Home Care In West Oakville, ON

On April 8, 2024, Canadians will experience a significant astronomical event, the first total solar eclipse to traverse the country in six decades.

Credit: Alison Day/Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0 Deed

This natural spectacle will cut a diagonal path across North America, from the southwest to the northeast, offering millions a unique view of the cosmos in the afternoon. In Ontario, observers will be treated to variations of the eclipse, with the Sun completely obscured or appearing as a crescent moon, depending on their location.

Here is a short guide on watching the solar eclipse in GTA:

15 of the Best Places For a Solar Eclipse Getaway in Canada

Contents:

When to See Partial/Total Solar Eclipse in GTA

In the Greater Toronto Area, residents will witness a nearly complete solar eclipse, with the Sun obscured by approximately 99%. This occurrence highlights the phenomenon of solar eclipses, where the moon positions itself between the Earth and the Sun, casting a shadow that temporarily cloaks the Sun’s light.

Those parts areas of Oakville and Burlington will experience a total solar eclipse for a brief moment. The path of totality, where the eclipse is fully visible, offers a brief period of daytime darkness.

According to timeanddate.com, the partial eclipse begins at 2:04 p.m. with the Moon’s edge touching the Sun, visible through eclipse glasses. By 2:27, about 20% of the Sun is obscured. The eclipse causes noticeable temperature changes and sharper shadows. As it progresses, the sky darkens, affecting light levels, colours, and even wildlife behaviour. The maximum eclipse occurs at 3:19:56, with the Sun at its most obscured. Gradually, natural conditions and animal behaviour revert to normal, with the partial eclipse concluding at 4:31 p.m.

Duration and percentage of the totality of the solar eclipse for different communities across the Greater Toronto Region:

All times are in the afternoon (p.m.)

The maximum eclipse is around 3:20 p.m., with noticeable changes from 3:12 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Toronto: Partial Eclipse: 2:04 to 4:31; Maximum Eclipse: 3:19; Magnitude: 99.5%

Durham

Halton

Peel

York

Where to Go to See the Solar Eclipse:

If you are a person only interested in seeing the partial/total eclipse (not interested in eclipse photography with surrounding landscape view etc), you can enjoy the eclipse from your yard/sidewalk if the view along the southwest is unobstructed by trees or other high buildings.

Image created using Dall-E with Sun at 45 deg from horizon.

The sun during the maximum eclipse will be around 45 degrees altitude from the horizon. Depending on your location, 45 degrees is sufficiently high to see the sun from your house.

To verify whether the view of the partial/total eclipse will be the sun obstructed from your location, check the position of the sun the day before (April 7) at around 4 p.m.

If you live in an apartment, you can also visit parking lots of strip malls, parks, open fields, or high points with minimal obstruction to the southwest horizon near your house for hassle-free viewing.

Watch Online:

Total Solar Eclipse in Parts of Port Granby, Oakville and Burlington:

You can visit parts of Port Granby, west Oakville and southern Burlington to see a total solar eclipse.

Observers in these areas will have the extraordinary opportunity to see the daylight sky darken, stars become visible, and the Sun’s corona emerges. The corona, resembling a glowing ring around the moon, produces a spectacular light show akin to the northern lights. This event promises a breathtaking experience for those under the path of totality, encapsulating the awe of witnessing day turning into night in a span of a minute.

Total eclipse in shaded areas/Credit: Xavier M. Jubier/xjubier.free.fr/CC By 4.0

From Your House: If you live in parts of Oakville or Burlington that are under the total solar eclipse (see map here to verify), we suggest you see the eclipse from your house, provided your view is not obstructed by tall apartment buildings.

If you are visiting Oakville, Burlington, you can visit:

*FYI (update April 6): A new map claims that NASA’s calculation is wrong. According to this map, the edge of the total solar eclipse is Holyrood Park in Oakville.

You can always see the solar eclipse from outside your house or deck/balcony/sidewalk if it has a clear view of the southwest horizon.

Check the weather and cloud cover before you travel.

Sun’s direction during the eclipse (Yellow Line); Shadowed Area: Path of Totality. Credit: Suncalc.org

Only events which are not sold out at the time of publishing are listed:

Travelling outside of GTA to See Solar Eclipse:

Parts of Southwestern Ontario, the Niagara Falls Region, Hamilton, and cities/towns along Lake Ontario/St. Lawrence River from Port Hope up to the Quebec Border will see a total Solar Eclipse.

The case for travelling: From the most of GTA, the eclipse reaches 99% coverage, appearing nearly full. Yet, the Sun’s vast size and intensity mean that even this small difference between a partial and total eclipse greatly affects what you see and feel. Fortunately, the path of totality is just a 30 to 60-minute drive away, making it possible to take a short journey and experience the total eclipse in neighbouring areas.

If you have not bought tickets for guided viewing (like Tim Hortons Field with free solar eclipse glasses), we suggest you head to Port Hope* (nearest and within an hour’s drive from Scarborough), Cobourg, Quinte West, Napanee, Prince Edward County if you live in Scarborough, North York, Durham Region/cities in eastern York Region.

*Not all of Port Hope will see total solar eclipse. Select places near Lake Ontario to view the eclipse.

Total eclipse in shaded areas.// Credit: National Solar Observatory (NSO)/CC By 4.0

If you use 401 West (travelling towards Toronto, say from Port Hope) or other southwest-facing roads, it is better to travel back home after the partial eclipse ends so that your eyes are protected from the sun’s glare during the eclipse.

West of Toronto

If you are in downtown Toronto, Etobicoke, Peel, or Halton Hills, visit Oakville or Burlington. Otherwise, head to Southwestern Ontario, like Haldimand County, Cayuga (Toronto Motorsports Park), towns along Lake Erie, or St. Thomas, to see the total solar eclipse with comparatively fewer crowds.

Total eclipse in shaded areas. // Credit: National Solar Observatory (NSO)/CC By 4.0

There is no need to choose fancy places (tourist hot spots) to see the eclipse. Any town, village, park, or even a parking lot with a clear view of the southwest sky is good for experiencing the solar eclipse. The advantage of choosing town/village centres is that if the weather plays spoilsport, you can browse local shops or eat.

Use this map to choose a location. When you click on your chosen place, the map will show the duration of the eclipse and other details.

If the location you have chosen is at the edge of the eclipse, move half a kilometre south as a new calculation (map) claims NASA’s coordinates are wrong.

Important: Check weather predictions and plan ahead before you travel. Make sure your vehicle’s gas tank is full, 401 traffic is expected to be a pain!

Solar Eclipse Glasses/Eclipse Safety:

Buy Glasses: If you weren’t able to get free eclipse glasses, experiencetheeclipse.com has glasses available online until April 6th. According to the website, they ship every day by noon.

Observing a solar eclipse without adequate protection poses a significant risk of permanent eye damage. It’s important that you only use eclipse glasses that adhere to the ISO 12312-2:2015 standard. These specialized glasses are designed to filter out harmful solar radiation, protect your eyes from the intense brightness of the Sun, and allow safe viewing of the eclipse’s partial phases. Please visit your nearby library to inquire about complimentary eclipse glasses.

If you are on the path of the total eclipse, you can remove the glasses during the total eclipse duration (a few seconds to a minute, depending on your location) and put them back during the partial eclipse phase. This needs to be carefully timed.

Be cautious with cameras or binoculars, as their lenses can intensify sunlight and cause harm. For those without eclipse glasses or handheld solar viewers, constructing a pinhole projector offers a safe means of indirect observation. Remember to supervise children and inspect viewing equipment for any signs of damage before use.

Some wild plans have emerged to transform a 15.32-hectare tract of empty fields and a stormwater pond at the north edge of Oakville's urban sprawl, calling for a net-zero, mixed-use, transit-oriented development that looks like something Hollywood art directors conjured up for the set of a science fiction movie.

Located at Third Line and Dundas Street West, the proposed Oakville Green Life Sciences and Technology District would rise above the monotony of suburbia with 11 towers as high as 33 storeys, featuring a cutting-edge masterplan design from architects Gensler that reads as a clustered crystalline growth sprouting from the city's edge.

Queensgate Homes and Oakville Green Development Inc. have produced a website outlining their bold vision for a "world-class community" that they envision will be a sustainable innovation district anchored by the adjacent hospital and supported by its own green energy production facility with a goal towards net-zero development.

The district plan is designed from the ground up as an urban employment community leveraging the existing hospital next door, anticipated to act as an employment accelerator, with a mix of residential, commercial, health care, and educational building uses across five development blocks.

The plan intends to draw in healthcare professionals and innovators for both employment and housing, planned with a ratio of three primary and one secondary employment job for every community resident.

The project website states that the district would "attract Millennial and future generations that are tech savvy, social-media adept, enjoy live-work balance and have an aversion to car ownership."

"Companies aware of this preference choose to locate in places that support this attitude where quality of life and quality of place is a pathway to productivity and innovation breakthroughs."

Transit also plays a major role in the district masterplan, taking advantage of its position along the future route of Metrolinx's Dundas Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project that will act as a sort of surface subway using buses to connect almost 50 kilometres from Toronto through Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, and Hamilton.

Sustainability is at the forefront of the masterplan, with the project targeting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards through a range of innovative measures intended to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Several existing sustainable technologies are being explored, including passive design of buildings and infrastructure, synergy storage solutions, photo-voltaic and thermal-solar heating, solar shading devices, natural ventilation, and daylighting, all in an effort to attain a net-zero footprint.

The existing stormwater retention pond is transformed into a central feature of the community, part of a large central square that will be the main communal space.

This central square is just one of several diverse amenities and interconnected public spaces envisioned to keep the community feeling lively.

A phasing diagram details how the project would be realized in three separate phases, starting with a first phase offering 2.5 million square feet, intended to be operational by 2024.

The second phase is expected to add an additional one million square feet by 2030, with a final phase adding another 1.5 million square feet by 2032, for a total of 4.5 million square feet.

An Oakville cemetery is once again facing calls to remove a monument that pays tribute to a Ukrainian unit that was recently thrust into the spotlight when controversy erupted over a decision to honour one of its veterans in the House of Commons.

The monument in question is located within West Oak Memorial Gardens, a 100-acre cemetery at 1280 Dundas St. W. that is owned and operated by St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery. In 1988, a large statue commemorating what is known as the First Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army was erected at the burial ground, which is the largest Ukrainian cemetery in Canada.

Yaroslav Hunka, the 98-year-old Ukrainian man at the centre of this controversy, served in that military unit, which was founded in 1943 and is also known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division and the SS 14th Waffen Division. This unit was a Second World War Nazi German military formation made up of mostly Ukrainian volunteers and fought in Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, and the former Yugoslavia. It was disbanded in 1945.

READ MORE: How was veteran Yaroslav Hunka's military unit linked to the Nazis?

In a statement, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) for Holocaust Studies reaffirmed its "longstanding" opposition to the presence of “monuments and memorials to Nazi collaborators,” saying that "such monuments have no place in our society" and are an “affront to the memory of the Holocaust.”

“The monuments to the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division in Oakville and Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Edmonton distort the Holocaust while glorifying the memory of individuals who participated in crimes against humanity,” Dan Panneton, the international Jewish human rights organization’s director of allyship and community engagement, said in a statement provided to CP24.com.

“The reaction to recent events in the House of Commons clearly demonstrates that Canadians are not interested in being associated with this history, and that such monuments have no place in our society.”

National Jewish organization B’nai Brith Canada has also long advocated for the removal of this monument.

“It is shameful that some are again attempting to justify the glorification of a Waffen SS unit through a memorial in an Oakville cemetery,” CEO Michael Mostyn wrote in a statement.

“B’nai Brith Canada has been directly involved in this issue for years and is extraordinarily disappointed that, despite assurances given to the Jewish community, nothing has changed. It’s past time to remove this cenotaph.,”

Oakville’s mayor Rob Burton along with Oakville North-Burlington representatives MPP Effie Triantofilopoulos and MP Pam Dankoff have all previously expressed the desire to remove this statue, which in June 2020 was vandalized with the words "Nazi War Monument."

Almost 850 people signed a petition that was created that summer to take it down.

The issue has gained renewed attention after House Speaker Anthony Rota invited Hunka to be honoured in parliament during last week's visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, apparently unaware of his past. Rota has since resigned from his post and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized for the embarrassing incident on behalf of Canada on Wednesday.

CP24.com contacted West Oak Memorial Gardens for comment, but have not heard back.

With files from CTV News’ Daniel Otis.

Mississauga | Burlington | Halton | Halton Hills | Hamilton | Milton | Oakville | Latest News | Transit

Go buses will replace the Lakeshore West train service at three stations this weekend and some bus routes will be affected because of construction.

From 10 p.m. Friday (Oct. 27) until Sunday (Oct. 29), the train won’t run for part of the line so riders must take Go buses at Oakville Go, Clarkson Go and Union Station, according to Ontario’s Metrolinx agency, which operates Go Transit.

Lakeshore West train service will run between West Harbour and Oakville Go on an hourly schedule.

Those who travel on Go bus routes 12, 15 or 18 are asked to check their schedules ahead of time.

People are advised to check schedules in advance and use Triplinx to plan their trips.

Go Transit changes for Friday

For those travelling to Union Station on Friday, Oct. 27, trains will only run from West Harbour to Oakville Go stations. Replacement express buses to Union Station will be available at Oakville, Clarkson and Port Credit stations.

The last train travelling from Union Station will depart at 9:17 p.m. After the last train, replacement buses will depart from Union Station Bus Terminal and travel to Port Credit, Clarkson and Oakville Go stations, where riders can connect with the Go train heading further west.

There will be no Go Transit service at Long Branch, Mimico or Exhibition Go stations.

Go Transit changes for Saturday and Sunday

On Saturday and Sunday, trains will run from West Harbour to Oakville Go stations for those travelling to Union Station. Replacement express buses to Union Station will be available at Oakville and Clarkson Go stations.

Replacement buses will depart from Union Station Bus Terminal, travelling to Clarkson and Oakville Go stations, where riders can connect with the train heading further west.

There will be no GO Transit service at Port Credit, Long Branch, Mimico or Exhibition Go stations.

Port Credit customers may wish to use MiWay route 23 to connect to the Go replacement bus at Clarkson Go. For more transit options, you can plan your trip on Triplinx.

Long Branch, Mimico and Exhibition Go customers are asked to use TTC to travel during this time.

How changes affect Route 21 bus customers

On Saturday, October 28 and Sunday, October 29, there will be changes to Route 21.

Route 21C will be out of service. A new temporary Route 21S will service Erindale, Square One, Cooksville and Kipling, where riders can transfer to the TTC to go to Union Station.

There will be no train or bus service at Port Credit station.

For bus Route 21A customers travelling to Union Station, their bus will arrive at Oakville Go where they can connect with a replacement bus express to Union Station Bus Terminal.

For bus Route 21B customers, their bus will arrive at Clarkson Go they can connect with a replacement bus express to Union Station Bus Terminal.

For bus Route 21C customers, they can take 21S to connect with the TTC from Kipling station.

For those travelling from Union Station using bus Route 21C, take the TTC to Kipling station to catch the 21S bus.

Bus Route 21A customers are advised to take the Lakeshore West replacement bus from Union Station Bus Terminal to Oakville Go and catch the 21A bus.

Bus Route 21B customers can take the Lakeshore West replacement bus from Union Station Bus Terminal to Clarkson Go to catch the 21B bus.

The Lakeshore West Go train will continue west from Oakville Go station.

Regular service will resume on Monday, Oct. 30.