Canadian Musings

The motto of the Boy Scouts is, "Be Prepared."

And finally, the Canadian Government is acknowledging that it's important to be prepared, with a new television ad recommending that every household have an emergency kit with the necessities for about 72 hours (three days).

The list for a basic kit includes staples such as food and water, candles, and tools to use them (e.g. manual can opener, sturdy candle holder). Warm sleeping gear is recommended, but little is said about how one might replace a lost source of heat in the winter: candle heat will only go so far in a Canadian winter.

It's a start, but I'd be much more content with a much broader emergency plan, where neighbourhoods have a designated shelter powered with well-supplied generators and containing either an emergency stock of food and water (inventoried and re-sold through various stores over time to maintain freshness of stock), or contracted emergency access to food and water from local suppliers.

And in a more ideal world, we might even see "conversion kits" become standard equipment in cars and homes: the ability to switch house power from Line to Local (powering high-priority circuits only), supplied by a generator attached to one's automobile.