[Marko]

Many places in North America as well. I was in San Diego earlier this year, where Miramar (think Top Gun) is located, and surrounded by suburbs. El Toro in LA is similar, an there are many other examples, especially in the DC/VA/MD area.

I think it's because Toronto - and much of Canada - has a decidedly non-military self image that seeing these planes is that much more striking.

 

[kEiThZ]

^ Exactly. Even today, it's pretty routine to see fighters doing some low level stuff and even having alert exercises where they use highways to take-off and land in Europe. Heck, there are runways in Europe with road crossings in them. Imagine waiting at a barrier crossing with a fully armed jet passing in front of you instead of a train! In the US, virtually every urban area with more than 20-30 000 residents has an Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve or USAF base with fighters doing circuits involving 60 and 2s (as in Urbandreamer's picture) all day long. The fact that some Torontonians would consider this risky shows how detached most Canadians (and particularly Torontonians) are from those that defend this country.

I have long been critical of the military for pulling out of major urban centres in Canada. It saved money but many Canadians nearly completely forget the military. Some of the opinions on this thread, unfortunately, show that my fears aren't unfounded.

 

[Urban Shocker]

How can we forget them when they regularly disrupt the peace and quiet of the Labour Day Weekend?

VAROOOOOMMMM!!! WE'RE THE MILITARY!!!!!!

 

[Marko]

How can we forget them when they regularly disrupt the peace and quiet of the Labour Day Weekend?

VAROOOOOMMMM!!! WE'RE THE MILITARY!!!!!!

Ha. Imagine if they were allowed to fire a missile or drop a bomb on some old wreck anchored in the lake!

 

[GraphicMatt]

I liked Shawn Micallef's tweet on the subject:

Oh airshow stop so Toronto lefties can stop evoking wartorn refugees when they really want to say "I (me personally) don't like it".

 

[Mustapha]

In some American air shows, they make fake bombing passes and blow up about 100 drums of gasoline as the plane flies over. Sick but neat.

Reminds me of the 200th aniversary of Trafalgar,, I was in London and there was a Tattoo of sorts in Trafalgar Square. Marines rappelling down the National Gallery walls, grenade explosions ('Thunderflashes' we called them when I was a lad in HM Queen's York Rangers), and machine gun fire (blanks ) from many rooftops. We simply don't have a martial appreciation in this country.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

So shall I petition the busker outside the princess of wales theatre to stop audially harrassing my ears with his music? How about Busker fest weekend, man what an annoyance. Why should I have to walk through throngs of people on my way to the subway for the next few weeks just because the TIFF is on? Do you know the chemical pollutants used in film processing; or that the film industry is run by evil corporate giants; or the overpaid actors? Shall our Muslim/Jewish community petition against the Santa Claus parade as it overtly supports a christian view of the world. Or better how about Christians/Catholics petitioning the parade for it's commercializing one of the biggest days in their religious calanders, I mean honestly a fat man in a red suit trumps Jesus.

Imagine the calls of racisim if someone spoke against Caribana for bringing in people of African decent to Toronto; or if someone spoke against Pride for ... well you know.

People just because you don't like something doesn't give you the right to say "stop doing it because I said so!"

How can we forget them when they regularly disrupt the peace and quiet of the Labour Day Weekend?

VAROOOOOMMMM!!! WE'RE THE MILITARY!!!!!!

Ironically those military's gave you the freedom to make such asinine comments, and for the record I'm hardly a hawkish right winger.

 

[newuser2k9]

How can we forget them when they regularly disrupt the peace and quiet of the Labour Day Weekend?

VAROOOOOMMMM!!! WE'RE THE MILITARY!!!!!!

The Air Force would be more correct, but that's exactly the point. I mean, what's with all these parades and events? It's not like people like to see interesting stuff once a year, and they cause a huge ruckus! The Ex too!

Here's a beaut I took monday:

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

Shall our Muslim/Jewish community petition against the Santa Claus parade as it overtly supports a christian view of the world. Or better how about Christians/Catholics petitioning the parade for it's commercializing one of the biggest days in their religious calanders, I mean honestly a fat man in a red suit trumps Jesus.

how about romans protesting christmas because it christianizes sol invictus?

Ironically those military's gave you the freedom to make such asinine comments, and for the record I'm hardly a hawkish right winger.

that is a generalization. our freedoms don't come from the military alone. when you break it down, all kinds of sectors of society come together and are responsible for our freedoms. it would be too numerous to name them all. of course there's all kinds of sectors that want to take away our freedoms and these include military sectors. heck, the reason why we have a military is to protect us from other militaries who want to take away our freedoms. so if you wanna be be accurate, the canadian military plays an important role in defending us which lets us continue in our relatively free ways. they do alot of the dangerous stuff and sometimes have to sacrifice their lives in combat to get the job done.

 

[lordmandeep]

Imo Military reenactments are necessary as they preserve our history and remind us how are nation's future was decided in a single battle. If the British lost, Canada may be far more like Quebec.

Of course I am talking about the famous battle of the Plains of Abraham.

 

[spider]

My first air show experience was in September 1959 on my honeymoon, it was unofficial but left an indelable impression.

My new wife and I were tooling along on the Massachussets (sp) turnpike on a stretch of road lined on both sides by rows of large trees that hid whatever was behind them. The bright sunlight suddenly fell into shadow for no observable reason followed by an unbelievable roar that was even scarier until we saw the source of these disruptions, a huge military jet with what appeared be at least a dozen engines crossing above us at about 100 feet. We haven't seen a show to top that one yet.

 

[bleeepbluuup]

Air Show was great. Shows you how lucky we are to live in a safe place. Imagine living in a war zone with these things flying by all the time.

We ARE damn lucky. I have a friend who grew up in Iran and she gets panic attacks from these air shows -- fighter jets flying overhead really don't signify fun in the summertime to her. I didn't grow up dodging bombs myself, so I'm able to appreciate the air show as something fun and cool, but now I wonder how many Torontonians get freaked out by the show every year.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

did they do any colour smoke trails? good thing about being canadian, we only gotta pay for the red smoke.

p.s, my beef is that they don't do enough over the city flying. not everyone can make it down to the ex. hearing noise once and a while, especially such cool noise, is fun.

<- aviator sunglasses.

 

[jn_12]

Kind of off topic but one thing that really never took off here compared to in the US is re-enactments. I know there are plans to celebrate the War of 1812, but considering how big Civil War re-enactments are in the US, you would think there would be more interest in these types of events here, especially since 1812 is a war that we tend to enjoy bringing up. Niagara especially could do some great stuff. I think one big problem though is that the feds own and operate the forts as national sites, and because of that, the province doesn't market them. Fort George isn't even mentioned on the Ontariotravel.net website unless you specifically search for it. I think its an untapped niche that would be really cool. When i was in grade 8 we spent a night at Fort George and slept in the barracks and whatnot and it was a great opportunity that I'd imagine would be enjoyable for a lot of people.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

We ARE damn lucky. I have a friend who grew up in Iran and she gets panic attacks from these air shows -- fighter jets flying overhead really don't signify fun in the summertime to her. I didn't grow up dodging bombs myself, so I'm able to appreciate the air show as something fun and cool, but now I wonder how many Torontonians get freaked out by the show every year.

i knew someone who was effected the same way by thunderstorms. the thunder reminded the person about bombs dropping. psychological trauma is not a pretty thing. what seems completely fine for one person is a traumatic experience for someone else. i can imagine fireworks having the same effect. it's best to try to re-associate these things with a new non threatening experience. easier said than done, though.