Coffee Talk with Vic Dubois
Airlines
When you look at the airline industry over the years, the changes are interesting. Westjet has bought Sunwing and will wind it down and integrate it into Westjet later this year. Westjet has come a long way since its inception 30 years ago in 1994. Who remembers what Air Canada was called before it became Air Cana...
23h ago
popular names throughout the decades
What's in a name? Supposedly plenty. Parents spend serious time pondering names for their newborns. Popular baby names change through the eras..... well, mostly. Let's go back to the middle of the Fab Fifties in Canada, 70 years ago, the beginning of Rock & Roll. The Top 5 names for girls in order? Mary, ...
Mar 15, 2024
AM/FM
A couple of interesting articles caught my eye during weekday lunch hour reading. One piece from Monday was titled, "Biden and Trump pour big money into AM/FM as Radio proves vital". The reasoning behind President Joe Biden's multi-million-dollar radio advertising push in battleground states is to "m...
Mar 13, 2024
NATO commitment
The non-profit Angus Reid Institute that does independent research has found that the percentage of Canadians prioritizing military preparedness has more than doubled over the past decade. NATO countries have a commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence. To date 18 of 31member countries are at that level and Canada isn...
Mar 11, 2024
SAIL
Last Saturday I accompanied my wife who was bringing greetings on behalf of the City for International Language Day at an event organized by SAIL (Saskatchewan Association of International Languages). I'm glad I went because it reminded me that we live in a multi-cultural country. There were songs and dances with gr...
Mar 08, 2024
nicknames
There are so many performing artists who have been given honorific nicknames as a mark of respect for their significance, and the monikers "King", "Queen" and "Prince" have been applied often. The "King of Jazz" was Louis Armstrong, the "Queen of Folk" was Joan Baez, ...
Mar 06, 2024
emails
Emails, emails and more emails. I spend too darn much time sifting through emails. Some mornings the junk folder has 40 or 50 that I feel I need to scan in case there are any legitimate messages that made their way in there, and quite often there are a couple that need to be moved over to the inbox. Then I need to...
Mar 04, 2024
highest rated USA President
I don't know which is more fun to watch, the political goings-on in Canada or the United States. Personally, when I get exasperated at the back-and-forth nonsense nowadays on our federal and provincial political scenes, I take a look at what is happening south of the border to remind myself how much worse it is with t...
Mar 01, 2024
largest generation?
Say it ain't so! My generation is no longer dominant in the country! Statistics Canada says millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, have surpassed the baby boomer generation, born between 1946 and 1965. Millennials rise in the ranks is mostly due to the recent arrival of immigrants. From the mid-60's through t...
Feb 28, 2024
uncashed traveler's cheques
Cleaning out a drawer at home we found some uncashed traveler's cheques. We used to take them with us when we travelled out of the country. They enabled us to have money without carrying lots of cash. However, technology has evolved and systems that handle forms of payment like traveler's cheques have gradually di...
Feb 26, 2024
Popcorn Brain
Let's contemplate popcorn. Some don't care for it and some absolutely love it. I like it. And I'm talking about buttered popcorn with salt which I rationalize won't kill me because I don't eat it all that often. I wouldn't want to develop an excessive popcorn consumption pattern! Here's a term I just heard last ...
Feb 23, 2024
BCE cuts jobs
Here's a news story that caught my eye: It said, "Following a year of high-profile strikes and wage gains, Canada should brace for more turmoil and work stoppages this year in both the public and private sectors. Thousands of contracts are due to expire. I read another story yesterday on how Canadians are cont...
Feb 21, 2024
Family Day
I almost forgot we are heading into a long weekend. Monday, February 19 is Family Day in Saskatchewan, also in Alberta, BC, Ontario and New Brunswick. Other provinces have holidays on Monday but they aren't called Family Day. Manitoba has Louis Riel Day, in Nova Scotia it's called Heritage Day and PEI celebrates Isla...
Feb 16, 2024
CAIP
About a month ago on January 15th I routinely checked my bank account online, and as well as my pay deposit from work I saw another deposit called "Climate Action Incentive". The purpose and frequency of this automatic deposit from the federal government had slipped my mind, maybe because up to 2022 it was a...
Feb 14, 2024
internet
The internet has become ubiquitous, meaning omnipresent. It's everywhere, in every corner of our lives. You can listen to this radio station via the internet on a mobile device although internet radios that look like radios haven't yet really caught on. I'm told it's just a matter of time before we will no longer br...
Feb 12, 2024