Peter Gets an Election

One of the gifts which my Dad gave to me was an interest in politics. Not only would he answer any of my questions about the subject during our discussions about this topic, but he nurtured my enthusiasm for the entire process by letting me sit down on the couch beside him and watch the televised drama of “Election Night” unfold across the nation. As I got older, of course, I was able to stay up later and later, although I was never able to stay up “until the bitter end” as long as I had school to get up for in the morning. As I have written before, I could never understand why few, if any, of my classmates had any interest at all in discussing the election results the next day at school.

Roxanne Tellier – CERBing the Beat

COVID-19 hit Canada hard somewhere around the second week of March, 2020. I remember it well, because the shutdowns began in earnest just days before my husband’s birthday, and right about the time that Mirvish Theatre sent me an email advising me that I’d be receiving a refund for the tickets I’d purchased for a show that week. The theatre had gone dark, as had most of the city’s offices, stores, services, and restaurants. 

Roxanne Tellier – What a Difference a Year Makes

On January 25^th, 2020, a Toronto man returning from Wuhan, China was the first presumptive COVID-19 case in Canada. By March, with the disease raging across Canada, the World Health Organization had declared COVID a pandemic, the NBA, NHL and most other sport leagues had suspended their seasons, while the Olympics were officially postponed to 2021, the Juno Awards were cancelled, Parliament went on break, and schools began to close from coast to coast. 

Roxanne Tellier – What Do You Miss the Most?

A couple of weeks into the start of the COVID pandemic, I asked Shawn if he’d have done anything differently before we entered lockdown, now that we had a little experience with this way of life. We kicked around a few thoughts, but it all being so new, he couldn’t really think of much he could have done to prepare.

We’re pretty low maintenance. We’re retired, have a very small place stuffed with the goods of a lifetime of (my) conspicuous consumption, and really don’t need much to get by. But need is not want, and want is what drives our capitalistic society, which we are all a part of, whether we want to be or not. 

Roxanne Tellier – My Fellow Americans

It is believed that the first president to use the term “my fellow Americans” was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in his Inaugural Address of 1933.