Source
Canadian Air Force Fighter Jet
Canadian fighters scrambled to turn back a Russian Bear intercontinental bomber over the Arctic within 24 hours of US President Barack Obama’s visit to Ottawa last week.
The Tu-95 turboprop was approaching over the Northwest Passage but never crossed into Canadian airspace after two the interception by two Canadian CF-18 fighter jets, Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said today.
The Canadian pilots told the Russian aircraft “to turn around, turn tail and head back to its own air space, which it did,” MacKay said.
“I’m not going to stand here and accuse the Russians of having deliberately done this during the presidential visit” on Feb. 16, MacKay said, “but it was a strong coincidence.”
Russian Bearcat Fighter Jet
Russian bombers have stepped up patrols approaching U.S. and Canadian airspace to press Moscow’s jurisdictional rights and access to the potential mineral wealth on the Arctic frontier.
On Jan. 27, two Tu-95s were intercepted and turned away from the Alaska coast.
Pretty day on Lake Muscoka in Gravenhurst -02.27.09
More to come later tonight…
Saturday
Behind the low pressure system is a ridge of high pressure that will bring cooler than seasonal temperatures to Ontario and Quebec.
Sunday
No precipitation is expected for either Saturday or Sunday. Temperatures are expected to stay cool.
Looking Ahead
Cold and dry conditions are expected to stay in place until the middle of next week.
About February I start to really need it to not be winter. My spouse started talk of Maple Lake when we had to put in for his 2009 vacation time and he keeps mentioning little things with the latest being that he found a great motion -activated light that would help prevent our neighbours and relatives people from falling down the hill into the lake when they pass between the cottage and the hill at night. Personally, I sort of gleefully anticipate hearing a *splash* one day and the motion-activated light would probably quash any hope of that but spouse is right– it’s a safety issue and would be nice for us as well coming home after dark.
Feb 23-Feb 28 Weather Forecast Haliburton Highlands
Overall with the exception of Monday’s high of only 17 F, the upcoming week is pretty mild. There is about another inch of snow in the forecast for tomorrow, Sunday, then through mid week there is a bit of warming with Wednesday’s high a balmy 35 F. I know that is not welcome due to yet another snow and ice melt but hang on for this:
Keeping in mind that the bar graph’s yellow line is reflective of where the the temperatures are above, below, or at normal, it’s looking like out of two weeks you’ll have about three days with normal or slightly above-normal temperatures and the rest of the time is going to be COLD. The temps above wouldn’t be so bad if they were in Celsius but they are Fahrenheit!Daytime highs of – 8 F? Yikes. As I tell my spouse, Canadians are a hardy lot. Some consolation is that 12 of the 14 days there will be at worst, some sun, and nine days (give or take) will be mostly sunny. I’m not fond of the cold but a nice, bright sunny day does cheer my spirits as I hope it does yours.
When then-U.S. President George W. Bush took office in 2001, he chose Mexico instead of Canada for his first foreign visit, and relations with Canada suffered throughout his presidency. To blame the decline of Canada-U.S. relations entirely on his choice to go to Mexico rather than Canada is overly simplistic. In my opinion it was just an early symptom and harbinger of a a serious chill in relations between the two largest trading partners in the world.
Today, the newly- elected U.S. President Barack Obama is preparing for his first trip outside of the United States and he’s going to Ottawa, Canada. This particular visit will be quite short–just 8 hours– but hopefully it can begin to set the tone for much warmer relations between the two countries which are often characterized as similar to members of the same family with the last eight years being akin to a family feud.
On the agenda is a visit to Ottawa, a meeting visit with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and select parliamentarians, a press conference, a brief meeting with U.S. Embassy staff, and then back to Washington in the evening.
It’s a bare-bones whistle-stop visit, but his administration is counting on it being enough to lift the tenor of relations between two strong and interdependent neighbors.
“Canada is a vitally important ally,” said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs when he confirmed the trip late last month. “The President looks forward to the opportunity to speak with Prime Minister Harper and visit our neighbor to the north.”
The Bush Years
Over the years, there had been exceptions to the “first-stop-Canada” rule, but the enmity between Bush and then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien — a strong supporter of multinationalism who enjoyed excellent relations with Bill Clinton and Al Gore — gave Bush’s move the air of a deliberate slight.
In truth, many presidents have visited other countries ahead of Canada. Indeed, some never ventured north at all during their tenures in the Oval Office. But in the modern era — given the massive trade partnership between the two countries, as well as their energy interdependence and the mutual commitment to NATO — Bush’s decision raised hackles. What started perhaps as benign neglect or a minor diplomatic snub took hold like a prairie fire with a series of successive gaffes.
In his address to Congress following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Bush thanked more than 20 countries for their messages of support but failed to acknowledge Canadians for their response, which included providing safe harbor to passengers on more than 200 transcontinental flights who were left stranded when the U.S. closed its airspace. Bush never publicly refuted false claims made by members of his own administration and conservative pundits that some of the terrorists had entered the U.S. from Canada. And he repeatedly referred to Britain as the U.S.’s closest ally.
In April 2002, Bush showed little remorse after four Canadian soldiers on a nighttime training exercise in Afghanistan were killed by a bomb dropped from a U.S. F-16, the pilot of which claimed that the Canadians fired at his plane.
In the run-up to the Iraq war, the Bush administration used an unprecedented diplomatic full-court press to pressure Canada, already a key partner in the war in Afghanistan, to join in the invasion of Iraq.
Bush did ultimately did reach out to Canada, visiting in late 2004 after securing his second term He even went to Halifax to thank those Canadian communities that welcomed the diverted passengers in the days after 9/11. But Canadians saw it as too little, far too late. To make matters worse, Bush’s reelection had many moderate and secular Canadians questioning whether they still had much in common with their American friends and business partners. Source
Enter Obama
While President Obama’s visit is largely symbolic, there is some real business to be discussed. Topping the list will be the future of the North American economy, especially the financial sector, manufacturing industries, energy security and trade. The latter is suddenly a hot topic for many Canadians after U.S. congressional leaders earlier this month tried to include “buy American” provisions on federal spending related to the stimulus package, a clear violation of the spirit of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The White House cautiously denounced the protectionist measures and the provisions were tamped down some, but Canadian business leaders remain unnerved by the prospect of the costly legal battles these measures would ignite.
The two leaders are also likely to discuss integrated security, Obama’s commitment to devoting greater military attention to Afghanistan and the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
Both sides are clearly aware of all that is at stake in restoring the health of the North American economy, and will use the meeting to heal wounds and rebuild a friendship between good neighbors.
Read more from GlobalPost.com.
OTTAWA — Barack Obama’s highly anticipated visit to Canada will result in a virtual lockdown around Parliament Hill and restrictions on airspace around the national capital region as the U.S. president makes his first official stop on foreign soil.
The trip is scheduled to last only a few hours on Thursday, but it has already sparked a massive police and security operation that will restrict everything from pedestrians, guided tours and cars to the movement of members of Parliament in and around the House of Commons.
Just a heads up: The weather forecast includes a predicted 2-3 inches of snow for Southern Ontario from Wednesday Evening through Thursday Afternoon.
What it looked like in Southern Ontario today, 02.18.09. In a word: snowy.
Lake Muscoka in Gravenhurst- Despite worries of the high temps. melting the ice, there are plenty of snow machine tracks.
From the looks of things, skiers took full advantage of the new-fallen (and falling) snow. This is Blue Mtn.
Different ski hill, same conditions. Calabogie Ski Hill has snow falling and skiers going downhill.
Blue Mountain
Short Term Weather forecast: Clear tonight (Friday) becoming cloudy overnight with a low of 0 F. Saturday morning starts off briskly but gains momentum temperature-wise, expect cloudy periods and a high of 23 F.
Haliburton- Head Lake 02.13.09
Long-term weather forecast Haliburton Highlands/Maple Lake area -
The sun reappears in full on Sunday and with it colder temperatures but there’s no precipitation in the forecast through Tuesday , February 17. Expect high temperatures of 15 F on Monday with full sun, 23 F Tuesday with partly sunny conditions. Wednesday there’s an 80% chance of snow of up to 2 inches accumulation. Thursday brings Isolated flurries and high temperatures around 15 F with less than 1 inch snowfall. heading into next weekend Friday is predicted to have cloudy periods and a high of 14 F. No precipitation is currently forecasted.
Lake Kawagama- 02.13.09
Is that an opening in the ice I see to the extreme right middle?
Long term weather trend for the Haliburton Highlands/Maple Lake area shows only 3 out of 14 days with snowfall and temperatures never reaching normal highs. Brrr.
Traffic at this area of Blue Mountain was kind of sparse today.
Calabogie Ski Hill does not look at all crowded, today Friday.
Kincardine Channel on Lake Huron has thawed in just the past few days.
Kincardine Harbour also shows thawing over just a couple of days.
Indian River, Port Carling, 02.11.09 mid-day
25 MILLIMETRES OF RAIN TODAY INTO THURSDAY.
Lake Muscoka, Gravenhurst mid-day, 02.11.09
A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM CURRENTLY OVER ILLINOIS* WILL TRACK TOWARD LAKE HURON TONIGHT THEN EASTWARD TO MONTREAL BY THURSDAY MORNING. RAIN IN ADVANCE OF THE LOW HAS REACHED SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO AND WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD NORTH AND EASTWARD THROUGH THE DAY TO REACH THE OTTAWA VALLEY BY EVENING. FOR MOST LOCATIONS, THE RAIN WILL PERSIST FOR APPROXIMATELY 24 HOURS WITH RAINFALL TOTALS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR OR IN EXCESS OF 25 MILLIMETRES. DUE TO FROZEN GROUND AND A SATURATED SNOWPACK, THIS MEETS ENVIRONMENT CANADA’S RAINFALL WARNING THRESHOLD OF 25 MILLIMETRES IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD. NOTE THAT THE RAINFALL AMOUNTS GIVEN ARE RATHER GENERAL…VARIABILITY WILL EXIST BETWEEN REGIONS DUE TO LOCALIZED HEAVIER SHOWERS AND POTENTIAL THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY. THE RAIN WILL END FROM WEST TO EAST THURSDAY MORNING THROUGH THURSDAY EVENING, WITH MOST AREAS SEEING A BRIEF CHANGEOVER TO SNOW BEFORE THE PRECIPITATION ENDS.
Sorry for the all-caps. I thought it best to just post this then come back and fix it.
I am in the Chicago area of Illinois* and it is raining which wouldn’t be such an issue if we did not have similar circumstances to Ontario’s- this:
DUE TO FROZEN GROUND AND A SATURATED SNOWPACK combined with the rain, parts of Ontario are to expect 25 MILLIMETRES OF RAIN Wednesday into Thursday. For those that don’t “speak” metric (myself included) that is almost a foot of water–snowpack and new rain combined being predicted.
No skiing today: Calabogie Ski Hill
Chapleau River- 02.11.09
Mount St.Louis Moonstone- 02.07.09
Gorgeous weather today. Many people took advantage of the seasonably mild weather to get out on the slopes. I focused today on the Mount St. Louis Moonstone Ski Area which is 15 North of Barrie. I have some neat pictures to share, along with some non-skiiing/snowboarding variety of the Muscoka/Haliburton County Area. Below is the immediate weather forecast and further down as you scroll is the Long term and 14-day weather forecast-outlook. Enjoy!
Mt. St. Louis Moonstone – 02.07.09
Mt. St. Louis Moonstone – 02.07.09
Mt. St. Louis Moonstone
How to get there:
Other ski areas you may enjoy:
Mount St.Louis Moonstone Webcams images
About St. Louis Moonstone Ski Area:
February 7, 2009
Mount St. Louis Moonstone is a great place for families to ski and ride together; providing superior skiing and snowboarding facilities and some of the most progressive terrain in the country. There are over 170 acres of skiable terrain to be enjoyed, including 40 slopes, 12 state-of-the art lifts including three six-person high speed chair lifts, and the largest beginner terrain in Ontario. And for those extreme enthusiasts, enjoy thrills and outstanding Super Pipes and our two famous Terrain Parks, the Junkyard and the Outback, absolutely the Best east of the Rockies. Put your skills to the radical test on our rail lines, including multiple take off jumps, battleship rails, flat-down, and c-rails. Our two base chalets offer food service and a bar. In our main lodge there’s a large rental shop with the latest top of the line gear, plus a repair facility, daycare, and boutique, not to mention lots of lodging accommodations in the area.
Blue Mountain 02.07.08
Blue Mtn. 02.07.09
Lake Muscoka (best webcam which is closest to our cottage on Maple Lake).
The Secret Service hardly make a secret of their Now the weather. 
