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The Citizen asked a number of prominent Ottawans to share what they are thankful for this Thanksgiving. Whether it’s family and friends, clean water, or just the colours of autumn, their responses give a sense of a city and a country that is blessed.
Author Frances Itani
Francis Itani, author
I’m thankful for the optimism of spirit with which I’ve been blessed — how could one get through life without? I am thankful that I love to get up each day before six and that my energy never lets me down — or not very often! I’m thankful for the colour orange — I must be one of the first in Ottawa to run out every autumn to buy a pumpkin for my kitchen table. Nor do I omit the colours yellow and red in this season in Ontario, and in Quebec where I spent my childhood.
I’m thankful for my children and for their children. For all of the children I’ve cared for, and those with whom I’ve worked and played for decades and for those I have not yet met, but will. I’m thankful for other dedicated adults who choose to work with and support children, like John Gomez of the Ottawa Youth Orchestra Academy; like Tina Fedeski of OrKidstra, who, along with her team, empowers children through music; like the staff and volunteers at CHEO.
I’m thankful that we can learn from our blunders and mistakes and move on, move forward. I’m thankful that I have an imagination that soars, when called upon, for my work. And for the readers of my books who write and contact me to say that the stories I’ve created have touched their lives. I’m thankful for my friends across this country and in many other countries. So-so thankful.
— Ottawa author Frances Itani’s latest novel Tell, about the lives of people in the wake of the First World War in the village of Deseronto, is on the short list for the Giller Prize. The former nurse is a member of the Order of Canada.
River Keeper Meredith Brown.
Meredith Brown, Ottawa Riverkeeper.
“I’m thankful for clean water and the beautiful river that flows through our community. It’s a place where my kids (Lily, 13, and Charlie, 9) can swim and where we can catch fish and eat the fish and is an endless source of drinking water. I live out in the Gatineau Hills and we drink from the little stream that flows by us. I was shooting a video yesterday of Charlie sticking his face in and taking a drink from the stream which is pretty cool. I work with river keepers from around the world and they are working with rivers that are so polluted you would never contemplate sticking your toe in let alone swim in it.
“We have challenges here in Canada, but think about what’s going into the rivers in China. They don’t have the same types of tools that we have. They don’t have media to spread news about the pollution. But there is always room for improvement here. The Enbridge pipeline is crossing the Ottawa River and Enbridge hadn’t met the condition of shut off valves before and after every major waterway crossing so the National Energy Board announced it was halting the project until the conditions are met. So I’m thankful too for the fact that Canadians are stepping up to protect their water.”
– Meredith Brown is the Ottawa Riverkeeper. Her grassroots charity was formed to protect, promote and improve the health and future of the Ottawa River and its tributaries.
Biologist Dan Brunton.
Dan Brunton, Ottawa naturalist
“I am grateful — and I am saying this with 100 per cent sincerity — for what an unbelievably awesome country we live in. In the last couple of months it has been my great privilege to be on the barrens of western Newfoundland, and less than six weeks later on the coastal barrens of Vancouver Island, and flying over the Prairies and the Great Lakes. This is one awesome chunk of turf that we have. We don’t appreciate it nearly enough. I think we have trouble with the big picture.”
“If we have a problem in that regard it’s with process. We get so hung up with ticking off little boxes that we forget why we came up with the objectives of those little-box-ticking-off exercises.”
Within Brunton’s Vancouver-to-Newfoundland trip, his favourite find was a mustard plant a few centimetres tall called Fernald’s braya at the northern tip of Newfoundland. “It lives in about 12 places on the planet. It only occurs in these incredibly harsh, difficult, impossible-to-grow-in spots and yet there are a gazillion of them in these very peculiar little pockets.
“And when you go to look for them, in a lot of those places they say: Check with the authorities first in case there have been bears sighted. And they mean polar bears. I love the idea of looking for plants where there could be polar bears!
“It’s cool that’s something the size of your little finger can figure out how to survive in a place where we can’t.”
– Dan Brunton is an Ottawa naturalist who does environmental consulting. He is an authority on Canadian plants, and has done field studies for the committee that defines endangered species in Canada.
Ottawa Redblack Zack Evans.
Zack Evans, Ottawa Redblacks
“I’m expecting a baby. Honestly I’m thankful that everything is going well. I’m thankful my wife (Jenna) is healthy and happy. She’s taking care of my dog and my house back home (in Regina), and she’s taking care of the baby right now. Everything that she’s doing right now, I’m thankful for.”
The baby is due Dec. 10
— Zack Evans is a 24-year-old defensive tackle in his third CFL season. He previously played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
CHEZ 106 morning deejay Doc of ‘Doc and Woody’
Doc, CHEZ 106 dee-jay
“I’m thankful for:
“My beautiful and loving wife, three wonderful and successful kids and their spouses.
F”or my aging father who still has his faculties and great care so many miles away.
“For my mother-in-law who has been constant for the complete and growing family!
“For my grandson William, who I’m determined to call Will against his mom’s wishes but I have the Will to do it!
“For another grandchild on the way who has yet to be named so, for now, we call her Peanut!
“For the coolest and most talented folks that I have ever had the honour to work with?!
“Thankful for beer, red meat, pizza, and everything that spells YUM! That, of course, includes bacon!
“For music, humour, sports, news and everything that engages the mind, heart and soul.
“For even the smallest of favours and for thanks when I DO the smallest of gestures.
“Thankful for Ottawa, warts and all, a city where I was born. It’s where I met my wife. It’s where we built our life.
“For the return of the CFL to Ottawa and for the overwhelming fan support despite the, albeit expected, less than stellar inaugural season!
“I’m thankful that hockey is back for a new and exciting season and that my Toronto Maple Leafs have a fresh start (And cue the angry letters in 3 … 2 … and…..) And, yes, Go! Sens! Go!
“And I’m also thankful for my cat of 14 years (Whiskey) who, just this year, mastered the art of the selfie!!
“Hmm. through this review I see that, among the important family and friendship things, there are quite a few simple day-to-day items we can be thankful for. If we just take a moment to consider them. Here’s hoping you find cool stuff, too!
Happy Thanksgiving!”
– Dan ‘Doc’ Halen co-hosts the ‘Doc and Woody Show’ on CHEZ 106
Ottawa Senator and new dad Kyle Turris.
Kyle Turris, Ottawa Senators
“I’m thankful for a lot of things. I’m thankful for my family and friends. I’m thankful for the opportunity I’ve got, to play in the NHL.
I’m thankful to all the people on the way that helped me get here. Just thankful to have the life that I do.”
– Kyle Turris is in his third season with the Ottawa Senators and scored the team’s first goal of the 2014-15 season Thursday night. He and his wife, Julie, gave birth to a son, Beckett, in July.
Anthony Di Monte, paramedic
“I am thankful for my wife of 30 years, Lise, my three beautiful children Matthew, Alexander and Amanda.
“I have to say I am really thankful to have the opportunity to lead an organization of pretty exceptional men and women that impact quite positively the lives of the community they serve everyday and that’s kind of special.
“Not too many have that kid of opportunity in life and I’m pretty blessed when I consider that. I am very thankful or that.
“Being an organization of men and women who put themselves in harm’s way, too, the outcome of a pretty tragic incident this year turned out well. That’s very relieving, actually.”
– Anthony DiMonte is chief of the Ottawa Paramedic Service
Senator Vern White.
Vern White, senator
White says he is thankful for his sister’s health after a two-and-a-half year battle with breast cancer. White says his eldest sibling, Ilona Mackenzie, is back to being herself and seems to have got over the hump in her tough battle with the disease.
“She’s healthy now,” White says. “I hear her old argumentative self back. She wants to argue about politics.”
After his own battle with cancer in 2011, White says she is thankful for his health.
White says she is also thankful for his wife, Sari, his two grown children and his two-year-old daughter Ella.
— Vern White is a senator and former chief of the Ottawa Police Service
Chief Charles Bordeleau.
Charles Bordeleau, police chief
“First and foremost, my family and my friends. This is a difficult job, it’s a great job, but it brings about lot of pressures, meetings and community events. I couldn’t do this without the support of my wife and my daughter and my immediately family and friends. I think that’s first and foremost.
“I think second is the women and men of our police service. Everyday I hear stories about the great work they do. I see briefings, and notes and I get memos and emails from the community expressing their appreciation for the work they do. I really value what they do. They have a very difficult job out there. They are open to criticism a lot but they continue to persevere and do great work.
— Charles Bordeleau is chief of the Ottawa Police Service
Ottawa Fire chief John DeHooge.
John deHooge, fire chief
“I’m absolutely most thankful for family and friends for their health, for the time that we get to spend together over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“Being thankful to live in Canada and freedom and good jobs and all those things.
“My other family is the Ottawa Fire Service family and I’m thankful for the great work that all of my staff do everyday.
“In particular, for those that are working over the Thanksgiving weekend, for those that have to adjust their plans with their own families.”
– John deHooge is chief of the Ottawa Fire Service
查看原文...
Author Frances Itani
Francis Itani, author
I’m thankful for the optimism of spirit with which I’ve been blessed — how could one get through life without? I am thankful that I love to get up each day before six and that my energy never lets me down — or not very often! I’m thankful for the colour orange — I must be one of the first in Ottawa to run out every autumn to buy a pumpkin for my kitchen table. Nor do I omit the colours yellow and red in this season in Ontario, and in Quebec where I spent my childhood.
I’m thankful for my children and for their children. For all of the children I’ve cared for, and those with whom I’ve worked and played for decades and for those I have not yet met, but will. I’m thankful for other dedicated adults who choose to work with and support children, like John Gomez of the Ottawa Youth Orchestra Academy; like Tina Fedeski of OrKidstra, who, along with her team, empowers children through music; like the staff and volunteers at CHEO.
I’m thankful that we can learn from our blunders and mistakes and move on, move forward. I’m thankful that I have an imagination that soars, when called upon, for my work. And for the readers of my books who write and contact me to say that the stories I’ve created have touched their lives. I’m thankful for my friends across this country and in many other countries. So-so thankful.
— Ottawa author Frances Itani’s latest novel Tell, about the lives of people in the wake of the First World War in the village of Deseronto, is on the short list for the Giller Prize. The former nurse is a member of the Order of Canada.
River Keeper Meredith Brown.
Meredith Brown, Ottawa Riverkeeper.
“I’m thankful for clean water and the beautiful river that flows through our community. It’s a place where my kids (Lily, 13, and Charlie, 9) can swim and where we can catch fish and eat the fish and is an endless source of drinking water. I live out in the Gatineau Hills and we drink from the little stream that flows by us. I was shooting a video yesterday of Charlie sticking his face in and taking a drink from the stream which is pretty cool. I work with river keepers from around the world and they are working with rivers that are so polluted you would never contemplate sticking your toe in let alone swim in it.
“We have challenges here in Canada, but think about what’s going into the rivers in China. They don’t have the same types of tools that we have. They don’t have media to spread news about the pollution. But there is always room for improvement here. The Enbridge pipeline is crossing the Ottawa River and Enbridge hadn’t met the condition of shut off valves before and after every major waterway crossing so the National Energy Board announced it was halting the project until the conditions are met. So I’m thankful too for the fact that Canadians are stepping up to protect their water.”
– Meredith Brown is the Ottawa Riverkeeper. Her grassroots charity was formed to protect, promote and improve the health and future of the Ottawa River and its tributaries.
Biologist Dan Brunton.
Dan Brunton, Ottawa naturalist
“I am grateful — and I am saying this with 100 per cent sincerity — for what an unbelievably awesome country we live in. In the last couple of months it has been my great privilege to be on the barrens of western Newfoundland, and less than six weeks later on the coastal barrens of Vancouver Island, and flying over the Prairies and the Great Lakes. This is one awesome chunk of turf that we have. We don’t appreciate it nearly enough. I think we have trouble with the big picture.”
“If we have a problem in that regard it’s with process. We get so hung up with ticking off little boxes that we forget why we came up with the objectives of those little-box-ticking-off exercises.”
Within Brunton’s Vancouver-to-Newfoundland trip, his favourite find was a mustard plant a few centimetres tall called Fernald’s braya at the northern tip of Newfoundland. “It lives in about 12 places on the planet. It only occurs in these incredibly harsh, difficult, impossible-to-grow-in spots and yet there are a gazillion of them in these very peculiar little pockets.
“And when you go to look for them, in a lot of those places they say: Check with the authorities first in case there have been bears sighted. And they mean polar bears. I love the idea of looking for plants where there could be polar bears!
“It’s cool that’s something the size of your little finger can figure out how to survive in a place where we can’t.”
– Dan Brunton is an Ottawa naturalist who does environmental consulting. He is an authority on Canadian plants, and has done field studies for the committee that defines endangered species in Canada.
Ottawa Redblack Zack Evans.
Zack Evans, Ottawa Redblacks
“I’m expecting a baby. Honestly I’m thankful that everything is going well. I’m thankful my wife (Jenna) is healthy and happy. She’s taking care of my dog and my house back home (in Regina), and she’s taking care of the baby right now. Everything that she’s doing right now, I’m thankful for.”
The baby is due Dec. 10
— Zack Evans is a 24-year-old defensive tackle in his third CFL season. He previously played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
CHEZ 106 morning deejay Doc of ‘Doc and Woody’
Doc, CHEZ 106 dee-jay
“I’m thankful for:
“My beautiful and loving wife, three wonderful and successful kids and their spouses.
F”or my aging father who still has his faculties and great care so many miles away.
“For my mother-in-law who has been constant for the complete and growing family!
“For my grandson William, who I’m determined to call Will against his mom’s wishes but I have the Will to do it!
“For another grandchild on the way who has yet to be named so, for now, we call her Peanut!
“For the coolest and most talented folks that I have ever had the honour to work with?!
“Thankful for beer, red meat, pizza, and everything that spells YUM! That, of course, includes bacon!
“For music, humour, sports, news and everything that engages the mind, heart and soul.
“For even the smallest of favours and for thanks when I DO the smallest of gestures.
“Thankful for Ottawa, warts and all, a city where I was born. It’s where I met my wife. It’s where we built our life.
“For the return of the CFL to Ottawa and for the overwhelming fan support despite the, albeit expected, less than stellar inaugural season!
“I’m thankful that hockey is back for a new and exciting season and that my Toronto Maple Leafs have a fresh start (And cue the angry letters in 3 … 2 … and…..) And, yes, Go! Sens! Go!
“And I’m also thankful for my cat of 14 years (Whiskey) who, just this year, mastered the art of the selfie!!
“Hmm. through this review I see that, among the important family and friendship things, there are quite a few simple day-to-day items we can be thankful for. If we just take a moment to consider them. Here’s hoping you find cool stuff, too!
Happy Thanksgiving!”
– Dan ‘Doc’ Halen co-hosts the ‘Doc and Woody Show’ on CHEZ 106
Ottawa Senator and new dad Kyle Turris.
Kyle Turris, Ottawa Senators
“I’m thankful for a lot of things. I’m thankful for my family and friends. I’m thankful for the opportunity I’ve got, to play in the NHL.
I’m thankful to all the people on the way that helped me get here. Just thankful to have the life that I do.”
– Kyle Turris is in his third season with the Ottawa Senators and scored the team’s first goal of the 2014-15 season Thursday night. He and his wife, Julie, gave birth to a son, Beckett, in July.
Anthony Di Monte, paramedic
“I am thankful for my wife of 30 years, Lise, my three beautiful children Matthew, Alexander and Amanda.
“I have to say I am really thankful to have the opportunity to lead an organization of pretty exceptional men and women that impact quite positively the lives of the community they serve everyday and that’s kind of special.
“Not too many have that kid of opportunity in life and I’m pretty blessed when I consider that. I am very thankful or that.
“Being an organization of men and women who put themselves in harm’s way, too, the outcome of a pretty tragic incident this year turned out well. That’s very relieving, actually.”
– Anthony DiMonte is chief of the Ottawa Paramedic Service
Senator Vern White.
Vern White, senator
White says he is thankful for his sister’s health after a two-and-a-half year battle with breast cancer. White says his eldest sibling, Ilona Mackenzie, is back to being herself and seems to have got over the hump in her tough battle with the disease.
“She’s healthy now,” White says. “I hear her old argumentative self back. She wants to argue about politics.”
After his own battle with cancer in 2011, White says she is thankful for his health.
White says she is also thankful for his wife, Sari, his two grown children and his two-year-old daughter Ella.
— Vern White is a senator and former chief of the Ottawa Police Service
Chief Charles Bordeleau.
Charles Bordeleau, police chief
“First and foremost, my family and my friends. This is a difficult job, it’s a great job, but it brings about lot of pressures, meetings and community events. I couldn’t do this without the support of my wife and my daughter and my immediately family and friends. I think that’s first and foremost.
“I think second is the women and men of our police service. Everyday I hear stories about the great work they do. I see briefings, and notes and I get memos and emails from the community expressing their appreciation for the work they do. I really value what they do. They have a very difficult job out there. They are open to criticism a lot but they continue to persevere and do great work.
— Charles Bordeleau is chief of the Ottawa Police Service
Ottawa Fire chief John DeHooge.
John deHooge, fire chief
“I’m absolutely most thankful for family and friends for their health, for the time that we get to spend together over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“Being thankful to live in Canada and freedom and good jobs and all those things.
“My other family is the Ottawa Fire Service family and I’m thankful for the great work that all of my staff do everyday.
“In particular, for those that are working over the Thanksgiving weekend, for those that have to adjust their plans with their own families.”
– John deHooge is chief of the Ottawa Fire Service
查看原文...
