The OpenStreetMap for Charlottetown is really coming together nicely:

Yesterday was lunch at Leonhard’s; today it was time for breakfast. The place was empty when I arrived around 8:30 a.m. (it soon became quite busy), so I was able to negotiate a complicated off-menu egg-free breakfast alternative of smoked salmon, rye bread and cheese:

It was fantastic in all regards, but really about 3 times the amount of hearty breakfast food that any human should eat at 8:30 a.m., so I might have to guide them to create some sort of cut-down breakfast special — The Rukavina? — that’s a single slice of rye with a single slice of cheese and a smattering of smoked salmon.

The coffee was as good as it was yesterday, and I tried the espresso as well as the cappuccino to get a sense of the coffee in its own element and was not disappointed.

The first-week jitters are still there — far too much “how is everything” asking and so on — but they’re having a remarkably smooth take-off all things considered.

Today was the grand opening of Leonhard’s Café & Bakery on 42 University Avenue (next door to Shaddy’s and Bluenote and just up the street from Beanz) and, of course, I went for lunch. As you might expect there were minor bits of chaos escaping in the customer service — cash register not working right, etc. — but there were seemingly endless numbers of staff milling about being helpful, and the general vibe was cool and efficient.

I had the pea soup for lunch, which came with a couple of slices of hearty rye bread (tasty and hearty):

I also had a cappuccino, which was excellent and immediately vaults Leonhard’s toward the top of the Charlottetown cappuccino ecosystem.

They’ve got an intriguingly-bound menu that looks like a small portfolio:

Open it up and find out when they’re open (Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., closed Sunday):

What they have for hot drinks:

Breakfast (a little heavy on the eggs for my tastes):

And lunch and cold drinks:

Leonhard’s is probably more of a restaurant than Charlottetown deserves; we should count ourselves lucky that Alexandra and Axel, the Leonhards of the name, think we’re ready for what they have to offer. That they’ve set up 3 minutes from my house is a great and unexpected gift.

From Guy comes a pointer to this mind-boggling demo of computer vision. Here’s what it looked like when I tried it in my office:

You can try it yourself: you just need a browser with Flash, a webcam, and a printer (or, as Guy found, the ability to sketch).

Fido, the mobile network that Rogers Wireless acquired in 2004 has re-branded itself as a low-priced alternative to the mother brand.

Compare Fido’s prepaid plans to Rogers’ prepaid plans there is some pricing advantage to Fido: they have a basic, no auto-top-up, “anytime” rate of 20 cents/minute; Rogers’ equivalent rate is double that, at 40 cents/minute. Both Rogers and Fido charge 5 cents/KB for prepaid data.

What the web version of this CBC story about ministerial travel on Prince Edward Island cannot effectively communicate is the sense of righteous indignation with which is was delivered on the local radio news this morning.

Of the myriad traits of Prince Edward Islanders, good and bad, the most poisonous and self-defeating one is xenophobia: the sense that we’ve got a good thing going on here and the associated resistance to the strange, the foreign and the unusual. As if accepting a world beyond our borders risks pollution of the Island Way of Life.

This is by no means a universal trait, and there are many, many Islanders with minds open to the world. But still the tendency lurks in the heart of the Island identity. And that’s not only unfortunate for the rest of the world, which could learn a thing or two from Islanders, but more so for the Island: restricting the oxygen of the novel is not the way to thrive in the interconnected world.

Which is why the CBC’s “gotcha” approach to “uncovering” ministerial travel, as though finding evidence of an egregious crime, is so galling. It is the role of the fourth estate to be vigilant, and certainly the CBC fulfills this role every day. To fan the flames of the natural tendency of Islanders to be suspicious of anyone travelling off the Island, however, is irresponsible, and goes beyond vigilance and into tabloidism.

I’m certain the some ministerial travel is vital to the life of the province. I’m equally certain that, on occasion, ministerial travel is essentially ceremonial and at least somewhat self-indulgent. Which travel is which deserves scrutiny.

But regardless of how practical ministerial travel is, it is important to the life of the province that ministers travel, broadly and frequently: to remain solely inside the echo chamber that is Island politics leaves a minister exposed to a limited slice of ideas, approaches, opportunities and ways of doing things; the simple fact of being immersed in a different environment is reason enough to travel, for the openness of mind that inevitably results.

When Premier Robert Ghiz went to China earlier this autumn there may well have been practical reasons for doing so.

But, more importantly, when Islanders saw Robert Ghiz on television standing on a stage in China with his fellow Premiers it communicated, as the Premier himself said, “We need to look outwardly.” That’s an impulse we should celebrate.

Update for non-Islanders: “ministers” are member of the provincial cabinet, chosen by the Premier to lead government departments.

There’s activity at The Town and Country Restaurant on Queen Street near City Hall in Charlottetown: the lights are on, the windows are clean, and people are going in and out. Not open yet, but it looks like the something’s afoot. Nice to see after a year of being shuttered.