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November/December 2000 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Editor’s Notebook The Inside Story Feature: Alert, Nunavut À la carte Curious by nature Reverberations

Flight of family
For a young country, we have an amazing flying heritage, filled with legendary figures and exploits. Thanks for giving readers another chapter ("Canadians in flight," CG Sept/Oct 2000). I was fascinated to read your all-too-brief history of early flight in Canada, the "golden age" of flying. But I was even more delighted to see the photograph of my parents, John and Winifred Green, on the articles’ opening page.

Dad was much more than a "passenger," as described in the caption. He had just landed that small aircraft in the photo. Dad was a physicist, a research aeronautical engineer and, above all, a pilot. When he came to Canada from England, he joined the Ottawa Flying Club, and although he had a distinguished government career, flying was his early love and lifelong passion. He flew and test-piloted many of Canada’s early aircraft, right up to the first jet.

Celebrated figures like "Punch" Dickins, Elsie MacGill, Romeo Vachon and Grant McConachie were not only Dad’s close colleagues but also his good friends.

Dad died in 1984, and Mom passed away last year, so thank you for including them — albeit anonymously — in a history of which they were so much a part.

Janet Green Foster, Madoc, Ont.

Field notes
I can’t remember when I last enjoyed a story as much as I enjoyed Mary Burpee’s "Late Shift at Harvest Time" (Sense of place, CG Sept/Oct 2000). Her realistic descriptions made me feel I was sitting in the truck cab with her.

Thelma Sharp, Monte Creek, B.C.

Way up North
The article "What is North?" brought back a flood of memories (GeoMap, CG Sept/Oct 2000). In 1989, while at the University of British Columbia, I completed a paper that looked at policies for teachers in isolated schools. While trying to define "isolated," I also examined the definition of "northern."

I take exception, after reviewing my paper, to the statement: "Until now, no one has really sketched out where Canada’s South ends and the North begins." Louis-Édmond Hamelin coined the term "nordicity" in 1978, and his "nordicity index" is based on 10 criteria, including latitude, summer heat, total precipitation and air services.

Having spent a number of years in Cassiar and Telegraph Creek, B.C. — both northern and isolated places — I thought perhaps some other criteria should be considered in determining nordicity, including availability of flush toilets, number of days with frozen water lines and direct-dial telephone capability.

Kees van der Pol, Nakusp, B.C.

Shooting the lynx
I am a philosophy instructor who has one dominant passion in life, that being the cougar. Living here in cougar country has inspired me to learn a great deal about these beautiful animals over the last few years. I found it compelling that photographer Arthur Veitch was most interested in attaining images of cougars ("Shot in the dark," CG Sept/Oct 2000).

My only two regrets about your article was that it was not long enough for a cougar and wildlife lover like myself, and that the cougar did not make the cover. It is, however, interesting for me to think of the experiences Veitch wrote about and of all the photographs he managed to snap. The lynx photo certainly captured a wonderful skeptical expression, while the cougar’s endearing, excited anticipation is impossible to miss.

Vance Mattson, Cranbrook, B.C.

What’s in store?
My recollections of Vancouver’s corner stores have not faded ("Fading at the corners," CG Sept/Oct 2000). I was the seventh child in my family, living in the Kitsilano area in the 1930s. With a thin dime, I could walk to a theatre, pay 5¢ to see a movie; with the other 5¢ I could go to a corner store and spend it on a little brown bag of goodies.

At school I befriended two Japanese sisters whose parents owned a corner store and lived in the back of it. With sadness, I recall them being taken away because of the war with Japan. I never saw them or their store again.

Helen Lewko, Prince Albert, Sask.

Lightning strikes again
My daughter picked up a copy of Canadian Geographic ("Struck by lightning," CG July/Aug 2000) while I was recuperating at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, after being hit by lightning on July 1, 2000.

I was one of five people struck during a Canada Day barbecue at a friend’s farm west of Peterborough, Ont. One person died, three were knocked unconscious and came to shortly after, and I was unconscious for four days. I had to be resuscitated at the scene, since I had stopped breathing, and again at Peterborough Hospital, when my heart stopped. I was airlifted to Mount Sinai.

Originally, doctors were concerned that I had broken my neck, but that was ruled out once I regained consciousness and became more mobile. I am now well on my way to recuperating, improving weekly. I spent 10 days in the hospital. The doctors were amazed at my recovery.

As many doctors have never dealt with patients struck by lightning, I found your article of great benefit and comfort. It gave me insight into what to expect and how to gauge my recovery. Heartfelt thanks.

Brenda Stowell-Smith, Port Perry, Ont.

A province divided
I take strong exception to Joel Yanofsky’s review of the book Sacré Blues (CG Sept/Oct 2000). The statement that Quebec is "forever divided by its old links to France and its new ones to North America" is hogwash. From someone who claims to have lived in Quebec all his life, it is dumbfounding.

The Québécois I know, including many pure laine, couldn’t care less about what is happening in France. Our ancestors have called themselves Canadians from the early 1600s, long before anyone else. They respect the British parliamentary system and have had no use for, and still don’t, the French on-again, off-again monarchy, imperialism or countless republics.

Quebecers were also North Americans before anyone else. They are truly federalists at heart, except that they see Canada as a creation of the provinces, not the other way around. They believe Canada should be a Confederation, as the name implies, rather than a Federation.

This is not mere semantics. But I guess it is useless to hope for improvement when native-born, English-speaking Quebecers continue to perpetuate myths that we love to blame the rest of Canada, or that in Quebec, "everything is political."

Michel Dupuis, Montréal

Playing by the rules
[Editor’s note: This letter is one of the many we have received as part of our ongoing dialogue on Canada’s National Parks.]

I have had the privilege of spending five years working at a summer camp in Waterton Lakes National Park. Running a camp in a national park is no easy task: Parks Canada must approve changes to any of our facilities, we have to be extremely watchful that campers do not pick flowers or rocks, and we cannot carry weapons to protect ourselves against the bears and cougars in the area.

However, I would not change the rules for anything. It is because of the regulations within the park that attending or working at a summer camp there is such a special experience. The park is not overcrowded or overdeveloped, and it is such a treat to see bears in their natural environment, instead of at the local dump. For the most part, the people who go to Waterton are there because of its beauty and uniqueness - it is truly appreciated by all who visit.

I have not been to Banff or Jasper for nearly 10 years - why would I want to visit such tourist traps when Alberta still has another national park in the Rockies that has not been ruined by a lack of regulations?

In my opinion, Canada’s national parks should be about preserving our heritage, be it cultural or natural. Development within the parks should be strictly monitored, and fines for damaging the environment, bothering the wildlife and removing natural assets from their homes should be hefty.

Tannis McCartney, Medicine Hat, Alta.

Correction: In "Microbes on the march" (CG Sept/Oct 2000), the official scientific name of the blacklegged tick should read Ixodes scapularis. Also, populations of the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi have been discovered in every province except Saskatchewan, P.E.I. and Newfoundland.

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* Letters may be edited for length, accuracy and liability.