Peterborough Native Phil Davies Enters Song Into CBC's Hockey Night In Canada Song Quest

Peterborough native Phil Davies is on a quest, a Song Quest to be exact. The St. Peter's Secondary School grad has entered his latest tune "Rise Up" into CBC's Song Quest for the chance to record a studio version with Joel Plaskett to be aired in prime time during one of the iconic montages that precede Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts. If Davies wins, he'll also be flown out to Lloydminster, Alberta where he will get to play his tune live during the Scotiabank Hockey Night in Canada concert (the same event that Peterborough had the honour of hosting last February).

Paul Pengelly of The Vanishers provides vocals on his track while Davies plays guitar, bass and percussions. "Rise Up" is about "living life to the fullest, no matter the cards that you have been dealt" and was inspired by the last conversation Davies had with his dad George before he passed away last year. Davies currently lives in Guelph but still has strong ties to the city; his brother Mike Davies is a sports writer for Peterborough Examiner.

Contestants have until November 20th to submit their songs and then the first round of voting will begin on the 23rd.

The winning song will be selected in part by the fans and also by celebrity judges that include Joel Plaskett, Theo Fleury, P.J. Stock, Chantal Kreviazuk and Sara Quin—all of whom have been recent guests in Davies' hometown of Peterborough:
• Plaskett opened up this year's Peterborough Folk Festival at Market Hall in August.
• Fleury strolled through Peterborough in May with his courageous Victor Walk.
• P.J. was here in February as part of the Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada festivities.
• Kreviazuk has played Peterborough several times and was here last March when her husband Raine Maida hit The Venue's stage with Our Lady Peace—the first time the band had played Peterborough in 18 years.
• Sara Quin has not played Peterborough lately but fun fact: the twin sister duo Tegan and Sara did play The Trasheteria about 10 years ago (November 2nd, 2003).

You can check out Phil Davies' entry "Rise Up" here, and don't forget that voting begins November 23rd!

—PTBOCanada's Scott Arnold

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Why I'm Participating On PTBOCanada.com Movember Team

The hairiest month of the year has finally arrived! Movember is a month that many men can’t wait for. As most of you know, this is a month dedicated to raising awareness and funds for mental health initiatives and to help battle prostate cancer.

To some, Movember is simply an excuse to grow the best duster possible and to wear it with pride. To others, such as myself, Movember means quite a bit more. Though I do enjoy the task of growing as good a moustache as possible, which I am terrible at by the way, it is the raising funds and awareness aspect that I take more seriously.

Though my immediate family has been relatively unscathed by cancer, I know many others that haven’t had such good fortune. Thankfully due to early detection, many of these people have beaten the odds and the cancer itself. I know this was only possible due to the research that doctors have been able to perform thanks in part to raised funds. I know they appreciate it when people take action to raise funds to further study and hopefully find more ways to treat and beat such a prominent cancer in today’s world.

So, as much fun as Movember can be for many Mo Bro’s and also Mo Sista’s, I ask that you not just grow a moustache for the fun of it, but that you attempt to make a difference by raising awareness and money for a worthy cause.

Prostate Cancer might not impact anyone in your family, but odds are at some point it will affect someone you know. The more money raised, the better our chances become of finding a way to beat it!

If you’d like to join our PTBOCanada.com team, we would love to have you on board. Or if you would like to donate to us, that would also be appreciated! Every donation counts in this ongoing battle! Together we can change the face of men’s health.

Find our PTBOCanada.com team here.

—by Aaron Elliott 

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PTBOCanada Christmas Party December 5th At ARIA In Downtown Peterborough

We're excited to formally announce the PTBOCanada.com Inaugural Christmas Party! It takes place at ARIA Thursday, December 5th starting at 8 p.m., so mark it on your calendars! This is a community event, and no tickets are required to be admitted—invite your friends, family, colleagues. Peterborough love. Members of Kawartha Food Share will be at the door accepting cash and food donations, as so many are in need in this community. There will be a PMZ red carpet—you're all VIP!—a photobooth (with mistletoes!) and much much much more. Who knows, even Santa may show up! Spread the word!!

If you'd like more deets on the party, or want to be involved in some capacity, email here.

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Column 4: Dating In The City With Match Me Peterborough's Rebecca Cooper

COLUMN 4 TOPIC: Choosing your Life Partner wisely.

The person you decide to marry is someone you should be able to imagine yourself beside in your 89th year, sitting on your front veranda enjoying tea, good conversation and the company of each other.

A relationship is not like buying a new shirt, one that you will surely grow out of and end up throwing out when it no longer fits you the way it once did.

When it comes to finding a partner to spend your life with, it’s important to be selective, as this will very well be one of the most important decisions you will ever be a part of. Finding someone to love, encourage and emotionally support you is something that each and every one of us deserves as human beings.

There is a special gift that we have all received in life: it is that we have all seen or been a part of a challenging relationship. There is a lot that we can take from that, most importantly it is about understanding that every day and in every decision we are the ones that make a choice.

Life is too precious to not pay attention to your happiness. When you find that special person you will know, make sure you enjoy every second of the ups and downs, live consciously and passionately.

Rebecca Cooper's dating column appears bi-weekly on PTBOCanada.com. Click here to learn more about Rebecca Cooper's Match Me Peterborough. Sign up here for her newsletter, "Like" her Facebook page, follow her on Twitter, check out her website, email her here or call 1.877.553.8883.

Email here for deets on getting Featured columns on PTBOCanada.com.

Tweed & Hickory Ladies Wear is Closing Downtown

Tweed & Hickory Ladies Wear at 351A George Street North is closing. Drop on in for final sale pricing...

• Mon-Thurs: 9:30-5:30
• Fri: 9:30-8:00
• Sat: 9:30-5:30 

[Contributed by PtboCanada's Evan Holt]

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PTBOCanada Review: Every House Is Haunted By Peterborough Author Ian Rogers

If you’re looking for a spine-tingling book to sit down with on a candle-lit All Hallows’ Eve, try local Peterborough author Ian Rogers’ collection of short stories, Every House Is Haunted.

While it can be found in the Horror section of bookstores, I found the stories to be more supernatural. Each story had a twist that took ordinary regular day-to-day events and shifted reality ever so slightly. You won't look at your cat, a house in the woods or even a school the same way after reading these stories.

Ian also has a gift for adjectives and had no shortage of different ways to characterize people or things. His work hasn't gone unnoticed. “The House on Ashley Avenue” short short which is included in this book was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award in the novelette category, selected by Ellen Datlow to be included in The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 5. Also, "Aces" has been selected for Imaginarium 2013: The Best Canadian Speculative Fiction.

Ian loves Peterborough and is a huge fan of the growing restaurant food selection. I had the opportunity to go for coffee with Ian and I asked him if Peterborough provided any inspiration for any of his stories. He mentioned that the short story "The Candle" is entirely set in a house he used to rent on McDonnel Street, and even is inspired from scented candles that they light, and conversations he had with his wife about "who was going to go blow out the candle". He found there to be very human elements to the story and enjoyed making reference to Peterborough landmarks (one being the now closed I See France lingerie store).

There are a couple copies left of Every House Is Haunted at Chapters at the time of writing (one of them is even signed by Ian himself) and you can purchase them online to read as well.

[Contributed by PtboCanada's Evan Holt]

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Spanky's Epic Movember Ping Pong Tournament November 16th

It's the annual sporting event everyone talks about, with some of the best double's ping pong players from Peterborough and the Kawarthas participating. And all the proceeds go to a great cause, Movember! Enter now, with tix available at Spanky's on Hunter!!

Find a cat and start practising...  

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Habitat For Humanity Peterborough's Fly Anywhere In The World

Habitat for Humanity Peterborough & Kawartha Region has an amazing initiative running now until November 24th! There are two prizes available: two economy class airline tickets to anywhere in the world Air Canada flies, and two economy class tickets to anywhere in North America (including sun destinations) Air Canada flies. Tickets can be purchased for only $10 at the Habitat for Humanity office located at 161 Sherbrooke Street in Peterborough. They are only selling 3,000 tickets—so your odds of winning are higher—with all of the proceeds benefiting their build projects.

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Best Thing Ever: Peterborough Girl Sarah Edge Celebrating Her 10th Anniversary With New Heart By Hosting Blood Clinic

Sarah Edge was only six weeks old when she first begin experiencing heart problems. By the time she was 15 months, and her health in severe decline, she was placed on a heart transplant waiting list. Her family was afraid Sarah would not make it, and she was down to only 15 pounds. After weeks on the waiting list, Sarah’s mother received the miracle call that the family had been waiting for: A heart had been found!

At 18 months old, Sarah received the heart transplant she so desperately needed. Throughout her treatment, she also needed 66 units of blood products to help beat the odds that were not in her favour.

Ten years later after her miracle heart transplant and the generosity of blood donors, Sarah is giving back. In celebration of her post-transplant anniversary, the 11-year-old from Peterborough hopes that the blood donor clinic she and her family are organizing will bring out donors willing to help save the lives of children like her.

Sarah’s Celebratory Clinic is Tuesday, November 5th from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at  Peterborough Blood Donor Clinic (55 George St. at the corner of George and Perry St.). Members of the community are encouraged to come out and support Sarah and other children in need of blood and blood products, as well as organs. Call 1 888 2 Donate (1-888-236-283) or go online to Blood.ca to book an appointment to donate blood. In addition, it takes only minutes to register to be an organ or tissue donor. Visit Beadonor.ca to find out how.

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PTBOCanada Pics & Coverage: Peterborough Cycling Summit 2013

The Third Annual Peterborough Cycling Summit was held on Friday (October 25th) at the Holiday Inn and featured afternoon workshops to do with cycling both here in Peterborough and the Kawarthas, and stretching throughout the province. Although we couldn't attend all of the workshops, here is a look into a few of them...

Cycle Touring: The Kawarthas and Beyond

This workshop had three speakers...

Kieran Andrews:  “Cycle touring is way more than riding bikes. It’s about quiet roads, unique experiences and beautiful places. That’s what we’re all after.” While Kieran is quite content with just heading down an unknown road to see where it leads, it may not be your ideal decision when trying to plan a route with a limited time span. His main suggestion during his talk was to use MapMyRide.com as both a planning tool and a progress meter. Through the website, you can pick prospective cycling destinations (or find ones in your own area that others have recorded) to see both via map and elevation how challenging it may be, the road type (gravel, paved, etc.) and how much traffic it may see. 

Louisa Mursell: Projects Director with Transportations Options, which is a non-profit organization that has been around for 20 years that helps to further develop sustainable transportation. Lately they have been working on tourism initiatives including cycling. Amongst their programs are Bike Train (to increase bike options for cyclists in Ontario), and Park Bus (bus transit to Ontario Parks locations).

Through the Welcome Cyclists network, they have discovered that cyclists were not fully satisfied with lodgings in areas. You can visit the Welcome Cyclists website to help plan trips, and find accommodations that are bicycle friendly and provide secure bicycle lock-up area. The accommodation must have local cycling maps or websites to help with this information, as well as access to repair tools or be in close vicinity to a bicycle shop. Healthy food and free access to water is also key as well. Prospective businesses that would like to join just have to sign up online (for free) and attend a Welcome Cyclists seminar. There are currently 65 businesses in the Kawartha-Northumberland-Peterborough area (most are in Northumberland County). 

Susan Sauvé: Talked about touring through France by bicycle. She found the hospitality very good along with growing places that have public laundry and Wi-fi (although because of the differences in power outlets, sometimes it was tricky to charge your devices). Sue was pleasantly surprised to find so many bicycle trails and bicycle sharing programs throughout Paris. The three then fielded questions from the audience about cycling touring.

Selwyn Township: Our Trail moving forward, connecting you to better health

John McMullen let us know that that because of healthy lifestyles, and the effort to reduce greenhouse gasses, trails have become a major part of the Selywn township masterplan. The four main trails are the Lakefield Trail, the Bridgenorth Trail, the Ennismore Heritage Trail and the Trans-Canada Trail, but there are also many additional popular hiking trails. They have already had public consultations—through surveys and open houses—from which they learned that Bicycle lanes were one of the higher ranked things, followed by linking the areas together.

Displayed around the room were maps of each of the hamlets of Selwyn township. John asked everyone to put a sticker on the area in each hamlet where they would like to prioritize improvement. 

Peterborough: Setting the Course

Tegan Moss from the P-BAC (Peterborough Bicycle Advisory Committee) and Peter from Green-Up are trying to create a cycling culture here in Peterborough by providing input into both infrastructure and advocacy projects.

This workshop's focus was on "Complete Streets" which is the design infrastructure and maintenance necessary for all road users to enjoy using the road safely. Each table tackled projects that are slated for construction in Peterborough during the next five years that currently do not have a design. Using cardboard placeholders, the idea was to design the layout of streets such as Chemong, Ashburnham, George and Water to incorporate access for both vehicles, bicycles and parking alike. Each game board had markers to indicate scale so each street layout had to comply with real-world dimensions. Afterwards, photos were taken and the layouts will be submitted as possible designs.

Tour of Downtown

Attendees were welcomed to join a tour lead by Susan Sauvé and Urban Design Planner Brian Buchardt. They were treated to a short walk downtown to showcase elements of the current and future design downtown, such as our new footpath beside the train bridge.

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The evening's events were opened by Donald Fraser who thanked such a passionate and growing number of attendees for coming. A message from Jeff Leal (who was unable to attend) was read that mentioned that the Ontario government is aiming for a 2031 date to both recognize cycling as a core mode of transportation and a goal to make Ontario the Number one province for cycling in Canada. The Ontario Cycling Strategy which was just recently released promotes a healthy and active lifestyle, tourism strategy and health benefits. This strategy will roll out through action plans throughout the coming years, with the first kicking off next Spring.

Eleanor McMahon from Share the Road read a letter on behalf of Glen Murray, the Ontario Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure who gave a nod to P-BAC, The Peterborough-County City Health Unit and the Ontario Professional Planners Institute-Lakelands District for their hard work. He also echoed the hopes to make Ontario a lead cycling destination.

City Councillor Lesley Parnell spoke on behalf of the Mayor and Peterborough City Council. They are pleased to support cycling culture in Peterborough and proud to promote all the health benefits that cycling brings. Mayor Bennett is a believer in the “A bike friendly city is a livable city, and a liveable city is a bike friendly city.”

Sue Suavé: The City passed a new updated Compressive Transportation Plan in 2012 which has 183 KM of bikeways in the City alone. They have $500,000 a year to spend on capital to make projects happen such as on multi-use trails and on-road bike facilities. Right now we have 55 km of the network built (30%). Sue showed how over the years our cycling network has expanded. In addition to the trails, we also now have 156 new bike parking spaces within areas such as downtown and East City which brings the total to 629 downtown.

For a sneak peek into future projects, Sue let us know about such things as…

• Ashburnham drive, which is being reconstructed in 2015 and the City is looking to add what is known as a cycling track (a slightly elevated bike lane)
• The Parkway trail, which currently ends at the railroad tracks, will continue to Crawford drive next year
• They will complete the Trans-Canada Trail; this will continue on the South side of Maria street as a three meter paved trail
• George Street improvement project will include bike lanes in both directions
• Otonabee River Trail is currently under an environmental assessment, and hopes to be extended from Del-Crary Park right around to the Little Lake Cemetery (and one day will extend all around Little Lake)
• The bike lanes on Water and George street will be upgraded in 2014

Mayor Mary Smith from Selwyn Township and Chris Bradley from Director of Public Works for Peterborough County. Mary pointed out how many County Councillors were in attendance as they are committed to building trails and do the appropriate planning.

Chris Bradley: The Transportation Masterplan was recently completed which contained updated walking and cycling processes (which are different between the County and the City). Some of the improvements to come are shared road-lanes (which are already being constructed in Smith Township), paved shoulders, designated striped bike lanes, separated buffered bike off-road multi use trails, and a lot of active transportation planning still to come. Chris shared a sidenote: that when the Public Works Department Building on Armour Road was redesigned for use, showers were added for when people cycled or ran to work. Chris mentioned that they are trying to link the communities and are always trying to consider the needs and the potential for bike lanes (and walkability of the roads). Cycling lanes are suggested for the Gifford Causeway (which runs between Bridgenorth and Ennismore) and reconstruction on Ward Street which is slated to be widened. Input from last year's cycling summit has already gone into the new masterplan. One important area that Chris highlighted was Airport Road. They are just completing the final design now for reconnecting it and the project is moving forward.

 The keynote speaker was Dr. Karen Lee whose topic was "The Role of Design and Infrastructure in Addressing Cycling and Health". She talked about how history repeats itself with the infectious diseases of the 19th century and the chronic diseases of the 21st century. Through infrastructure changes, there was a decrease in infectious diseases, however something needs to be done for our current issues. Dr. Lee displayed a disheartening animation of Diabetes trends among U.S. adults from 1994 to 2009 which also equates to higher medical costs. This trend also applies to Canadians as we aren't getting enough exercise. It was suggested that we could again correct this through infrastructure changes to encourage active transportation and greater access to physical activity. Side benefits included a reduction of infrastructure costs and job creation. Our favourite slide had some Peterborough statistics that compared 1947 to now. While our  65+ population has slightly risen, Peterborough has less people per acre, has more employment in the Service Sector, and the percentage of City's Non-Food Retail Space in Downtown has actually dropped considerably. Be sure to view Dr. Karen Lee's presentation and also take note of New York's Fit-City initiative that has promoted healthy living through design.

You can view each presentation on the P-BAC website. 

[Contributed by PtboCanada's Evan Holt]

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