Seasoning

As I've already written, we are in the early part of winter where I live. Snow falls almost daily now and the temperature hovers around the freezing mark. Everything has a thin white coat laid down over it and chances are fairly good that it will stay that way, with a few exceptional days here and there, until April.

It's an uneven part of the year. A week or two ago the pavement would have been either wet or dry. Either way, walking would not be an issue. This week every part of town wrestles with the decision - is it time to salt the roads and sidewalks or not?

Where I live the answer seems to be "not yet" for the sidewalks but a solid yes for the roads. Where I work it's a yes for the sidewalks in the streets leading to Parliament Hill and a no for the Hill itself. Like most things to do with the Hill, there may be some logic involved in that choice somewhere but it is, so far, indiscernible to the uninitiated.

We use a tremendous amount of salt over the course of a winter. I can't help but think of the stories my friend Cezary used to tell me about the salt mines in Poland when I think of it. In Poland there are mines that have statues, even chapels carved into the walls of the salt caverns. He says people lick them sometimes, just to see if they are really made of salt. They are.

On the coast, salt forms like ice over tidal pools that are too high and shallow to be refreshed regularly during the summer. I have tasted those as a child and have even been tempted as an adult but since Victoria dumps its sewage directly into the sea, that's probably not the best idea.

Even though I have spent nearly 10 winters in Ottawa, off and on, I cannot help but think it strange that we dump what I think of as a seasoning onto the streets and sidewalks to make them safe to travel - unseasoned they are not only bland but dangerous. This is a reassuring symbol somehow, since no matter what I may be, I am never bland. I admit I like to associate being bland with being dangerous and, in the case of many people, I do think it is true. After all, we all know what the neighbors will say when they are interviewed about the guy next door with the 35 dead ex-lovers cut into bits and squirrelled away in his kitchen freezer, "he was very quiet, he was a very good neighbor, I never gave him a second thought."

So the roads and sidewalks in winter, in Ottawa, need seasoning so they won't kill us. In the meantime the sidewalks are like sheets of glass coated in a thick layer of half-melted lard, not easy and not much fun. For the last several days I have been slipping and skidding along unsalted sidewalks and feeling a little resentful that, especially in boots with heels, my mobility has come nearly to a standstill. Snow is pretty but living with it is not always romantic.

Coincidentally, we had our first fiscal update from the federal government yesterday and it too needs seasoning. Criticized by many experts for being bland and inexact the most potentially calamitous part of the thing was one of the few things that could be considered an actual decision. No more government funding for political parties.

What this means is, the dollar and change that used to be awarded to every political party for every vote gained in a federal election will be no more. It has the potential to seriously hobble the efforts of the Green party, the Bloc Quebecois and most importantly, the Liberals - in other words, the Official Opposition. The NDP will survive well enough but the NDP is not a contender to govern anywhere except provincially.

Not surprisingly, this is being considered an assault on democracy by those who favor the opposition parties and even by some who don't. In fact, there is a chance that it may result in another federal election being called or, (even better if you are a political observer) an opposition coalition being asked to form a government.

The big problem is, the opposition has no real leader at present, the current leader is resigning and the contenders haven't duked it out yet. The Bloc Quebecois - the party with the next greatest number of seats, has no interest in Canada, they are only concerned with Quebec and the NDP - well, I just don't think that will bird will fly.

Most of the people in a position to govern the country at present are unseasoned.

In a couple of weeks the little snowplows that patrol Ottawa's sidewalks will be a semi-regular part of life. They will smooth out paths in the white, white snow and leave little sprinklings of grey-blue salt in their wake. Walking will be different, the snow will crunch and compress beneath your feet. It will be necessary to become accustomed to the snow-gait, that particular way of walking where you know you are throwing off little bunches of snow behind you with every step -it feels a bit like rocking forward on every step. It will sound like cornstarch under your boots. We will all get used to it and the little tumbles and biggish accidents will slow right down. I'll feel free to walk again. But right now, the city, the country, the streets and the sidewalks are all waiting for it to be cold enough to merit doing something - waiting on a season.