Supremely smart or supremely silly?

As many of you will have noticed, J and I love posting about nuances that highlight the differences between Canada and the U.S. Some days I'm delighted by the differences, other days I shake my head in dismay. Today, I have had both reactions to two separate rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada.

In one ruling, they have declared that people who are "functionally disabled by obesity" have the right to two seats on an airplane. In this case, I'm decidedly pro-business - if you need two seats, you should purchase two seats.

In the other ruling, they have declared that businesses are accountable to their communities for the environmental damage they cause, even if the damage is within legal limits. This level of accountability ensures that the limits for what damages are acceptable are dynamic (rather than being slowly updated by public boards) and that corporations are directly responsible to their communities. Bravo! (Or should I say Brava! to our female Chief Justice?)

What do you think? Should obese people be entitled to two airline seats? And should companies be held to an environmental standard that is beyond the letter of the law?

Yet another reason to live north of the border

Some of dear readers in the good old U.S. of A. are probably grateful that their bank deposits are insured. In Canada, we have no such fear.

Not Canada.

And have we mentioned Quebec's paternity benefits program?

Another introduction

When considering starting a family, many couples get a cat or a dog to try out the responsibility of having a dependent. After the past summer of taking care of Fiorella, J and I have begun the journey toward having more responsibility together...


Profile shot


Check out those big, beautiful lips

A couple more photos can be found on our Flickr account, which we'll be updating shortly with some more photos of us.

After getting opinions from many friends, we decided to leave the sex of the baby a surprise. Since J and I have had names picked out since we were dating, we're enjoying the mystery of not knowing whether we're having a boy or a girl. We're also getting a big kick out of signing the little one up on daycare waitlists under the nom de plume, "Bébé Powers." Go ahead and say it with a French accent - I bet that it will make you giggle, too.

Have a guess for the baby's birthdate and sex? We'll find a suitable prize for the person who leaves a comment with the correct guess for gender and the closest guess for birth date and time. (Bébé Powers is scheduled to arrive on 28 February.)