Or is it? I don’t really know that much about Ottawa. I’m not from here. This is one of the ruined buildings you see from the Chaudière Bridge. Booth Street.

I looked up the bridge on Wikipedia. It leapfrogs across several islands: Chaudière, Victoria, Philemon. I’m pretty sure the abandoned buildings belong to Domtar. And they used to be part of the Eddy match factory.

Ha! I remember Eddy matches. My dad used to carry them around in his shirt pocket to light his smokes. They were called Eddy Strike Anywhere matches, and my dad would indeed strike them anywhere. Usually on the underside of tabletops. I think they’re against the law now.

Local poet and writer Rob McLennan knows quite a bit about Ottawa. He’s written a book called Ottawa: The Unknown City, and he posts photos and info about Ottawa places on his facebook pages.

I’ve never met McLennan so I’m not one of his facebook friends, but the album of photos is open; it’s at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49476&id=518921687.

The Senators

Here is my annual hockey commentary:
Oh, brother! What a bunch of losers.

Liberal leadership

Probably Ignatieff, although his reptilian smile is starting to creep me out. I prefer Bob Rae but I don’t think people will forgive him for Rae Days. (But I do.)

I don’t know anything about the other guy, Dominic LeBlanc. But knowing the Libs and how they like to focus on spite and bile and warm feelings of “anybody but that guy,” I suspect he has more than an even chance of coming up the middle like Dion did. So he had better be good.

But I’m still predicting Ignatieff.

Favourite blog post of the moment

What a concept!!

Nik, a portrait painter, asks James to explain his government’s complicated scuttling of the portrait gallery. To demonstrate his bona fides, Nik includes a portrait of James.

It’s good too. I love Nik’s portraits.