Thanks to the good graces of my host Steve, and an invitation from my symbiotic dance company, I have been in Montreal since Saturday morning. Here are some observations.

While our mobility overlords at Aliant now charge 35 cents to automatically connect a 411 call, here the call is connected for free and, to boot, the number is sent to you, automatically, as an SMS message. This is an excellent, and creative, use of text messaging. Bravo Bell Canada.

If you need to buy shoes in Montreal, go to Ste. Catherine in and around Peel: there’s a good variety of shoe stores there. Do not walk down St. Laurent or Ste. Denis, as there are no shoe stores there. I will come home with a new pair of shoes that, upon reflection, will act as an unintended walking advertisement for my colleagues upstairs.

It was hot in Montreal this weekend. Walking around the streets downtown makes me feel that I live in some sort of Amish enclave: fashion in Montreal is almost universally bold, colourful and often over the top.

Steve and I ate at an excellent restaurant, Délices de l’île Maurice, serving the cuisine of Mauritius. The atmosphere was crazy insane — the chef engaged in a 10 minute tirade at a customer who entered and sat, alone, at a table for four — but the food was excellent, cheap ($23 for a four-course meal for two) and the experience was thrilling.

Sunday was occupied by a fast flurry of last-minute computer support, fixing a corrupted Word file containing the French and English translations of a speech in Russian to be delivered that night. I got the file to give up the goods (thanks to TextEdit), and after a wild goose chase through the bowels of UQAM, found a photocopier that would let me run off 400 copies.

We spent Sunday night at Convoy PQ 17, which was thrilling in its own right, followed by a receiption for Russian and Canadian Merchant Navy veterans. As you might imagine, if you know Prince Edward Island, the two veterans that Steve struck up a conversation with both had Island connections: one had a lady friend whose parents were born in Egmont, and the other was the former owner of the Cymbria Campground in South Rustico. They both had many stories to tell of WW II and their role in it — some sad, some funny, some horrific. I can’t think of a better way to have spent the 60th anniversary of D-day.

I’m off to Charlotteotown in 20 minutes to resume regular activities. See you on the flip side.

Bruce Cockburn is playing the Jubilee in Summerside on July 5. I saw him perform at Hamilton Place about a decade ago — an amazing concert. If you are a fan (and shouldn’t you be?), this is a concert not to miss. We’re in A19 and A20.

I’m off to Montreal to see Convoy P.Q. 17 tomorrow night. I’m taking extreme packing to the next level by leaving the laptop at home. Talk amongst yourselves.

WiFi and lemon iced tea. Who could ask for anything more. SSID is formosateahouse. WiFi Access Point donated by my colleagues at silverorange.

I incurred my first Prince Edward Island library fines today.

In the olden days — before May 1, 2004 — Prince Edward Island didn’t charge fines for overdue library books. You received a polite notice in the mail, or by email, telling you your book was overdue. And you brought it back.

That was then, this is now. Today I had to shell out just under $5.00 for an overdue book and an overdue VHS tape.

As much as I appreciated the novelty of PEI being fine-free, I don’t have a huge problem with paying penance for keeping materials longer than I should, especially if there’s evidence that this system generally keeps materials more available to everyone.

And I can always take comfort from the notion that the money from my fines will be used by the library for Good.

Except it isn’t. I learned today that money from library fines flows into general revenue. It goes to pay for potholes and MRI machines and wind turbines. And, I suppose, in some small, small way, to buy books. A small, small, small way.

That’s a shame.

Liberal candidate Shawn Murphy is scheduled to join us on Thursday, June 3 at 4:00 p.m. here at 84 Fitzroy Street, Charlottetown. Like our meetings with Will McFadden, Dody Crane and Darren Peters earlier in the week, this will be an informal opportunity to learn more about the candidate and his ideas. All are welcome.

Federal NDP candidate Dody Crane is coming to a gathering here at 84 Fitzroy Street in Charlottetown on Tuesday, June 1 at 4:00 p.m.. This will be an informal opportunity to learn more about Dody and her ideas, and for us to provide feedback to her. All are welcome. Please drop me a line if you’re going to be coming, so we can plan coffee capacity.

A reminder that Green Party candidate Will McFadden is dropping by here today at 2:00 p.m.

Here’s the latest update of the table listing candidate websites for the 2004 Federal Election on Prince Edward Island. Comments below.

I’ve added new website addresses for Lawrence MacAulay and Reg Harper, and changed all of the Green Party addresses to point at their Island-based party website candidate pages.

There are now pointers to candidate weblogs where they exist.

Dody Crane’s website is being moved to a new address at Eastlink, and I’ve been told it will be live later today; I’ll update this page when it’s available online.

There are now NDP candidates in Malpeque and Egmont, although the national NDP office can’t give me telephone numbers or website addresses yet. I do have local email addresses, and I’ve sent out a query looking for information, which I will post when it arrives.

I have become addicted to the BBC series Coupling again. After renting season one on DVD last summer, I’ve found seasons two, three and part of four online. I’ve been watching all week. It’s very funny.

Wily-eyed friend Gary found this Robert Harris watercolour in the online Confederation Centre Art Gallery.

From the church, count three buildings to the left: that’s our house at 100 Prince Street. When the watercolour was painted, in 1870, our house was already 33 years old (see also this photo taken 34 years after the watercolour).

Kudos to the team at the Centre for developing this wonderful, elegant online resource. Who would have ever thought that the Centre would employ people with the job title of Metadata Technician.

I do shudder to think that our house is now part of the grade 4-5 curriculum, although I do take some pride in knowing that this will help students “identify and describe how people create places that reflect human needs, values, and ideas.” That’s certainly the effect we’re going for here, now.