ornaments

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, August 31, 2006

Winter occupation ‘unacceptable’: Premier

Premier Dalton McGuinty says he doesn’t want to see aboriginal protesters settling in for the winter at the former housing development they’ve been occupying in Caledonia, Ont., since February.

McGuinty said Wednesday he was not pleased to hear Six Nations protesters were asking their supporters for donations of food and building supplies to help maintain their occupation through the winter.

The protesters staying in Douglas Creek Estates “in some kind of permanent way, through the winter for example â that is not acceptable to us,” McGuinty said.

“Any occupation of that land, any future use of that land, is a subject of negotiations.”

An appeal on a website set up for the Six Nations protesters calls for donations of food, warm clothing, building supplies and money to help continue the occupation in Caledonia through the winter.

Janie Jamieson, a spokeswoman for the protesters, said Tuesday they hope to finish the construction of 11 half-built homes if they get the donated building supplies. (Source: CBC News) (updated August 8, 2026)

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In my last blog entry I railed against rubberneck news, or useless news which becomes widely known and discussed among the masses. Here’s my ongoing useless rant against useless things in the world: icicle lights.

For over 5 years I’ve obsessed against those white dangling icicle lights, especially when homeowners decide to keep them up all year round. It’s quite ironic that a device designed to light up and beautify a house for the festive Christmas season at nighttime can actually do the complete opposite during the daytime making a house or window look absolutely hideous. Pretty…

What’s worse is when people think they can get away with decking their house for Christmas and leave the lights up until they actually fall off, or disintegrate. Venture about in any Canadian city and it won’t take long to find a house at the end of August decked out with drooping icicle lights. Go through the real estate pages and you may come across a few houses for sale pictured with the decorations still up as if they make for a nice selling feature.

Through the years I’ve done the following cartoons:

If you’re ever inclined to send a message to a neighbour who thinks celebrating Christmas is a year round thing I’ve given you a licence to make it known to those people that their decorations are ruining your property values: