar. Dropped in to Timmies on the way back to work. I got a dark roast coffee with NO SUGAR! I deserved a reward for that I figured, so I got a SMILE cookie too! LOL

Old glass. Nice photos...

So yes I am pleased with a decision to resurrect one of my older Nikon cameras. The cam is six years old and I had to send away to Amazon to get new batteries.  I read a recent article talking about many shooters (journo-talk for photographers) bringing out older film camera lenses that seemed to have pretty nice glass and then using them on the newer digital cams. Well that sure got me thinking because I own a fabulous old Nikon 50MM 1 to 1.4 lens that is so perfect, you’d swear it came from heaven.  This is the same lens sent to the moon on Apollo 11.

 This is the same lens LIFE magazine and National Geographic shooters used all during the 60s and 70s around the world and in Viet Nam. One of the biggest differences is that it is not an auto-focus lens, so everything is manual shooting.

 I tried it out this morning on the flower garden beside my apartment building. I was pleased. Then I went out to a mining executive’s lunch and shot photos.  I also shot backup photos on a newer cam, but the city editor chose the photo shot with the older lens. The detail was amazing! You can count the guy’s whiskers. 

Covering the PM

Well I don't often get the chance to cover a PM. Mr. Trudeau came to Timmins this week and I was assigned to get photos and a story. Unfortunately, the media was told there would be no questions, just cover the speech. We were also told we had to get our photos from a riser stage located at the back of the venue. I didn't agree with that, but I didn't complain... as the speech was ending, I mentioned I would like to get up front for some better pictures. One of the interns with the PMO grabbed me and said to follow her. We scooted through the ranks of RCMP officers and other serious looking folks with stern faces. I was able to get very close to get some good shots. The speech was about 20 minutes but the PM spent twice that much time working the crowd, signing autographs and posing for selfies. Things have changed.

Flying north ...

I was advised by a trusted friend to start writing more stuff on this blog because it will help in the event I ever decide to write something more permanent. In more than four decades of reporting news in Northern Ontario, I have enjoyed some memorable times. I was watching Netflix tonight when I noticed part of an episode where folks were flying in a DC-3 airplane or a Dakota as many folks like to call them. My first flight in a DC-3 was in December 1975 with Austin Airways.  Austin had several of these old reliable airplanes for the simply reason they were reliable. On this particular occasion, we were flying from Timmins to Moosonee along with members of the Timmins Fire Department who were bringing toys to that community as part of the annual Toylift Flight, where the firefighters would bring toys to the James Bay coast communities. The sun was shining but the morning was bitterly cold. As we sat in the Timmins terminal waiting for the plane, we were advised it was being brought back into the hangar because it was too cold to start the engines. The temperature was still about minus 40. About an hour later, I think it was around 9 a.m. we were told we could board the plane.

And so we did. Some minutes later, the plane was airborne and we were on our way North. Interestingly, the two cabin crew members handed out sleeping bags and blankets we could wrap around our legs and feet, because it was so cold.

One of things people liked to see when flying out of Timmins was the huge Texas Gulf open pit mine. And so it was that folks all peered out of the right side windows to catch a glimpse of the pit.

That when many of us noticed there was a significant amount of oil leaking out of the starboard engine. It was running down the engine cowling and along the wing. There was really a lot of oil there. So myself and a few others called on the cabin crew members to take a look.

The one fellow leaned over our seats and looked at the oil coming out of the engine. His face did not betray any concern, but he immediately walked to the front of the plane and went into the cockpit where the pilot and co-pilot were.

Moments later, one of the pilots came into the cabin and leaned over the seats to see the engine. The oil was still leaking. The man didn’t say a word. He turned and went right back into the cockpit.

In less than a minute we could all feel the plane turning. Yes, we were heading back to the Timmins airport. That seemed to be reassuring.

Suddenly, the oil leak stopped. It just stopped. We let a cabin crew member know that the oil leak had stopped. He went right to the cockpit. Sure enough, the plane turned and was back on a north bound course, heading to Moosonee.

We all looked at each other and began laughing. I won’t ever forget that.

A sparkling day ...

Rarely have I done a news story on the birth of a mine and then, ten years or so later, the death of a mine. I was up North in the James Bay Lowlands today to cover the 10th anniversary of the De Beers Victor mine, the first and only diamond mine in Ontario.

It is a success story in the sense that the company has spent billions of dollars to create the mine and run it -- but it has also earned billions more by recovering 7 million carats in diamonds. But the mine will soon be depleted and by this time next year, it will be shut down.
I was first here in 2008 when the mine officially opened and there was a lot of excitement. Hundreds of new jobs. Hundreds of millions provided to the First Nations. And so it went. For the past ten years the glitter of diamonds has provided wealth and comfort to so many people. I am on holidays this week, but I couldn't pass up the chance to visit the mine again to see how it has developed; now more than a thousand feet deep.

And so things change and all new mines eventually die. But before De Beers leaves this area it must leave the land in good shape. And so there was a tree planting ceremony to symbolize the fact that the company will continue to spend money on a massive land reclamation project. They event provided a tree sapling so I can plant my own tree.
Each visitor was also given a nice little chunk of Kimberlite ore. That's the type of volanic rock where diamonds are found.

That's a good thing. It means the company will be allowed to keep mining in other parts of Canada. Oh by the way, I chatted with De Beers Canada president and CEO Kim Truter today. He said the process will start again in a couple of years with a new project in Nunavut. I asked how much money would be spent and how long that mine would last.
Truter smiled and with his thick South African accent he said "It's early days my friend, early days."

Hot summer. Whisky yes. Vodka no.

So yes we have had a hot summer so far this year in Timmins. Hell, there are forest fires all over the North. So I have enjoyed some nice beverages lately. This past week I was making iced tea and adding a bit of vodka. I was told that makes a nice drink. It does. Then a co-worker said vodka is nice with just ice for sipping. He went on and on about Grey Goose vodka and how nice it is. So I tried sipping vodka. Just vodka. With ice. Yuck! No thank you. I will stick to whisky thank you. I had the same conversation in June when Neil came to visit. He loves his Tequila. We had a chat about how there are some excellent versions of Tequila that are good for sipping. I was polite. I listened. Quietly. But truthfully, no way Jose! So i have to sign off. It is Saturday night. Netflix movie time. With whisky!

Amazon package arrived

So yes my package arrived from Amazon. It's my new computer battery and yes it works like a charm. It arrived four days early. The price was less than half the price quoted to me by the manufacturer. I have been assured this battery is just as good as, if not better, than OEM. So I will watch it carefully and if there are any problems, I can always return it for the refund. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing since I means I didn't spend my money locally. I will struggle with that.

Using Amazon

Shopping locally is important for me. It is usually local businesses that support the newspaper company I work for. So I like to give back. I was surprised this week when I was shopping for specific items to learn that a few local businesses did not carry the item I wanted. I am finding a few stores will say, Oh we can order that for you.  But then they will charge a fee for ordering and delivery.  One younger store clerk said, Why don't you try Amazon? He actually looked the item up and found what I wanted. At a much cheaper price than I expected. The nice thing about Amazon (Yes, I have ordered before) is that they give a refund if you don't like the product. No questions asked. So if you don't mind waiting three or four days, Amazon is not a bad way to go.

Summer is good. So is beer ...

Okay, so one of the good things happening this very hot summer is beer. I noticed it this past week since Neil left a few cans of beer in my fridge. I am not a big beer drinker; only three or four a week. But I do like different tastes. Neil and I are the same that way.  (I should mention he also bought me a fabulous bottle of Irish whiskey!)I got tired of the old corporate beers years ago. Besides most are owned by American companies now. I don’t go to the Beer Store anymore because it is owned by the Americans too.

Two things have happened recently. One is the hot, hot summer we are having in Ontario. The other is that Ontario finally relented and we can buy beer in many grocery stores here. It makes it easier to pick up a couple of beers when I am out buying stuff for supper. I like to try different brands, mostly lagers and pilsners. I am not a big fan of hoppy ales.  So I like beer, but I am not brand loyal. Beer companies hate guys like me. The other good thing is that I am seeing more and more craft breweries, producing very nice local beers. Jenn calls them weird beer.

On some really hot days, nothing is better than enjoying a cold beer in the evening. Usually one 500 ml can is enough. So yes, beer is good, and so is the summer. Cheers.

Happy Canada Day eh.

Canada Day weekend in Timmins has been one of the best ever! My children – they’re sure not kids anymore – showed up to have some fun in Timmins. And they sure did. Jennifer and Neil made my weekend by being here. And I was pleased to do whatever I could to spoil them. They even managed to hit a few pubs, see some old friends and dance the night away. Although they’re not sure which pub was the last one! Anyway, they’re the two best kids on the planet and I enjoyed every minute being with them.

The weather was looking a bit iffy this afternoon, with thunderstorms in the forecast. Despite that a lot of local folks are off to the Stars and Thunder festival to see Sons of Maxwell, Matthew Good, Our Lady Peace and Bryan Adams. Sounds like it will be a good time.

Trump's legacy...

So this is the photo by John Moore of Getty Images that shocked hundreds of thousands of Americans to realize their president was wrong. A two-year-old child crying in fear as a border guard does a pat-down search of the child's mother. For Trump to authorize this kind of action shows that he is so non-presidential. At best, he might be a pimped-up middle manager who surrounds himself with sycophants because he has money, left to him by his daddy. Way to go America.  In the months and years to come, it will be revealed that Trump has serious mental health disorders. Not that there's anything wrong with mental illness.  Except you shouldn't be president.

Frayed cuffs and other things...

Finally. This week I threw out a shirt I bought about five years ago. It wasn’t always like this.  I was getting fed up some years ago with my clothing because no matter where I went to buy, there were always frayed cuffs, frayed collars, buttons falling off, things like that after only a few months.  

So I bought several shirts online from L.L.Bean five years ago. They were a bit more costly. But they sure lasted long. It got to the point that I was getting tired of seeing photos from a few years ago and realizing I was wearing the same shirt! But the shirts just kept looking good, no frayed threads, no lost buttons, nothing like that. Finally this week I was taking one shirt out of the dryer when I noticed the collar had frayed… by just a few millimetres! That’s all it took. Shirt in the garbage. 

Now I have to start planning to buy some new shirts. Problem is the Canadian Dollar is worth only 75-cents in the U.S.

So I will have to look for sales and discount days – something that LLBean is generous with. I am not worried about the Trump tariff thing. He is an idiot.  People say he will change his mind.

Good times

It was such a good week. I don’t say that because of the Ontario election,although I am glad the Liberals got the boot. It was good because Tyler graduated high school, with honours and as an Ontario Scholar. I was so proud of this guy for making his parents so happy. It was just the nicest time to spend with Jenn and her men. It was also so nice to see Don and Denise Alexander as well. I was happy to make the drive down to Sudbury, but I had to rush back to Timmins to cover the election. It was the biggest election upset in years, but I couldn’t stop telling everyone I met that my oldest grandson graduated high school. People looked at me, like, that’s no big deal. Oh yeah. Well. Okay. It’s a big deal to me.

  Scott, Tyler, Jennifer and Nathan. 

 Tyler and Nathan.

Len and Tyler.

Politics

Politics is becoming so polarized these days. Here in Ontario we have a provincial election happening in June and a city election happening in October. So here’s the thing. There was a time when people would talk politics among friends, over a beer or even at the dinner table. Things rarely got out of hand. Sometimes they were even funny. I remember once telling my grandmother I had done a news interview with Brian Mulroney. She looked at me, smirked, and said, You’re saying that like it’s a good thing. I had to smile.

But now people tend to go too far, saying all sorts of things about their favourite politicians and then being not-so-respectful of their not-so-favourite politicians. The worst of it is that this  becomes part of the social media game and people begin sniping at each other if they don't agree with their candidate. It’s getting really bad, and sadly I am seeing comments from friends and acquaintances that make me wonder about them.

What a pain the A$$

Passwords are such a pain. I wish technology could come through with some sort of device or method to make all this password stuff go away. Just getting into this blog took three tries because I made a tiny error on one of the few favourite passwords I use. Yes, I confess. I use a few passwords over and over. Even at work, we get reminded every three months to change our main password. So I have worked out a system where I keep the main "word" but I keep adding a few little characters to it, such as & or * or # just to mix things up.  I know of one fellow who changes his by the month, passwordJANUARY, then passwordFEBRUARY, then passwordMARCH and so on.
I know that the iPADs have come up with thumb print and eye scans, but I am told that adds significantly to the price. My smartphone uses a graphic password, where I have to match two images on the screen.I like that, but on a couple of occasions in the freezing cold, it hasn't worked properly and then I have to rely on a backup consisting of words! Arrrrghhh! (Hmmm ... there's a password!)

Heartbreaking ...

I was sitting in the office briefly Saturday morning when Tom the managing editor dropped in. He was obviously pre-occupied but then mentioned out loud that another person had died in the bus crash in Saskatchewan. It was awkward, but we had to talk about it. Heading out on the team bus to a hockey game on a winter night is such a Canadian thing. Whether you live in Nova Scotia or the Yukon, there is not a Canadian family I know of that hasn’t experienced that, whether it’s the team bus or even the fan bus that follows it. What happened is something that so many of us has wondered about; worried about and then maybe offered a quick prayer when everyone got home safely. I know in Timmins there was a change put in place many years ago when the players didn’t have a team bus. They went to an out of town game in a convoy of private cars. Sadly one the cars was in a crash and some young hockey players died. After that, it was decided from that point forward that all teams would travel by bus. Sadly bad things happen, no matter what choices you make. I know that yesterday my immediate thoughts were about Tyler and Nathan and how many times they have travelled to out of town tournaments and hockey games. My heart still breaks for the boys in Saskatchewan.