Last day in Canada

This is another posting about those flappy-headed-beedy-eyed folks...you know Canadians. I forgot to mention my joy at reading the names on the Canadian walk of fame. It lists such luminaries as Michael J. Fox...and Gordon Lightfoot.

Today, we went to Niagra falls, Canadian side. The actual falls themselves are amazing. The rest, well kitsch is probably the best word to describe the resturants (planet hollywood, hard rock cafe, tony romas, hooters, etc), the attractions (ripleys, guiness book of world records, marvel comics, etc), and so on. We took a boat into the horseshoe falls, and were soaked by the spray. There is one spot where it rains on a clear sunny day from the tremendous amount of water pouring down all around. I took lots of photos, but I am sure many did not come out due to said mist.

The whole reason I was here was due to a friend of mine and my wife's from college. She is Sikh and married a fellow Sikh in a temple in a Torono suburb. The pomp and circumstance was amazing. cerimonial horses, cars, swords, shoe stealing, a kit to carry the bride away to her new family, a fog machine, a shuttle bus (like a coach), three indian buffets a day, the clothing, head scraves, and a US Congressman (Jim McDermott is friends of the bride's family).

This was all set to a 1-2 hour delay because the groom was one of those people that is always really late and the vendors were also in no rush. So we just sat back and relaxed.

It was a nice time to be up here when it was in the high 90s/low 100s in SLC. (It was in the 70s here)

There are a lot of things that the US could mimic Canada on and be much better off: 1) create a universal health care system 2) sign onto the Kyoto Protocol and its progeny. You don't see ads for prescription drugs here. Why? Because there is no profit to be had (or the government forbids it). Either way, there is no need for ads that push people into getting a certain drug that they might not need.

I haven't been following the news that closely, other than the two big political stories of the quasi-pardon by Bush ("Republicans are above rule of the law") and the Obama money machine. Canada had its campaign reporting dateline the same time the US did, and the Conservative [Tory?] party trashed the Liberal party, but the numbers of contributors and amount raised was like Bill Richardson levels FOR THE WHOLE PARTY. I know Canada is a smaller country and they don't do attack ads, but still. It is just amazing how much Obama is able to raise and more importantly, how many people have given him money 253,000 is a lot of people.

Some of this is obviously due to how badly Bush and the previous GOP congress ruined the country and partly due to the fact that people want change badly. Like it or not, Obama represents this change. He is not part of Washington because he just got there. He is also black, which also says change more than anything else...even a woman (when it is Ms. Clinton only)

Anyway, I need to get to bed because DHS is making the lines long on the way back into the good old US of A...and I have a flight to catch tomorrow.