Op-Ed: I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

In Canada, from coast-to-coast, you won't have to dream about having having a white Christmas this year. For the first time in almost 40 years, Christmas in Canada will be a white one.

As I was trying to walk through the jammed packed, wind-swept. blowin' snow whipping in my face, parking lot at Yorkdale Mall earlier this morning, freezing my butt off in the -11C (12F) temperatures, I thought about two things: 1) what the hell was the temp with the windchill (I heard later on the radio it was -27C [that's almost -17F for all our American friends!]); and 2) what ever happened to global warming? After purchasing my last-minute gifts, I headed back to my car and heard an interesting little tidbit on 680news. For the first time since 1971, if you looked at a satellite picture of the True North Strong and Free, it'd be covered in a blanket of snow. Now, to put this in perspective, 1971 was the year that the both the highly controversial sitcom called All In The Family and the Nasdaq stock market index made their debuts. In 1971, the United States government was mired in an increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam and they devalued the dollar by a whopping 8%; Rolls Royce Limited went bankrupt and the British government nationalized it; Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors was found dead in his bathtub in Paris; the south tower of the World Trade Center was completed, and the only unsolved skyjacking case in the history of the US was perpetrated by a man calling himself D.B. Cooper. 1971 was the year that Mary J. Blige was born, as well as Matt Good, Kid Rock, Korn, Lisa Lopes, Tupac Shakur Snoop Dogg and Mark Wahlberg. A few high profile sports personalities were born in '71, Lance Armstrong, Pavel Bure, Mats Sundin and Scott Thornton, to name a few. What has all this got to do with anything? Heck if I know, my brain was still frozen when I got home and I've been trying too warm it up ever since by looking up fascinating facts about '71. Me? In 1971 I was in Junior High at the time doing, among other things, stuff that not fit to be printed here! Back to the point of this post, this year, from coast-to-coast, Canadians will all share one common thread ... we'll all be looking out our windows on Christmas day and seeing white. For your enjoyment, here's a link to Canadian crooner Michael Buble's interpretation of (you guessed it) Let it Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow. Have a safe and Merry Christmas all.