My husband and I used to enjoy walking through the Canadian Tulip Festival — the flowers were beautiful, the setting (Rideau Canal and Dow’s Lake background) more than appropriate. But now, because of our age, and poor municipal planning, when it comes to available parking, we are forced to enjoy the tulips only from our car windows.
My 93-year-old husband uses a walker and his 77-year-old wife (me), is not exactly in her prime, so we have, even though we display a handicap sign on our car’s dashboard, poor prospects when it comes to finding a place to park our car. It seems there is one, quite expensive, parking lot. Other than that, when we are able to find street parking, we are usually faced with a long walk to get to the tulips, which, in our case, has become impossible.
For quite a few years now, we have not been able to enjoy our usual leisurely stroll through the beautiful tulips, and why? Just because of our age and health. Why is the festival limited only to those who are able to make the long walk there in order to enjoy it?
It feels like people in our circumstances are being discriminated against, and that is just plain not fair.
Carole E. Kennedy, Ottawa
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