Paul Henman at henman.ca

We headed up Ottawa (well ~80km/50miles from there, but it’s the closest place most people will know) to see Kerri’s parents – it was her mum’s birthday and her dad is just out of hospital.

The adventure started on Friday, when I picked up the hire car and discovered that Thrifty‘s “anticipated total cost” didn’t include insurance, so our $100 weekend hire became more like $175 … plus taxes, etc.

The car wasn’t too bad – it was a Ford Focus. I would have liked another couple of inches legroom, but it was OK. It had lots of toys though – CD player, traction control, ABS, seat warmers – and the engine had a fair bit of grunt.

When we set off on Saturday morning the weather (in Toronto) was OK but the forecast was for snow en route, and it had snowed overnight. I thought the main roads (e.g. the 401) would be clear and we wouldn’t have any problem until we started heading onto the more rural roads. Yeah.

I don’t think we got much beyond Oshawa before the fog started to set in and (sensibly) everyone started to slow because of the reduced visibility. Kerri said that the 401 was worse because of the lake effect, so the aim was to head further “inland” and take Highway 7 from Tweed onwards. (Looking at the map now, I can see we should have taken either 115 or 28 to Peterborough and joined 7 much earlier. Oh well.)

We stopped at the Tim Hortons in Tweed [I suspect their map is a little off!] for directions, a quick snack and a chance for me to stretch. By now the road (Highway 37) was pretty snow-covered but we thought 7 would be better. We were wrong. Everyone was still doing a reasonable speed, close to the speed limit, but there were times I could feel the steering go light and went from driver to passenger.

Just as were entering Perth (I think it was), I was in the middle of a line of about 8 cars, all doing ~80kph (50mph), when suddenly the car slid left; I tried to correct it and we slid right, then suddenly the tail decided to come round and we were headed for the wrong side of the road! I had a split second to check for oncoming vehicles and dabbed the accelerator to push us clear of their lane, aiming for a hotel’s driveway. I missed it by a few feet and we clipped a small snow bank. (Checks: Kerri’s OK, car’s OK.) Unfortunately the front-right wheel couldn’t get any grip so we were stuck. Kerri got out and started rocking the car, which was working but then two trucks stopped and three guys came over to help, so we were back on the road a couple of seconds later! As Kerri pointed out, that’s what’s nice about small towns – they stopped to help, but the cars heading in to town (presumably out-of-towners, like us) didn’t.

Anyway, we made it to Kerri’s parents’ without further excitement, although there were quite a few times that I felt the car lose grip, and the ABS and traction control cut in a few times. It’s usually about 4½ hours but it took us just over 6, but we got there in one piece!

The trip back was much better – once we got off the rural (=still snow covered in places) roads, it was pretty easy going. Even the 401 and DVP weren’t too bad.

So my first real winter-driving-in-Ontario experience totalled 768km and I returned the car without a scratch … although it was absolutely filthy!

I see someone’s dropped a graphic titled “Australia – A big country” into our “dumping ground” folder; does anyone have similar comparisons for Canada and/or Ontario? Any ideas on how many times the UK can fit inside either?

Licensed to kill drive.

Mind you, the frustrating thing is that we hadn’t even made it out of the test centre’s parking area when the tester asked me where I was from (England, I say) and he asks if I have a UK driving license (yes) … well, then why don’t you just convert it? I can’t – the MTO website said that I had to take the road test, and I even called MTO on Monday to check and they said the same. The tester said he’s sure Britain was one of the recent additions to the exchange program.

We carry on and do the test anyway; he said I was a little slow at times (!) but passed me. I went inside to meet up with my instructor and do the last bit of paperwork, and the tester re-appears – he’s just checked and yes it’s a straight exchange!

As we’re walking out my instructor asks what the tester was talking about and I tell him the tale about UK license exchange – he’s surprised too, and says he’s got 7 Brits just signed up for lessons and to take their tests!

I just checked the out-sourced testing centre’s website and it does say (here):

Drivers from other Canadian provinces, Canadian Forces-Europe, U.S.A., Japan, Korea, Switzerland, Germany, France, Great Britain and Austria.

• 2 or More Years of Driving Experience Within the Last Three Years
  • If you are a licensed driver with two or more years of driving experience from one of these jurisdictions you may get full class licence privileges without taking a knowledge or road test. However, you must pass a vision test and show acceptable proof of your previous licence status and driving experience.

Mind you, because this only changed in the last year or so, I wouldn’ t have 2+ years driving (in the UK) in the past 3 years, being as it’s 4.5 years since I moved … and of course this wasn’t in place when I did move … so I couldn’t have avoided the test either way.

Oh well, I’ve got a piece of paper that says my full (“G”) license should arrive in the next few weeks … so watch out!

I was just skimming through some sites about Ontario driver licensing (I might actually convert my UK license to an Ontario one after only 4.5 years!) and saw this excellent piece of logic on the DriveTest – Frequently Asked Questions page:

Why can’t I drive after midnight?
Staying off the road when the risks are highest is a good way to avoid collisions.
* Half of the fatal collisions involving new drivers happen at night.

So what you’re saying is half of the fatal collisions involving new drivers happen during the day, so shouldn’t they be prohibited from driving then too?

Spotted via Amy’s blog, this is from the Windsor Arts Advocacy blog:

As part of the larger show at the Art Gallery of Windsor Ron Terada recently made headlines in the Windsor Star as city councilors voiced concern about the potential for mixed-messages. Checkpoint Charlie takes the form of a road sign that reads ‘You are now leaving the American Sector’ in both official languages.

[click on image to enlarge]

This sign was approved by the City Council of Windsor, Ontario for a four-month exhibition on the Windsor waterfront. It is a work of public art by the Vancouver-based artist, Ron Terada who financed its production.

After an in-camera meeting held by City Council last Friday, they made the decision to remove the artwork without consultation with the artist, the Art Gallery of Windsor, or any public discussion.

So one minute it’s OK but then as soon as someone suggests it might upset tourists it’s taken down. So what they’re saying is let’s assume Americans have no sense of humour is it?

I know politicians are all about trying to keep everyone happy (or at least the “squeeky wheels”) but if I was the artist I’d be pretty angry with the council.