Oh, Canada

Canada is a lovely country in many, many ways. Years ago, when I was living on the West Coast, I had a Mexican girlfriend and we were hurrying to catch the ferry to Vancouver on a rainy Friday evening. This is a very normal thing to do as the two largest cities in British Columbia, Victoria, the capital and Vancouver the largest by population, are separated by ocean, Victoria being confusingly located on Vancouver Island while Vancouver, the city, is on the mainland. Every hour a very large ferry carrying hundreds of cars, leaves the ferry terminal. In any case, I was just speeding a bit so as not to miss the ferry when a police car appeared in the neighboring lane and flashed its lights briefly. I pulled over to the side of the road and stopped. The officer left his car, came up to my open window and simply said, "slow down a bit" before returning to his vehicle and driving off. My girlfriend was staring at me with utter astonishment, saying, "you didn't have to give him a bribe" (in Mexico, a "mordida")? I told her that no, one did not bribe RCMP officers (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) as that could lead to spending the night in jail!

So, lovely country Canada. Mind you, on the West Coast it can rain for months on end. But Back East, as we say, in metropolises like Montreal, a lovely city with a terrible climate, this time of year it is going to snow instead. I was just reading the Montreal Gazette for its sagacious wine columnist Bill Zacharkiw and I noticed a little note saying that delivery of paper would be delayed this morning "due to weather." Yes, that's all they said. But they did provide a photo. This is a pedestrian crossing one of Montreal's main streets:

And people ask why I moved to Mexico...