ROTHENBURGER – The Pinantan chicken and other tales of being grounded in the polar vortex
(Image: CFJC)
WHEN EVEN winter-hardened veterans from our neck of the woods complain about the weather, you know things aren’t normal. I haven’t heard this much bitching since Tim Hortons put chicken strips on the menu.
We in the colonies still get a good laugh at the moaning and groaning coming from the Coast and over on the Island, where they’ve never heard of snowplows and winter tires. But anyone travelling from here to Vancouver and Victoria, or returning from either of those cities during the past two weeks, wasn’t laughing.
Sure, the weather looks better today, but it’s been hell for the past while. A reliable source who was trying to return home after a business trip to Victoria last week tells me that, at one point, all flights were cancelled for the day because the airport’s de-icing truck was broken. (Maybe the other one was already in the shop; I can’t confirm how many trucks the airport has, but it’s not enough.)
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops, former school board chair, former editor of The Kamloops Daily News, and a current director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He was awarded the Jack Webster Foundation’s lifetime achievement award in 2011. His editorials are published Monday through Thursdays, and Saturdays on CFJC Today, CFJC Midday and CFJC Evening News. Contact him at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Congratulations Mel, you’re giving Knox a run for his money.