Hear this, eastern and central Canadian readers: Alberta had a good three-week bout of -30 in November. The prairies had a blizzard last week. B.C. has seen so many out-of-season storms that they don't know from one day to the next whether they will have power.
Why am I telling you all this? To give you context for my annoyance at Canada's "national" Weather Network for declaring that WINTER FINALLY COMES TO CANADA because there's finally been a bit of snow in Ontario.
Bully for them that their country is so small. Mine is rather larger.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
From the "disgruntled westerner" file
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Population of Ontario and Quebec: 20 Million
Population of Alberta and BC: 8 Million
Central Canada isn't just where the government and media is. Its also where most Canadians live.
Cold weather in Alberta in winter is not news. BC's storms (particularly the destruction of Stanley Park) have been all over the news. No snow in Toronto and Montreal until January deserves press coverage. Get off your high horse. My Canada isn't so easily offended.
Anonymous:
Then wouldn't "WINTER FINALLY COMES TO ONTARIO" or similar have been more appropriate?
Anonymous,
Could you point out where I said that it didn't deserve press coverage? 'Cause I musta missed that part of my own post.
It was really only a matter of time before I saw someone post this. I kept cringing every time I saw news organizations talk like that.
You poor western souls. :P
"We can finally say in Canada that winter has arrived everywhere," said Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips. "Everybody's had a taste of it."
with respect, mr phillips did say "everywhere". your disgruntledness is a little misrepresented. must be all the bloody snow ;0)
It certainly is cold in Toronto now though! Life can be like hell here when it is cold out.
The bike ride to work becomes long and arduous, as opposed to the usual nice.
Ben,
You know, I'm never quite sure whether to admire winter cyclists, or just think they're crazy. *grin*
heh, I saw that exact headline, and was irritated as well. Western alienation, one seemingly insignificant aggravation at a time...
(At least Bob Cole doing the play by play for the Canucks turned out to be just a one-time deal.)
Meh. Winter here is a piece of cake for this tough pure blood Albertain! People have been griping all over town, and yet I've still got my jacket unzipped :)
I agree that TWN does focus on Southern Ontario a fair bit more than they should... but, on the other hand, it's somewhat understandable. It has the largest swath of the largest density of people in the country, and so weather can have a compounding effect on it.
Anyway, Chris Sinclair who is on weekend mornings is the best weatherperson in Canada that I have found, on either coast. And he tries not to focus too much on Southern Ontario and often jokes that he wouldn't even be talking about that much snow if it was happening elsewhere in the country.
IP, I was so happy to find your blog from Olaf's post on female bloggers. I don't know if we'll ever see the day our weather makes WINTER ARRIVES national news. Last year, I had
-someone from Toronto ask my friend (also Edmontonian) why she decided to study outside of the UK
-someone from Toronto ask me what it was like living out on the coast
-someone from Brampton (a distinction worth mentioning, considering what she asked me) inquire whether Edmonton has in Calgary or just a suburb.
I love prairie winters, however much longer we'll have them for.
christopher,
Okay, those comments are just appalling!
I don't care about seeing prairie weather in the headlines, though--my beef was more with the phrasing of the headline that implied that "Canada" excludes the parts of the country that had already had winter. In fact, I'm actually kind of disturbed that so many central Canadians in this comments section didn't pick up on that. I suppose that sort of message is just so commonplace that it doesn't even register on people's radar.
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