The company delivering gas to homes and businesses in London, Ontario, is Enbridge. A Canadian company, as far as I know, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. The biggest name in natural gas heating and electric cooling equipment in London is Reliance Home Comfort. Many of its customers believe that it too is a Canadian operation. It was but it isn't today.
Originally, Reliance was owned by Union Gas. Today Union Gas is no more having been taken over by Enbridge. And Reliance, its connection to Union Gas severed years ago, is now controlled by the family of Hong Kong-based Chinese-Canadian businessman Victor Li.
Have these changes been good for London? Have they been good for Ontario? On the surface, it would seem a larger share of the money generated by this residential and commercial gas business may have once circulated throughout the city and province, for the most part. Now, with the Hong Kong and Bermuda connections, a lot of the profits may be leaving the country.
I am not a financial wizard. I cannot say if the present set-up is better or worse for Londoners, for Canadians. But one thing seems certain, it is better for the governments of Hong Kong and Bermuda.
When I was a boy in the early '50s, one would not have encountered a lawn statue like this one displayed with the Canadian flag. For one thing, the maple leaf flag was not the Canadian flag until 1965.
Are these Canadian Geese out for a morning stroll in order to meet the 10,000 footsteps-a-day goal? If they are, I am sure the folk in this neigbourhood are hoping the geese take all their steps in a straight line. Geese are not welcome in residential neighbourhoods. Nothing messes up an area's sidewalks and lawns like a flock of geese. Yuck!
Are these lilies special? They certainly are beautiful. These lilies also came from the lily fields now plowed under with the retirement of the couple who ran the lily operation. If you'd like to know more here is a link to an earlier post: A colourful, beautiful memory.
Many urban critics love to point out how the car has shaped and modified the suburban home. Home after home has yielded half or more of the front lawn to the car. A paved driveway replaces grass for a big chunk of many a suburban front yard. And then there are the garages. Many of these jut out a metre or more in front of each home on the suburban street. There is even a name for this style of home building: the garage forward look.
What these critics ignore is that the car has also reshaped our older, heritage neighbourhoods. And just like in the suburbs, a paved spot for the family car or cars claims a big part of the front yard. In fact, the narrow lots in older neighbourhoods demands that occasionally the entire front yard must be given over to the car.
Many have called the telephone an indispensable tool. But telephones today come in many guises and the two we use in our home are both slowly losing the telephone popularity contest to more modern designs.
This GE-made landline telephone has been constantly in use in our home for decades. The only problem encountered is with the coiled cord attaching the telephone to its receiver. The cord eventually gets tangled and fails
.
As of a few days ago, we are down to one telephone. The cord on one telephone has failed. Worse, we are finding replacing the coiled cord today is quite difficult. With fewer and fewer people using landlines, the demand for replacement coiled cords is drying up.
The telephone as a tool is needed more today than ever. But the original landline models may almost disappear at some point in the near future. Telephone technology has moved on and the telephone tool of yesterday may be the door stop of tomorrow.
