Cozy Up With a Canadian Film this Winter

Last weekend the busy awards season was launched with the Golden Globes. As you find yourself inundated in the next two months with the relentless marketing of overblown Hollywood movie product, seek out a Canadian film.

Whether you stumble upon a film on a television movie channel, rent one from your video store, or borrow from your local library (many have a world cinema section) you'll immediately sense that you are watching something previously undiscovered.

Under-stated, under appreciated, and for the most part under-watched, a Canadian movie shares a unique perspective partially derived from dwelling in our vast and diverse country. These ten films are just a sampling, but a good place to start.

Wilfrid Laurier Campus Helps Revitalize Brantford's Core

Proclaimed "the worst downtown in Canada" in the early 1990's, downtown Brantford is slowly being established as a center for post-secondary education, thanks largely to the commitment of Wilfrid Laurier University. As a twenty-year resident of the Telephone City I have witnessed the core, and collective community self-esteem, at its lowest.

The above photograph of downtown by Stephen Colwill is an accurate representation.

Earlier this week Brantford Expositor reporter Michelle Ruby talked to Laurier Dean Leo Groarke about his new book, Reinventing Brantford - A University Comes Downtown.

Read the article, and better yet, you might want to seek out Leo's book, available from the Laurier Brantford Bookstore.

Thomas Jefferson's Ten Vital Principles to Live By

I just came across a slip of paper (source unknown) that lists 10 vial principles to live by, included in Thomas Jefferson's "Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life."

I thought they would be better published here, than lost again at the bottom of a desk drawer.

1. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.

3. Never spend your money before you have it.

4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.

5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.

6. We never repent of having eaten too little.

7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.

8. How much pain have cost us the evils which never have happened.

9. Take things always by their smooth handle.

10. When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.

Helping to Preserve the Planet - From Beneath the Kitchen Sink

This time of year we all make promises that we will, in some profound way, make the world a better place. I realize my limited capabilities, but the one thing I try to do is reduce my impact on our local landfill. For years, beneath my kitchen sink, I've saved almost every bread tab, can pull, and elastic band, in a series of plastic peanut butter jars. In our home it takes about two years, sometimes less, to fill a 1 kilogram container. Imagine what a small city's worth of 1 kg containers might look like? Twenty-five thousand stacked peanut butter jars would tower 2 1/2 miles into the sky!

To get started simply save the next peanut butter container from your blue box, and begin. I keep a separate one for each recyclable. (Tip: Glue them together to make a more compact recycling centre.) It is extremely gratifying when, after six months or so, you begin to see just how much rubber, plastic and aluminum you are diverting from the dump. Local groups will collect these products for fundraising drives. In the past my niece's Girl Guide troupe collected plastic bread tabs, and aluminum tabs are collected and sold to help buy wheel chairs at my wife's workplace.

So when you are resolving to make the world a better place, don't overlook the small impact you can make from just beneath your kitchen sink.