The Winter that Was. Not!

The hopeful residents of Wiarton, Ontario, woke up on Candlemas Day (February 02) to some very distressing news. Whether there would be six more weeks of winter was not a big concern. The residents could not care less if winter would ever end. They gathered near the center of town.

The mayor of Wiarton stood to address the crowd of citizens. Not surprisingly, the townsfolk were very shocked to hear the news. According to the mayor, Wiarton Willie, Canada's most famous groundhog, had died on Sunday past. Willie would not be predicting an early spring or a dreadfully long winter any more.

And the people who live in Ontario have had a terrible winter. The Mayor of Toronto, Mel Lastman, for example, had to call in the Canadian Army to help his city workers clear away all the snow that had fallen in late December and in early January. Ontario, the heartland of Canada, found it very difficult to cope with all the snow.

Perhaps, with the hope of winter soon to he over, another blow to Toronto. Toronto city workers walked off the job on the same day that the groundhog predicted an early spring. On ice covered street, buses cars and people, who walk to work, had a terrible time. There were many many accidents

In Newfoundland and Labrador the winter of 98-99 has not yet been worthy of being described as a winter. There is hardly any snow and even though the ice fishing season has opened, the ice is not yet save to walk on. The Avalon Peninsula region of the province has seen only one storm that, as far as storms go, was not even a storm at all.

No snow, no ice and yes, sunny warm days in February. Maybe the groundhog, which is not native to Newfoundland, should be imported. I wonder what ne Newfoundlanders would call our very own weather predicting rodent?