Maybe Canadians can handle the cold

By Stephanie Clue

BELLEVILLE – With last winter being unseasonably mild and having higher temperatures, Canadians aren’t as used to a good old fashioned winter.

QNet News set out to find out whether Canadians are as winter ready as they have been in the past.

Bruce Nickson, an 88-year-old Belleville resident, grew up in Ottawa in the 1930s and remembers the winters as being particularly cold.

Students and cars waiting in front of Loyalist College as the winter storm Tuesday started. Photo by Stephanie Clue, QNet News.

“Ottawa is known for being very cold in the winter because it’s at the bottom of the Ottawa Valley. In those days they didn’t have any snow removal and just piled it on the sides of the streets. Consequently it would be colder than it would be today when they take all the snow away,” he said.

Nickson says that the clothes in 1933 weren’t as insulated and warm as they are today, “I had a coat, hat and mitts, but we didn’t really have proper boots. We had something called overshoes, which were made of a kind of rubberized material…they had claps that would go over your shoes,” said Nickson.

Temperature Chart. By Stephanie Clue, QNet News.

He said that he enjoyed winter as a kid and would get excited for the first snow to fall. He would run outside with his siblings and play all day.

Nickson said that he has noticed differences over the years between winters as a child and winters as an adult. He said that he has never seen a blizzard in Belleville where the snow has gotten higher than three or four feet high, “Winters in this area are getting milder,” he said, “I don’t think Canadians have become winter wusses, I think circumstances have changed.”

He said as an older person he hates winter because it prevents him from getting outside.

Bryan McCooeye has been involved with winter sports since he was seven-years-old and says winter is his favourite season.

“My brother and I used to play outside a lot during the winter and I’m not fazed by the cold weather at all,” McCooeye said.

He goes skiing, skating, snowboarding and sledding and participates in other activities. McCooeye said that it seems like there are more things to do in the winter.

“I can still go out and do all of the same things I did as a kid and I love it, it’s great,” he said.

McCooeye has been a level two ski instructor for the last 10 years at Georgian Peaks, mainly teaching kids from the ages of three to six. He says the opportunity came from his love of everything winter.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of Canadians that don’t enjoy the cold, but if you go to any ski hill or hockey rink, you’ll see that it’s packed with people who love the sport and love being outside,” he said. “Some people’s bodies are better suited to deal with the cold.”

McCooeye said there seems to be less snow during during recent winters compared to when he was a kid.