According to the recently-released results of the 2006 Canadian census, more than 20,000 people in the Toronto census metropolitan area ride their bikes to work.
Cycling to work may be a good alternative, especially with the rise in fuel prices, concern about pollution and the possibility of a transit strike.
But even if you have a bike are physically fit and have a secure place to park it at work, there a few things to consider. You work up quite a sweat when you ride. Do you have a place to shower and change at work? Or, do you have some really powerful deodorant?
The city of Toronto has made some progress on bike lanes, but most roads in the suburbs don’t have them, and it can get rather precarious when cars and trucks leave only a few inches of room when they pass.
If bicycle commuting is going to be the way of the future, city planners and employers will have to make a few changes to meet workers halfway.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
War museum in Ottawa has much to offer
If you’re travelling to Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, and you’re interested in military history, don’t miss the Canadian War Museum. Famous for its life-size model of a First World War trench (complete with sounds of small arms fire and shelling but minus the mud and rats), this museum was recently moved a few kilometres west of its former location northeast of the Parliament Buildings.
It includes displays from the French-Indian wars, including a sand-table model of an Iroquois fort. It also includes sand table models, of the Plains of Abraham, where the British fought the French in Quebec City in 1759.
Other sand table models include one of Canal du Nord, where the First Canadian Army liberated a flooded area of the Netherlands from the Germans, and one of the battle of Kapyong in Korea.
The Plains of Abraham display also has a Highland Basket Hilt sword, made in 1740. Other equipment on display at the museum includes French mortar that was used in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia in 1758 and a G-Wagon badly damaged by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in December, 2005. Another vehicle damaged in recent times is also on display. An Iltis quarter-ton vehicle (which was supposed to be used for administration), damaged by more than 100 small arms rounds, is in the museum’s vehicle area. This vehicle was crewed by John Tescione and Phil Badanai December 31, 1994, when they were ambushed in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia.
While walking through the displays, one can get a full appreciation of what the wounded soldiers went through by looking at the surgeon’s kits. The 26-piece surgeon’s kit from the War of 1812 does not have anesthetic (which was not available in modern form at the time) but does have saws and tools used to amputate limbs. By contrast, the First World War surgeon’s kit has 80 instruments, alsong with a blood transfusion kit. The Second World War first aid display has shell dressings, which bear an uncanny resemblance to the shell dressings used in training by the Canadian Army today.
Speaking of equipment, several Browning 9mm pistols are included in various Second World War displays. It bears an uncanny resemblance to the photo on the official Department of National Defence Web site to the pistol in use today.
Other cool equipment on display includes a training bomb site for the Harvard trainer airplanes used during the Second World War, a WASP self-propelled flame thrower and an M3A1 armoured half-track used in Korea.
The museum also has a powerful collection of war art, including the Battle of Courcellette by Louis Alexander Weirter, which measures about 12 feet wide and nine feet high.
It includes displays from the French-Indian wars, including a sand-table model of an Iroquois fort. It also includes sand table models, of the Plains of Abraham, where the British fought the French in Quebec City in 1759.
Other sand table models include one of Canal du Nord, where the First Canadian Army liberated a flooded area of the Netherlands from the Germans, and one of the battle of Kapyong in Korea.
The Plains of Abraham display also has a Highland Basket Hilt sword, made in 1740. Other equipment on display at the museum includes French mortar that was used in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia in 1758 and a G-Wagon badly damaged by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in December, 2005. Another vehicle damaged in recent times is also on display. An Iltis quarter-ton vehicle (which was supposed to be used for administration), damaged by more than 100 small arms rounds, is in the museum’s vehicle area. This vehicle was crewed by John Tescione and Phil Badanai December 31, 1994, when they were ambushed in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia.
While walking through the displays, one can get a full appreciation of what the wounded soldiers went through by looking at the surgeon’s kits. The 26-piece surgeon’s kit from the War of 1812 does not have anesthetic (which was not available in modern form at the time) but does have saws and tools used to amputate limbs. By contrast, the First World War surgeon’s kit has 80 instruments, alsong with a blood transfusion kit. The Second World War first aid display has shell dressings, which bear an uncanny resemblance to the shell dressings used in training by the Canadian Army today.
Speaking of equipment, several Browning 9mm pistols are included in various Second World War displays. It bears an uncanny resemblance to the photo on the official Department of National Defence Web site to the pistol in use today.
Other cool equipment on display includes a training bomb site for the Harvard trainer airplanes used during the Second World War, a WASP self-propelled flame thrower and an M3A1 armoured half-track used in Korea.
The museum also has a powerful collection of war art, including the Battle of Courcellette by Louis Alexander Weirter, which measures about 12 feet wide and nine feet high.
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