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Articles tagged with: Canadian News and Trends

The Phone Quest

February 8, 2012 – 8:00 am | 11 Comments

One of the first things I had to do when com­ing home, along with doing loads of laun­dry, was to get a phone.
Well, tech­ni­cally, I have a phone. Two, even: a land­line (pri­mar­ily for tele­mar­keters to call) and a cell phone that I never use because I haven’t bought min­utes in ages.

Going Digital

December 7, 2011 – 8:00 am | 20 Comments
Going Digital

I’m the kind of per­son who reads a book a day (and because OCTranspo is rarely on time, I have the chance to do so). Like most women, I carry my life in my bag, plus a cou­ple of books (just in case I fin­ish one, I like to have a backup). Some of my friends have tried to get me to switch to an eBook reader but I reacted like a granny. “It’s gonna hurt my eyes! It’s not the same as paper!” I protested.

Picture of the Week: Occupy Ottawa, a Month Later

November 25, 2011 – 8:20 am | 6 Comments

Last week­end, I walked through Con­fed­er­a­tion Square, where Occupy Ottawa set­tled. I hadn’t gone back since the day the move­ment started.

Ottawa Does Not Suck

November 23, 2011 – 8:30 am | 28 Comments

Come on guys. Ottawa does not suck!
It’s funny how pop­u­lar capital-bashing is in the new world: Aus­tralians with Can­berra, Amer­i­cans with Wash­ing­ton DC etc. The old world usu­ally have cap­i­tal envy—French may not like Parisians but most acknowl­edge that Paris is some­what of an excit­ing place to be.

Charity Begins at Home (And is Everywhere)

November 16, 2011 – 8:25 am | 24 Comments

All sum­mer long, I bumped into can­vassers wear­ing embla­zoned binders and vests with the logo of the char­ity they were work­ing for. “Do you have a minute for the envi­ron­ment?” some ask plain­tively. “I don’t bite, come closer!” oth­ers plead.

Canadian Souvenirs

November 14, 2011 – 8:20 am | 18 Comments

I admit it, I suck at buy­ing sou­venirs. First, I often don’t have room in my lug­gage. Sec­ond, most sou­venirs are not exactly use­ful and can be down­right tacky. What’s the point of spend­ing money on trin­kets that will just col­lect dust at home?
Recently, one reader asked me what Cana­dian sou­venirs I would rec­om­mend vis­i­tors to buy.

Picture of the Week: BlackBerry

November 11, 2011 – 8:20 am | 16 Comments

Whether they are Black­Berry, iPhones, Android, smart phones or mobile devices… everybody’s got one.
Ottawa seems to be par­tial to Black­Berry though, prob­a­bly because Research In Motion (RIM), the telco com­pany who invented the device, is Cana­dian, has con­tracts with the gov­ern­ment and is a big employer in Ottawa.

The Pumpkin Massacre

October 30, 2011 – 5:14 pm | 28 Comments

I’m very ashamed to say that, for the past…er, 8 years, the pump­kin carv­ing duty was often per­formed by my Chi­nese in-laws.
But this year, we decided to tackle the chore.
Cut me some slack, okay? Back in the days, Octo­ber 31st was just a reg­u­lar day in France—no pump­kin, no sugar-high kids, no candies.