The Ontario government has introduced a bill that will switch the province to a single harmonized sales tax on July 1, 2010. The Ontario HST will combine the eight percent provincial sales tax with the five percent federal goods and services tax (GST) to create a single 13 percent sales tax administered by the federal government.

In the process, Ontario consumers will have to pay more taxes on things like gas, heating fuels and electricity, and personal services like lawyers, accountants, hair cuts and taxi fares. At the same time the Ontario government will provide $10.6 billion over three years in personal income tax relief to help consumers through the transition. That includes cuts in provincial personal income taxes and direct payments or rebates.

The province of Nova Scotia has continued its annual tradition of sending a giant Christmas tree to Boston to thank its people for the aid in the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion of 1917. Relief from Boston was the first to arrive the day after the explosion that killed 1,900 people and wounded another 9,000. The New Englanders were also the last to leave.

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Air Canada will now be charging economy class passengers extra for seats in exit rows and bulkhead seats at the front of aircraft sections which provide some extra legroom. Up to now the seats have been complimentary. The option to make advanced reservations for the seats on any flight operated by Air Canada or Jazz is called "Preferred Seats" and can be purchased, subject to availability, when you book your flight or any time before you check in. The amount of the extra fee will depend on the length of the flight, the fare class and the customer's Aeroplan status. The fee ranges anywhere from $14 for a one-way trip of up to 350 miles on Tango Plus or Latitude up to $100 for some international flights.

The charge will apply to new mothers with infants who were routinely placed in bulkhead seats with a "sky cot" bassinet.

It's all part of Air Canada's efforts to find cost savings and boost profits, and it's part of a growing trend. WestJet already charges up to $15 to reserve seats with extra legroom. It wouldn't be quite so bad if Air Canada didn't pitch the fee as "responding to consumer demands."

Photo: John Li / Getty Images

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Every year more than 11,000 Canada Post volunteers, both employees and retirees, help make sure children get replies to their letters to Santa. Children from all over the world can take advantage of the program, and their letters are answered in the language in which they are written, even Braille. There's an email option too. Make a note of the address to write to Santa, for both regular mail and email, and a few tips for those letters.

Photo: Janis Christie / Getty Images

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Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are half-way through their Royal tour of Canada. It's the fifteenth visit to Canada for Charles, but just the first for Camilla.

The Royal couple has visited an archaeological dig at Cupids, Newfoundland, believed to be the first English settlement in Canada. Who knew the prince studied archaeology at Cambridge? They dropped in to see Dundurn Castle in Hamilton, Ontario, which was the home of Camilla's great-great-great grandfather Sir Allan MacNab, a rail magnate and prime minister of the Province of Canada before Confederation from 1854 to 1856. In British Columbia, the pair toured the Olympic athletes village and posed for mug shots with the 2010 Vancouver Olympics mascots.

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The federal government has introduced legislation that would allow self-employed workers to opt into Employment Insurance to receive special benefits. The Bill to Extend Employment Insurance Benefits to the Self-Employed would allow self-employed individuals to pay the same premiums as salaried employees, and after a year be eligible for maternity benefits, parental/adoptive benefits, sickness benefits and compassionate care benefits. They could opt out of the program at the end of any tax year, unless they had claimed benefits, in which case they would be required to pay premiums as long as they were self-employed.

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As preparations begin to get under way for Remembrance Day on November 11, it's worth noting that almost 20,000 of the 80,000 Canadians who died in World War I have no identifiable grave. Those who could be identified as Canadian have gravestones inscribed "A Canadian Soldier of the Great War - known unto God." In 2000, Canada created the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to represent all Canadian service people who have no known grave.

The Canadian government asked the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to select a grave of an unidentified Canadian soldier in the Vimy Ridge area of France. The remains of the soldier were brought back to Canada and buried in the sarcophagus of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial in Ottawa. Nothing is known about the soldier who is buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, except that he was Canadian, he died in France during World War I, and he was young.

Photo Courtesy City of Ottawa

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Clinics have opened across most of Canada to provide vaccinations for the H1N1 flu virus (human swine flu). Since it's the provinces and territories who administer the vaccination programs, the priorities for who will get the vaccine first vary depending where you are in the country. In general, health-care workers, people under the age of 65 with a chronic illness, pregnant women, children under five and people in remote communities will likely be vaccinated first.

To find out how the vaccination program is being handled in your province or territory, and to locate an H1N1 flu clinic near you, check H1N1 Flu Shot Clinics in Canada.

If you have questions or concerns about whether the H1N1 flu vaccine is appropriate for you, please ask your own doctor or a public health practitioner.

Photo: Pool / Getty Images

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As we approach the 91st anniversary of the end of World War I, the poem In Flanders Fields remains an evocative symbol of remembrance world wide. The poem was written by Canadian doctor and soldier John McCrae.

A surgeon in the dressing stations in the Ypres salient in 1915, John McCrae had spent weeks tending the injured and dying when a friend and former student, Lt. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, was blown up by a shell burst during the Second Battle of Ypres. With no chaplain available, McCrae performed a makeshift funeral service for Helmer under cover of darkness. Sitting on the back of an ambulance on a break the next day, McCrae looked over the scene in front of him and wrote these 15 lines that still strike a chord.

Alexis Helmer was just one of more than 60,000 Canadians who died during World War I. Another 170,000 were wounded.

Photo: Flanders Poppies
Tom Brakefield / Getty Images

Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was at Buckingham Palace in London yesterday to receive the Order of Merit from Queen Elizabeth II. The Order of Merit is a special honour awarded to individuals of great achievement in the fields of the arts, learning, literature and science, and is considered the most senior honour a Canadian can receive. A special gift from the sovereign, the award is limited to 24 living members, with a few additional foreign recipients.

Only three other Canadians have received the award: neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, and former prime ministers Mackenzie King and Lester Pearson. Other recipients of the award, which was founded by Edward VII in 1902, have included Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill and Graham Greene.

Photo: Ian Nicholson / PA Pool / Getty Images

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