The Arts and Crafts Winter season kicked off last Saturday at Jack Hulland School. They called it the "Haunts and Holly Craft Fair" and it was really impressive. Booths filled up both gyms and hallways in between.

Your Blogress started her Christmas shopping with a dog whistle from Rosemary Piper; a fluffy blue scarf from Shelley (who works at Super A); and the best AntiPasto in the world. The latter, made by "Kathy" includes cauliflower, mushrooms, dill pickles, black and green olives, corn, water chestnuts, green peppers, tuna, shrimp, crab, garbanzo beans, and onions. Diarm O'Donovan sold me on the deluxe version.

The next Porter Creek Craft Fair is 9th December, at the Porter Creek Secondary School, and I think it will be well worth a look.

Land, and lots of Land. Maybe you have noticed the Copper Ridge subdivision: it just happened. Suddenly.
If you go to the Energy Mines and Resources site here you will see that indeed, it HAS suddenly appeared. In the 5 years from 2002 to 2006 (when Archie was Minister), 527 Copper Ridge Residential Lots were sold. In the SIX years previously, (1996 to 2001), 337 such lots were sold.
Four jurisdictions administer land in the Yukon:
The Yukon government now controls the majority of vacant lands in the territory; Yukon First Nations control their settlement lands; Municipalities administer lands, community plans and zoning bylaws within their jurisdictions. Whitehorse and Dawson City also control subdivision within their boundaries; and The Federal government controls lands consisting of the three national parks (Kluane National Park, Ivvavik National Park and Vuntut National Park) and one Wildlife Area (Nisutlin River Delta National Wildlife Area)

There is information on Future Land Development plans here. And just to jazz up this posting, here is a map of the proposed Whitehorse Copper residential development:

From the "Grassroots News", 26 Sept, 2006 (p12): "The fifth annual BearClan Gathering heard a soldiertell others just what it’s like to serve in a war zone. PrincessPatricia’s Canadian Light Infantry soldierDoug Tizya stood before a dead silentcrowd and told his story."

Doug Tizya, who served with Tom Eschak in Afghanistan, has returned to Canada after being injured with shrapnel wounds to his wrist and lower legs. Both men are professional soldiers serving in the 2ndBattallion, Princess Patricia’s CanadianLight Infantry based in Shilo, Manitoba.

'...Tizya concedes conditions were difficult,including the intense heat, whichsometimes got as high as 40 degreesCelcius but the constant stress of suicidebombers was always there. “Thekey to dealing with it was the fact thatwe are there as a team. The guy besideyou is what gets you through thosetough times, you train together andbuild a bond with these guys,” said Tizya.“That’s who you look to when you are down.”'

The photo is Doug Tizya with Manitoba's Ltnt Gov John Harvard at the Bear Clan Gathering.

Today, another photo of Gray Mountain. I cut a very murky Yukon River out of the photo. Who needs Reality, anyway, when you can have a bright blue sky with fluffy clouds, hovering over an attractive mountain??

The new Cabinet was sworn in today by the Hon. Geraldine Van Bibber, Commissioner of the Yukon. Aside from Marian Horne becoming Minister of Justice and Patrick Rouble, Minister of Education, there were no new members in the Cabinet. The rest of the line-up is as follows:

Glen Hart, Community Services, Public Service Commission
Jim Kenyon, Ec Dev, YHC, etc
Brad Cathers, Health, Social Services, Health & Safety
Elaine Taylor, Tourism
and
ARCHIE LANG, Energy, Mines, Resources, Yukon Energy Corp, etc.
Here he is, being sworn in: Your Blogress believes this is the right way to go. We have had too many elections where there are wholesale changes in Ministers. This will mean a much smoother transition for the bureaucracy than has occurred in a long time.

On considering the nasty reception accorded to the Yukon News reporter on election night, your Blogress has come up with an fairly decent analogy:

Election campaigns are a lot like a game of soccer, or baseball. In Yukon's case, of course, there were supposed to be 3 teams on the field, contending for goals. However, the Yukon News - a NEWS paper - also got on the field and entered the game. It made this crystal clear when the paper ran that fevered front page editorial just before the election, after it had consistently attacked the Yukon Party throughout the campaign.

If members of other political parties had dropped in on the party, they would have been treated with the respect and goodwill accorded honest competitors, win or lose. However, if you try to be BOTH on the stands and IN the game, you can expect to be met with contempt. And that is why the Yukon Party gathering was so unpleasant to the Yukon News "reporter": on Election night, the Yukon News thought it should now be treated as an "objective reporter of news". That was an act of rank hypocrisy, one that was met with honest, straightforward anger.

The Crafts people are revving up: Tomorrow (Saturday, October 28), "Hulland's Haunts and Holly Fall Craft Fair" will be open for viewing and business, between 10 am and 2 pm.

So, you can go on over to the Jack Hulland School and then get downtown for the Big Reveal at 2 pm, when the Cabinet will be sworn in at the YTG foyer.

This photo was taken in August, in behind the Meadow Lake Golf Course.

It was green then. The trouble with this time of year is that the plants have gone into winter mode and the snow hasn't got its act together. Tradition states that THERE MUST BE SNOW BY HALLOWEEN. Your Blogress is a conservative person, and therefore is in favour of Tradition. Word is, it is snowing around Grande Prairie, by the way.

As to the Magpie: I telephoned the Yukon Bird/Wildlife guru, Dave Mossop, and asked him if we are seeing more Magpies up here, or is it just our fevered imagination?

Nope, says Mr. Mossop, there really are more Magpies in the Yukon. But this is NOT because of "global warming." It seems that Magpies, - like others in the 'Corvidae' Family (Ravens, Jays, Crows) - are scavengers, and therefore like to live around humans. These birds started to appear up here in the 60's, as the Yukon (human) population increased.

Are Magpies encroaching on Raven territory, and forcing them to other climes? Nope, again. According to Mr. Mossop, Magpies and Ravens co-exist quite well.

Your Blogress has been forced to change the design of ye Blog because SOME neurotic browsers, especially those favoured by Mac Users (eg, Safari) picked up that nifty design as a series of dots. I have therefore gone back to the simplest template offered by Blogger.

One carries on.

Reminder to Archie fans: This coming Saturday, 2 pm, the new Cabinet will be sworn in. The Big event can be seen in the YTG foyer. Many people who are employed by the YTG are in a waiting mode: usually, after an election, the new guys come in and 're-organize' the joint, meaning desks are moved, people re-arranged, telephones carried hither and yon, addresses changed. Maybe this time, these nightmares will be minimal? Your Blogress hopes so.

Wendy has noticed a lot of magpies around, and wonders if they are replacing the raven, here in Porter Creek. I asked my email listees for some input and have so far received the following:

"When I was a kid I was sent out to catch magpies by putting salt on their tales. As I recall I did not catch any"
Bradley Sumner (Archie's cousin in Ontario)


"My experience was that magpies seem to be more profuse because of squawking which becomes very pronounced and continual at election times in Yukon. Especially rude are the minority, opposition, political noises made by colorful birds who seem to be slow to realize that the Election was over on October 10th., AND THEY’RE ON THE BACK BENCHES NOW.

Global warming may contribute to increase magpie activity, but one never knows – do one?"
Paul White

Your Blogress is hot on the trail of this last question. The photo of a magpie is from www.wolfsongalaska.org

In the meantime, "magpie", (the word) is a combination of 2 or 3 concepts:
(SEXISM ALERT!!!) Mag, pet form of Margaret, referring to 'idle chattering' so common when women get together... and

"Pie"... an Old French form of the even OLDER Latin, "pica", meaning pointedness ie, 'peak', 'pick.) This either refers to the magpie' s pointed beak, or to its equally pointed tail...

and , PIED PIPER - multicolored - especially black and white like the European magpie - is pied. The earliest use of the adjective pied is in reference to the pyed freres, an order of friars who wore black and white.

In the 23 October MacLeans, there is a letter from Matthew Parsons, of Fort Saskatchewan, Alta (page 11) which is relevant to Tom Eschak. Your Blogress will therefore quote it in full:

I was involved during the Aug. 3 battle ("The view from ambush alley,", World, Sept 11) as a member of the 1st Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, when four of my friends were killed.

Let me tell you about the Taliban! They are cowards. They did not ambush us at all. In fact, we destroyed one of their ambushes at 4:20 a.m., and at least 12 Taliban with rocket-propelled grenades three hours later. During the major engagement, we dealt more death upon them. If the Taliban think they did so well against us, look at the numbers. Two hundred-plus Taliban, 39 Canadians. They never made us retreat. We stayed at that school all day and we kept killing the enemy.

You should print how amazing the men of the 9 platoon and reconnaisance platoon are. The next time you want to talk about how the enemy is kicking our asses, talk to the actual ones doing the ass-kicking. The Aug 3 battle was a battle, not an ambush.

As to Archie, and the Yukon Party Government: nothing is happening on the political level, at least nothing that anyone will talk about to your Blogress. Essentially, the elected Yukon Party members are deciding upon Cabinet Appointments, and preparing for the Ceremonies of 28th October, when All Shall be Revealed.

When it comes to Versluce Meadows, Gail Johnson is waiting for the Government to settle in, and her committee to meet and identify sources of funding for the second phase.

Pretty exciting, eh?

More on Life in Afghanistan for Tom Eschak:
(On 31 August, Tom said:) that their Canadian vehicles are breaking down all the time now because they are riddled with holes and have been beaten up badly now. They need new vehicles. Tome says there are new vehicles sitting there at the main base but the top ranks will not give these new vehicles to them. Tom's company is pretty frustrated and confused over this...

(on 3 October, he told his sister:) He spoke of the Afghanistan people again, telling me how they are so nice. They don't have very much - even when things are going good for them. They are simple people and only want to run their farms in peace with their families safe. Our lifestyles are so vastly different to theirs. He told me that we are filthy rich compared to them and we take so much for granted. He noted that our problems are nothing compared to what many of them have to deal with every day.

He also noted that the women are treated so differently there - they are important as mothers and that's it. He said in Canada women are leaders, business people and he knows that they have the strength to do so much. Life is very different there.

Since this is a new start to an old blog, your Blogress thought taking a look at a beginning tree might be appropriate

Another observation from Tom Eschak
Tom says that the Afghan people will always give a little warning to them that there will be a suicide bombing or attack coming shortly. Sometimes it's a kid holding a stick and pretending it to be a gun and shooting at them. Or sometimes the kids hold their thumbs up at them. Usually the Canadian guys notice that there are no people around. No people on their farms or no people in the close vicinity. (Because they are clearing out getting ready for a bombing.) Sometimes they notice a guy with a cell phone. A cell phone means that they are usually communicating with other bombers and they are planning on doing an attack.

(Tom's mother tells me that it is rare to hear from her son: the Canadians are out in the mountains, far from any communications. The only time Tom has managed to telephone was when he is at the "base". These snippets your Blogress is entering here are from only 2 conversations Tom has managed to have with his family since the beginning of August.)

We have no idea where Tom and his company are - this is secret - but the Oct 23 Western Standard has a story on a major attack conducted against the Taliban. Code named "Medusa" this was "by all reports a tremendous success, with the combined forces killing upward of 1,000 enemy combatants, a quarter of the regional Taliban force..." Tom has said that "the Canadians were the leaders in the Medusa Operation that aggressively went after the Taliban, and they 'set the standard' for the operation....

Tom's mother, Marj Eschak, has been asked by the Canadian Legion to participate in the November 11 celebrations here in Whitehorse. If she lives in fear for her son's welfare, she also has great pride in his courage, and his service to Canada.

the summer of 2006 was a great summer...



but just wait for the next one!

MESSAGE FROM YUKON PARTY EXECUTIVE
Hello!The Yukon Party Executive is hosting a Yukon Party Appreciation Night on Saturday, October, 28th, 2006 to coincide with the day's celebrations of swearing in our MLAs and Cabinet Ministers. We've made history folks and we can be proud of our team for gaining a second mandate from the Yukon electorate. So let's get together to show our support and to celebrate in our success.

The dinner will be held at the Westmark Whitehorse, cocktails start at 6:00 pm and dinner at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $50 and there are only three hundred of them, so get them before we run out! Contact myself, Alexia McKinnon, by responding to Yukon Party Info , or calling 393-2470. Marie Cox is also selling tickets and can be reached at mariedon@northwestel.net or 668-4679.

For those of you from out of town, the Westmark is offering a room rate of $89 per night. When making your reservation with them please call 1-800-544-0970 and ask for the “Yukon Party Event Rate”. You can also e-mail your reservation to khunt@HollandAmerica.com

Also, please join the MLAs as they are sworn in as Legislators on Saturday morning 11:00 am at the Government building. Then join them again as they are sworn in as Cabinet Ministers that afternoon at 2:00 pm again at the Government Building. A short reception will follow, then it's on to the evening celebration!

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. It'll be a great evening of fun, as we share stories, reunite with friends and no doubt have a chuckle or two!Have a safe and great weekend and remember to order your ticket!
Lexi
Alexia McKinnon
Yukon Party Secretary