WILD FIRES

     Since the wildfires in Canada and Alberta  make the news, people sometimes ask if I'm safe or how far away the fires are from me. Then there are the people who have to put up with the smoke from our wildfires. 

      The last week or ten days much has been in the news about Yellowknife which is the capital of the Northwest Territories. The population of Yellowknife was evacuated. That's 20000 people who had to take a two lane highway. There were fires along the way and it's such a long distance that you make sure that you fill the gas tank at the few gas stations. 

     These people made it to various places in Alberta where accommodation was available. 3000 came to my home town of Red Deer . Finding accommodation was difficult as other areas had been evacuated from other fires. 

    Hay River has also been evacuated. 

     Now these places are a very long way from me. 

      Driving to Yellowknife from Red Deer is 1602 km ( 995 mi). Driving time is 16 1/2 hours. The direct line from Red  Deer to Hay River is 958 km (595 mi). It's 772 miles by car. 

      So you see that these areas are along way away.

      However, there are fires between Red Deer and those fires. 

     Now in the cities we have to worry about fires in the urban forest. This city is heavily treed and wildfire is a definite probability. 

     We've been fortunate to not have too much smoke. 

     So I am safe but quite worried as to what will happen as the fire season continues. 

    In the 1960's I visited both Yellowknife and Hay River a number of times. I drove to Hay river twice and flew into Yellowknife many times. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA

     Tomorrow is Canada's birthday and we will be 152 years old.

      Now you're going to get a little history and geography lesson whether you want it or not.

     At one time this day was called dominion day signifying that we were part of the British Empire. Now we call it Canada Day

    When Canada was formed it was made up of 4 provinces...Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Ontario and Quebec were less than half the size they are now. Manitoba joined in 1870, British Columbia in 1871, Prince Edward Island in 1873, Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905 and Newfoundland in 1949. So it took us a long time to get to where we are now as far as territory is concerned. We still have three large areas that are territories. 

    It also took a long time for us to gain full independence. England controlled the final say in courts and enactments of laws until 1831. 

    So here we are, a relatively young country . We've taken a long time to get here . We've made a few mistakes along the way but have set up many very good things to make it a good country to live in.

    So Happy Birthday Canada!

Alberta Provincial Election Today

       Today Albertans vote for 89 Members of the Legislature (MLA) who will serve for the next four years. As far as I know there are five parties organized for this election. There could be one or two more that are very small and running only a few candidates. 


       Albertans tend to keep the same party in power for long periods of time and then change them abruptly. The Social Credit Party was in power from 1935 to 1971. Today only one or two Social Credit candidates ran for election so the party is basically just an organization. The Progressive Conservatives (PC) have been in power from 1971 to 2012. During all these years the opposition was very small for most terms so the ruling party had a huge majority. The last few years a split in the PC party has been taking place. A party called the Wild Rose, which was organized about three years, ago is challenging the PC party for the majority. So this election campaign has been hot and heavy with the two conservative right wing parties fighting it out.  For a change the results of the election are not a foregone conclusion and it will be a close race. 


      Albertans seem to always want to vote for a winner no matter what the party may be. They seem to size up who may win and everybody votes for that party. 


     I have never got on the band wagon. I usually vote New Democrat (ND). I like to vote for policy rather than candidates. The Nds are a social democrat party that puts people issues first . That means that their emphasis is on health, education, seniors, children. They also have a business tax schedule that has lower tax rate for small business and a higher tax rate for large business. Some people may accuse the party of being a socialist group which is not so. It can be described as left of center. Now this party may not be perfect but I'm sure others suffer the same judgement. 


     These days parties tend to bash each other rather than present their policies. Worse than that, parties try to promote wedge issues which enable them to get a majority easier. Sometimes parties misrepresent their policies or misrepresent other party's policies to the point of lying.


    So this evening will be interesting as we await the counting of the ballots to see if the old party is thrown out  and how many seats the other parties get.