Grab your snowshoes, and head north!

AH! OTTAWA in September. The crackle of the ice, the crunch of the snow underfoot, the howl of the polar bear. What better place for a bracing four-day convention of hardy editorial writers!

Just kidding, of course. Among Americans in general, Canada may be known mainly as a source of cold fronts, but a group of the nation's best informed people is bound to know that Ottawa in September is actually quite temperate.

In the second-to-last week of September - NCEW's convention this year is from Wednesday, the 23rd, through Saturday, the 26th - the days can be warm and wonderfully clear, and the nights, while often cool enough to require ajacket, sweater, or even a windbreaker, can be beautifully luminous, even if we can't quite see the Northern Lights. The nights are sometimes cold enough for an early frost, which sets the forest ablaze in colour, but, in fact, you'll be arriving a little before the peak of the fall colours. (To be precise, the average daytime high in that week is 17o Celsius, or 630 Fahrenheit, while the average nighttime low is 6o Celsius or 43o Fahrenheit -- though nothing about our convention will be average.)

We'll be taking advantage of the incipient autumn splendour on our Friday afternoon trip to Kingsmere, the country home of Mackenzie King, Canada's prime minister from 1921 through 1949 (with five years off for the Depression). The home, which is about 25 minutes from Parliament Hill, is notable for the genuine European ruins King had installed on the grounds, and also for the seances he held there. Canada's most re-elected prime minister - yes, our most popular politician was a King - took advice from his deceased mother and from his dog, and evidently did quite well by it. We'll hear about King from Charlotte Gray, one of Canada's best-known magazine writers and the author of a recent best-selling biography of King's mother, Isabel.

Kingsmere is in Gatineau National Park in Quebec province. Ottawa is on the Quebec/Ontario border, and is often the stage on which contretemps between mainly French-speaking Quebecers and mainly English-speaking Ontarians are played out.

You'll probably hear a good deal about such controversies at the convention, from both Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Quebec Liberal Leader Jean Charest, who have strong feelings on the matter. (We toyed with the idea of calling the convention "Canadian Sunset?" But in fact recent polls suggest the separatist vote in Quebec is declining.) For the western Canadian view, we'll hear from the leader of Her Majesty's official opposition, Preston Manning, who hails from Calgary.

We'll finish up with a visit to Government House, the residence of Canada's governor-general. Our spouses' tour, Thursday morning, comes in three parts, any or all of which you can sign up for. The morning features a bus tour of Ottawa with our own tour guides. At noon, join former Ottawa Citizen food editor Kathleen Walker and the Citizen's award-winning wine columnist Peter Ward for a special three-course luncheon and wine-tasting at Clair de Lune, a lively French-style bistro in the Byward Market. In the afternoon, there's a two-hour tour of the National Gallery led by our very own art historian. All is not play, however. Once again there will be a full day of critiques, still the heart of the convention, as well as professional sessions on timely subjects important to our profession and policy debates on a number of issues, including the future of Canadian Medicare. But that's not all! Finally, as an added bonus, the Ottawa meetings offer - Montreal! The Montreal Gazette and its editorial page editor, Peter Hadekel, have kindly agreed to host an 18-hour mini-tour of Montreal. You have to get there on your own, but if you do, he'll treat you to a night out in a Montreal restaurant, where you'll hear the city's story from William Weintraub, a Montreal novelist.

At breakfast the next day, the city's two most brilliant cartoonists will show you their wares and talk about working and living in a bilingual city. That will be followed by a walking tour of Old Montreal, which features buildings from the French colonial period in the 17th and 18th centuries, and then lunch with Alain Dubuc, editor of La Presse, Montreal's largest daily.

After that, we'll put you on a bus for the two-hour drive to Ottawa, getting you there in time for the convention's opening reception, which will be held in the Parliament buildings. (Most airlines tell us there is no extra charge for flying into Montreal and out of Ottawa.) Make your reservations for Montreal directly with Hadekel at 514/987-2531.

All in all, we hope to give you a fun, interesting, and informative four days. You'll be getting a registration form soon that gives you full details. But nothing prevents you from booking your transportation and hotel (Chateau Laurier, 800/441-1414) right away. And if you have any questions at all about anything conventionrelated, give me a call (613/596-3678) or drop me an email (wwatson@thecitizen.southam.ca) See you in September! Don't forget your parka.

Copyright MASTHEAD National Conference of Editorial Writers Summer 1998
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