Your Comments: Encounters of the wild kind

 By Lorianna De Giorgio

The October 2009 death of Toronto folksinger Taylor Mitchell is a grim reminder of the dangers of wildlife encounters. 

Mitchell died from her injuries after two coyotes attacked her while she was hiking in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

While less severe, there have been other wildlife attacks since Mitchell's death.
In February, a New Brunswick woman wrestled with a coyote after it attacked her when she went into her backyard to let her dog out.

Marie Simon of Saint-Charles, near Richibucto, is lucky to have made it out alive from the ordeal, walking away needing only a tetanus shot and a bandage.

In our Feb. 12 Point of View we asked readers to tell us about their dangerous encounter with wildlife.

Twenty-six comments were received in four days, with some people sharing their harrowing stories of survival, while others joked about animal-human interactions.

Plastik from Vancouver shared their story of how a chipmunk in Stanley Park jumped on their arm and scratched them while they fed it a granola bar.

"It jumped back off a couple seconds later or maybe I shook it off - it all happened so fast - the little monster didn't even take the food," plastik said.

K.M. Bennett from Ymir, B.C., shared a more traumatic experience of how a grizzly bear kept hanging around in their yard for a couple of months.
 
They said they had to chase the bear off the property so that their kids could get on and off the school bus.
 
"I wasn't threatened as much as annoyed that it might get itself shot before heading to the high country," K.M. Bennett wrote, before adding the following winter they were attacked by an elk.

Luckily, the outcome of that encounter was also favourable.

Canadian pride

A recent poll by the Environics Research Group found that Canadians living outside of British Columbia are more likely than those living in the province to believe B.C. and its largest city, Vancouver, will benefit from the Olympics.

Seventy-five per cent of respondents surveyed outside B.C. said they thought the Olympics would have at least some benefit for Canada as a whole, according to the Feb. 12 poll conducted for CBC News.

In our own Feb. 12 poll, we wanted to know if readers thought the Winter Games would be good for Canada as a whole.

More than 1,240 respondents voted between noon on Feb. 12 and 4 p.m. ET on Feb. 16.
Fifty two per cent said yes, the games would be positive for the country, while 41 per cent said no, they wouldn't. Seven per cent of voters were left undecided.

Finding love, one mouse click at a time

With the increased popularity of dating sites such as eHarmony and Lavalife, it was only a matter of time until microblogging site Twitter joined the online lovefest.

Flirt140 aims to help Twitter users find dates, with capabilities to search by gender, location and keyword to seek out others who live nearby, as well as to send private messages.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, we wanted to know in our Feb. 12 poll if you've found love online.

Eighty-two readers responded to our poll between 11 a.m. Feb. 12 and 4 p.m. Feb. 16 ET.

Thirty-eight per cent of those who voted said yes, they've found love online, while 62 per cent said they haven't found Mr. or Mrs. Right in cyberspace.

Love: Hollywood-style

Coupled with our previous Point of View, days before Valentine's Day we also wanted to know what your favourite romantic movie was.

Was it The Notebook? Or did, The Bridges of Madison County do it for you?
We received 140 responses with the most popular movies being When Harry Met Sally, Doctor Zhivago and Casablanca.

Humphrey Bogart would be proud.