Edmund and I run two diesel Volkswagens on Continental snow tires, which go on every year as soon as the day-time highs drop below freezing.

Eastern Ontario gets a rock-n-roll winter -- rain on Monday, snow on Wednesday, deep freeze on Friday. (Today's forecast high is -14 Celsius and yesterday topped out at -20. Monday's high was +8 Celsius.) The multi-layered mess of lumpy ice that builds up at intersections produces fishtailing on acceleration and the occasional "doughnut", our name for the "bootlegger's turn". Fishtailing is often seen in taxis, which tend to be clapped-out Chevy Caprices driven by tired men who grew up in south Asia or central Africa.

In the Ottawa Valley, you really want the sticky tread of snow tires -- but not studs, which rip the blacktop right off our already horrible roads. Ottawa is a world centre of pot-hole excellence; you have to see them to believe them.

As many have pointed out, if the weather is so severe that you can't count on travelling safely in a properly maintained car with decent snow tires, you should stay home.