Editor,

On Sunday, a friend and I travelled to Ottawa to take part in the guitar show. He travels regularly to the city, and has found that crossing over to Ontario means driving on scenic well-paved roads – better paved than Hwy. 148, which has become a test of one’s suspension system. I know this is true, because we semi-accidentally returned on the Quebec side. So bumpy and potholed it was, that conversation was difficult. I was riding rather than driving, so I had time to look around as we travelled.
The roadside in Ontario was littered with trash. No other word for it – bottles, cans, wrappers, plastic bags, etc. 

I don’t know what this adds up to, it’s just an observation for now. I’m proud of Quebec for the relative cleanliness of the roadsides, but embarrassed by the wretched condition of the pavement. Are the two things related? Maybe the roads in Quebec are too bumpy for motorists to easily toss trash out the window. Does Quebec have more environmentally-aware tourists, while Ontario has more money to maintain roads? 

Robert Wills, Shawville and Thorne