Dismissive of Canada even when France still lorded over much of it, the French Enlightenment writer Voltaire famously derided the land as so much ice and snow, of little value to France. Flash forward 265 years to Donald Trump, who keeps telling us the United States doesn't need Canada, either, but it would make a fine 51st state. All those insults don't seem to bother a very long lineup of Canadians anxious to get their hands on a Maple Leaf flag flown on Parliament Hill. How long is that patriotic queue, you ask? So long, if you join it now, one of your grand-kids might live long enough to get your flag. I'm Greg Van Moorsel, your digest curator, with a reminder we're not just sharp-elbowed: All that cold stuff gives us thick skins, too. 

The 'Super Bowl' of bodybuilding, it takes Herculean effort just to get to the Mr. Olympia contest in Las Vegas, let alone win there. A Woodstock man who's overcome one big hurdle has punched his ticket to the big event, which you might recall from Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger's bodybuilding days. 

Windsor is Canada's southernmost city, so far south you have to drive north to get to Detroit. No stranger to U.S. trouble, which it has dealt with since the War of 1812, the auto city faces something completely different this time. Take a deep dive into why Windsor has become Ground Zero in the Canada-U.S. trade war.

As the school year ended, a nine-year-old boy riding a bike was struck and killed by a school bus in Almonte, in eastern Ontario. At the other end of Ontario, police charged an 82-year-old school bus driver and a courier after another boy, seven, was fatally struck in traffic as he got off his bus in London just before Christmas.

“More courtrooms, more judges and more prosecutors are what (Premier Doug) Ford and (Prime Minister Mark) Carney can do for us.”

-- A frustrated Brantford Mayor Kevin Davis weighs in, after two armed carjacking attempts in the southwestern city. 

Warned to shape up or else, Ontario has taken over four more school boards -- the Toronto-area public board among them -- for straying too far out of their lanes. The deficit-plagued London-area public board was the first taken over,  after a critical audit triggered by a ballpark hotel retreat for top brass on the taxpayer's dime. But that wasn't the only board with questionable spending.   

Not two weeks into the season, summer has already taken a terrible toll in the waters of southwestern Ontario, a London teenager's death in Lake Huron the latest of three drownings in the region where 12 lives were lost last summer.  

A reminder, Posted Ontario wants to know what's on your must-see and do list in Ontario this summer. Email us with your top pick and why you love it. Include your name, community and, if you've got one, a photo of your pick. We'll publish a digest of your favourites to share with readers. postedontario@postmedia.com

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