25 posts tagged “canada”

The Montreal region had a pretty big storm the 25th of June. Gusting winds and rain strong enough to knock out the satellite (it doesn't happen that often).

The real surprise was the marbles sized hail that came down near the end of the storm. It must have been pretty localized since not everyone I talked to the next day had seen it.

The boys were very excited (as was I) and wanted to go out during the storm and collect some hail. I got them to wait till after the storm died down. I still remember the huge hail we had in Quebec during the mid 1980's and didn't want them pummeled to death.

Donna collected some off the patio shelter for them as anything that had fallen on the ground had melted as it was like 30 degrees Celsius (or 86 degrees Fahrenheit)  that day.

So just be aware that a real instution will never ask you to follow a link and enter your Credit Card number, bank account information, Social Insureance number or any passwords.

At least it's nice to know that phishers care about Canada even during this economic downturn.

Canadian company Element Four has developed the Watermill that condenses fresh clean drinking water out of thin air; too bad it costs $1,200.

Even thought they have strayed from the tried and true traditional design of moisture vaporators, the Watermill could literately be a life saver for people in remote locations cut off from fresh water or the water cooler of tomorrows kitchen. Just to be on the safe side you better add this to your emergency disaster kit.

When the Watermill takes off it will really be a boom to the droid resale market since what we'll all really need is a droid that understands the binary language of moisture vaporators.

Now that the 2008 American Presidential race (GObama) is over we get to look forward to the 2008 Quebec Provincial election! Exciting isn't it?

You wonder why there is so much voter apathy when it seems every two years there is either a Federal or Provincial election. So even though we just had a Federal election we now have a December 8th Provincial vote.

Local Montreal CTV News has more in depth coverage of the announcement. Unfortunately I can't embed it.

This morning I saw the first party sign up at 8am even before I had heard officially that the election had been called. One thing to be said, it's nice not having the USA's two year long campaigns. But I guess we make up for it by having elections more often. At least the campaign is only a few weeks long.

Remember to get out there and vote people!

Here are the results for yesterday's election. CBC has a really nice interactive map so you can see the break down across the country and find out who won in your riding.

For everyone who didn't vote... I don't want to hear any complaining till the next election.

As I was reminded by one of my VOX neigbours, today is the Canadian Federal Election and I am passing along the reminder as well.

No matter who you're voting for you only have till this evening to decide the future of our country for the next few years.

What's interesting is that the main three parties have also truing the the social media like their counterparts down south. You can follow Jack Layton of the NDP, the Liberal Party and Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the Twitter.

If you need some help deciding on who to vote for or who not to vote for, why not check out the main players sites to get an idea what they are about.

Liberal Party of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada
Bloc Québécois
Green Party of Canada
New Democratic Party of Canada EDIT corrected accidental omission

And swing by Elections Canada to see what pieces of identification you'll need at the polling station for instance.

Remember lots of people have died in horrible wars past and present so we can complain about how our votes don't count. Also, you might forget that our grandmothers or great-grandmothers couldn't even vote if they wanted to. Don't waste this privilege and right. Get out there and vote!

If you've been living under a rock the past few weeks you would have still heard about the largest food recall in Canadian history from Maple Leaf. Due to Listeria monocytogenes contamination at one of it's processing plants Maple Leaf has recalled all 220 items packaged at the plant.

There has been 29 cases and 15 deaths eight deaths so far (sorry about that, don't know where I got 15 deaths from). I say so far since it might take up to 70 days for the listeriosis bacteria to incubate. Very scary stuff.

Maple Leaf foods is going to have a long road ahead of itself to recover from this. Michael McCain, President & CEO of Maple Leaf Foods has been feartured in television apologizes for the contamination.

Maple Leaf stock is taking a nose dive just like you'd think, with a lost of $250 million at last count. But business experts say that Maple Leaf will make a full recovery and liken their proactive actions to Johnson & Johnson's after the 1982 Tylenol cyanide murders.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has a complete list of recalled products on site. Maple Leaf says not to eat any product labeled with establishment number 97B, but you everyone is ditching all they Maple Leaf products in the home just to make sure, I know we did. You might think that we are over reacting but we do have two groups at risk, children and pregnant women living at home.

I'd like to know how has this affected you and your family? Have you sworn off processed foods? Started visiting your local butcher more? Or are you a vegetarian and telling everyone I told you so?