Canada

If you live in Canada, then perhaps you've seen those cute commercials where a person form someplace exotic stops you in front of a tourist attraction and talks about how a place in Canada is sooo amazing, "have you been there?" you're answer, coming from your couch is prolly no.

Since my familly is quite spread out accross Canada, (at one time, I've had a family member in every provincial capital exept newfoundland), i've have the wonderful chance to see many parts of Cananda. I traveled by plane, train and automobile.

Growing into my third decade on earth, i am finally starting to appriciate the diversity and exoticness that Canada really has to offer. By diversity, i do mean the different cultures that make up Canada, this is a huge part of the idenity of Canada. I also mean that all the provinces and cites across Canada are different too. They are like ancient Greece: a bunch of cities, all with their own themes and stories and problems.... but somehow united as a nation whole.

Today I happen to be in Regina, the provincial capital of Saskatchewan. As I move through the streets of Regina, I notice the local scenery. Here the city is filled with trees. Streets lined with Elm. The whole city is elm. THis is different than ottawa, where there are no trees, and different form Toronto where singular trees thrive amidst their perfectly planed cement habitat. And its different because Regina made a big mistake. Sure it looks nice to have a uniform city of elm. but now there is trouble. And you'd think they would have known, being in a province known for its vast horizon of farming culture.

If you dont know, most farms are opperated under a monoculture. this means that if they plant corn, they plant corn. the whole feild is corn. the benifits of this is that you get a hell of a lot of corn at harvist, the bad news is your crops are more suseptible to desease and infestation.

All the trees in Regina are lines with this sticky plastic right at shoulder height. This is to stop the infestation of larva that come from the ground, climb the tree and eat the elms to death. Its kinda ugly and there are insects all over it. It's not so bad, except that in recent years, they have a new epidemic.

Dutch Elm Disease.

Here the local bilboards are of two pictures of elm trees, one healthy the other damaged. "We can prevent Elm Disease" it says.

The reason i wrote all that to tell you about a billboard is because i find it funny. In ottawa, billboards have spotted bananas warning us of disease we may get, but here in Regina the City is very concerned of the look of the city. They recently also renovated an enitire lake to be more beautiful. And beautiful it is. You know, actually Regina is a fine city. Maybe Ottawa could use a little bit of a make over. We could stand to care more about our look. Regina has this brand. Sure Ottawa has a brand. The parlement. Granted the parlement itself is under construction, but there is only so many picture you can take of this. the rest of the city is crap. you turn a corner, and boom, you are in crap town. I think ottawa should stop expanding and start amiliorating its city.