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If you're following along with the Great War on YouTube, or simply know about the war in general, you'll know that 1915 wasn't the best year for the Allies and the overall atmosphere was quite a frustrating one, just the right situation for an event like this to occur.
Having been away from Canada for far too long, I didn't find out until yesterday that my hometown of Calgary actually had quite an interesting mayoral election, and a candidate named Naheed Nenshi who started out at about 8% ended up on election night with 40%, upsetting the candidate that many had assumed would win since 2007 or so, a guy named Ric McIver that even had some backing from the Prime Minister and his team. One article about the election is here. Some seem surprised that Calgary would elect a visible minority and Muslim as its mayor; as a native Calgarian I'm not, and the city's reputation as a hick town is unfounded.
Apparently Nenshi is a bit of a policy wonk and had the most detailed platform of the candidates, and also has a page here with some info in a number of other languages - brochures in Chinese, Urdu, Arabic, Punjabi, Spanish, Italian, French, Persian, and a video translated into French, Korean, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Let's go with French:
Since he seems to be really big on infrastructure including a tunnel to the airport (pdf map of the tunnel here), maybe I'll look around and see if he has an opinion on what I'd like to see most - a direct link from Seoul to Calgary not just during the summer months. That would have been nice when bringing my cat to Calgary a few months back. Yes, I know it's not the most important issue.
He has a podcast here as well which goes into some detail on eight subjects he often brings up. Now it's time to pay attention to municipal politics for the first time in about a decade to see what changes this new mayor will bring about.
Edit: I came across two articles today about Nenshi's election victory that are all worth reading. First is this one about why Obama comparisons should be avoided, most importantly because it often carries with it expectations of a kind of savior-like figure that will just up and solve all the previous problems with but a wave of the hand, and thus disappointment afterwards when supporters realize that their favourite new political figure is a man like any other. The other is this article about whether he can really remake Calgary's undeserved redneck image considering how the previous two mayors (which brings us back to 1989) were 1) Dave Bronconnier who ran for the federal Liberals before, and 2) the soft-spoken Al Duerr who has a Chinese wife and speaks a fair amount of Chinese (Putonghwa) himself. So the city really hasn't had a single mayor in its recent history that could ever be described as a redneck.
Just in case you ever find yourself in Calgary and at Dalhousie Station on a nice day with nothing to do for an hour or two, I've created a map of a walking route I know very well. Dalhousie has a subtle charm that isn't obvious at first, and can only be seen when you spend a lot of time wandering about the paths behind the houses there. Here's one example of a good route:
So if you're at Dalhousie Station you first find your way up the hill (this part is not all that charming so bear with it for a bit) then cross the street, and this is where it gets good. Then you enter the pathways between the houses and make your way north, going straight forward for some time. After that you'll cross a very small street and once again enter a pathway in between houses that will go up, around and then back again, and the part where the path splits into two is the best part IMO, as this is where the back yards of some four or five houses converge together in a tiny swath of nature. The house with the largest yard (the one just north of the fork) is awesome and I've always wanted to buy it. I doubt it's for sale. Then you make your way around, go back down the path and across the small street again, and then for some variety on the way back take a left, continue straight ahead until you reach that larger park (looks greener on the map but I actually don't like it as much because it's more of a dog-walking, kids-playing kind of place) where you turn right, continue south for a bit and then take another right later on to get back into the quiet paths behind the houses, whereupon you then take another left to get back to the main road, then cross it and head back to the station where there's a Starbucks and a Chapters if you feel like taking a break before you get back on the train.
And that's just one of many routes. There's a nearly unlimited number of combinations for routes you can use when you feel like walking around the area for an hour or so.
The Bow River is the river that flows through the city of Calgary in Western Canada where I'm from, and I never really ever tried to go into it because I remember reading all the time about accidents happening there involving something called a weir, which apparently was built in the 1910s for irrigation purposes but also resulted in an undercurrent that sweeps people under the river and keeps them there for a long time, which is why a lot of people have died there.
At the time though I had no idea what a weir was, and was under the impression that it was something to do with the river itself; that you would be on a boat one day at any location along the river and then all of a sudden along comes the weir and you're dead. So it seemed wiser to just never go in the river.
I was just telling someone I knew about that and upon doing a search through Google News, it appears that the weir is going to be remade into something that doesn't kill people:
After 14 deaths and years of delays, renovations to the Bow River weir aimed at taming its deadly effects could start as early as next month.
The provincial government approved the $16.6-million construction project Monday, ending the wait for those who had long advocated for the elimination of the "drowning machine."
"The best news is that we can get going," said Norm Harburn, president of Parks Foundation Calgary, which has been involved in the project.
The cost is around 150 per cent higher than the original $6.5-million estimate given when the project was announced in 2005.
Rising construction costs have been blamed for the spike in the overall bill, but the father of one of the weir's most recent victims said it's worth it.
"If it can save more lives, all the better," said Marcel Bherer, whose 28-year-old son, Yan, died last summer after going over the weir.
Yan's friend, 28-year-old Remi Bouchard, also died that day. Bouchard's body has yet to be found.
"You have a pretty river right in the middle of the city," Bherer said. "You should enjoy it, but right now, it's dangerous."
The completion date: 2010 or so.
Work could begin as soon as next month, depending on river flows, and rafters could be floating past a new-look weir by the summer of 2010.
The full project, landscaping and all, is slated to be finished within three years.
Here's the page you want to reference for information on the weir as it currently stands:
What if I fall into the water? Presently, a fall over the weir would almost certainly lead to death. Once the modifications are in place, falling into the water above the weir will be like falling into other sections of the Bow River. There will be areas of faster water separated by slow, deep pools from which most people can easily swim or walk to shore. As on the rest of the Bow River, all river users need to be aware of the hazards of falling in.
See, that's the type of info I read all the time as a child. Falling 'over the weir' means death, sans explanation of exactly what a weir was.
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