Being from YOW, very accustomed to having the aircraft De-iced in winter.
Do they de-ice aircraft in IAD, ORD these days or is that upto the pilots discretion?

When Dick Ebersol's plane crashed on takeoff in Colorado a few weeks back, some initial investigators said that his particular aircraft was not de-iced in advance.

They de-ice where ever it's needed. I've been on a plane leaving DFW that was de-iced. And it wasn't snowing or sleeting or anything like that. But there was a "nice" layer of frost on the wings.

De-icing is in most cases a decision taken by the pilots at the time as per the current conditions. Taking off with ice or frost on the tops of the wings or control surfaces must be avoided at all times.
You are allowed a thin coating of hoar frost to be present on the fuselage for take off. Thin meaning it melts away immediately on hand contact and you can clearly define the paint scheme etc through the frost.
You are also permitted to depart with ice, commonly up to 1/8th of an inch, on the underside of the wings due to cold soaked fuel.
In many cases the airline engineers will de-ice the aircraft prior to departure. The pilots turn up at the gate, find the aircraft already de-iced and can get on with the boarding straight away.
You may also see aircraft on the ground after their last flight of the day, being anti-iced. This is where they are sprayed with a type of de-icing fluid which stays on the aircraft surfaces and prevents ice or frost from forming.

You would think that a large national "cold country airline" at their biggest hub would do either. But no. Last year, when I flew AC016 YYZ-YVR-HKG (before they have the non-stop) in February, the A340 had been sitting at YYZ for half-a-day with freezing rain. Nothing was done until everybody was boarded. We taxied to the de-icing area, and de-icing took so long that by the time the plane was done (about 45-50 minutes), the time lapse had exceeded the safety margin, so they have to go back to the front of the plane to de-ice again.

[The second time took much less time, but the flight was still delayed about 2 hours leaving YYZ, and about 1 hr leaving YVR after they made up some time on the ground.]

So, I guess it also depends on the airport. At YYZ, de-icing wasn't done at the gate, but at a specific area where the run-off is collected.

I have flown many times from MSP/RSt in the wintertime. More often than not, we were de-iced. I have to think that those NW.. MSP-based pilots know a lot about cold weather conditions.

Flew CO from CLE to PVD this past Sun., and they also did the de-icing after we all boarded.

Agree.

I had my connection flight at MSP in March'02. The flight was so badly delayed that we were de-iced twice. Even though safety is the 1st priority, I hated for the fact of 3 hrs delayed arrival at SJC.