Saturday 31 January 2015
Harperland…It's your turn
Perhaps you do not agree with me about Stephen Harper? Now it's your turn. The Globe and Mail is conducting a survey on what Canadians think about Harper's decade in power. The results will be published on February 7th. Go ahead and have your say.
Thursday 29 January 2015
Harperland…again... Part 4
With the new year comes resolutions. Along with the usual - exercise - I would like to blog more regularly. I am happy to say that I have just attended my first exercise class in a very long time and here I am, with my trusty laptop.
Since this is an election year, my humble Harperland spot should be a more regular feature. I have no excuse for letting this lapse. It is certainly not for a lack of material. Almost every day I read or hear something about Harper that drives me crazy. The most distressing thing of all is that the race for PM is so close. There is indeed a strong possibility that the reign of this man might continue.
When someone is Prime Minister for a short term there may not be long-lasting effects. Years later you might be hard pressed to remember any major changes that happened while they were in power. This is not the case with Harper. He has been in power for so long and has reached into so many facets of goverment. It will take years before our country will be able to recover from the drastic changes he has imposed on us all. Many of those changes may not be reversed … like mail delivery. For now, our neighbourhood still receives door to door service. If that changes before the election, would door to door service be revived?
However, there are many more important issues. Yesterday on The Current, CBC's Anna Maria Tremonti interviewed Mark Bourrie. "The journalist and historian takes on the Prime Minister and the Ottawa media in his new book, "Kill the Messengers: Stephen Harper's Assault on Your Right to Know." Bourrie lambastes Harper for his systematic shutdown of information and access to the government. Throughout Harper's reign, access to ministers and bureaucrats has steadily decreased to a point where it is almost impossible for journalists to gather basic information. Access that was the norm before Harper, has now vanished.
“Harper is intent on changing the way Canadians see their own country,” Bourrie writes. “He once said Canadians would not recognize the country after he was finished with it, and he’s done a lot to make sure that they do see it in a different light: as an energy and resource superpower instead of a country of factories and businesses, as a ‘warrior nation’ instead of a peacekeeper, as an Arctic nation instead of clusters of cities along the America border, as a country of self-reliant entrepreneurs instead of a nation that shares among its people and its regions.”
Have a listen to the show. Perhaps this is one of the main problems with this government: the secrecy, and the withholding of information. Like the new fencing all around Paliament Hill, this government is very much shut off from the people it is intended to serve. We and our press corps are treated like the enemy, if we dare to ask questions.
Since this is an election year, my humble Harperland spot should be a more regular feature. I have no excuse for letting this lapse. It is certainly not for a lack of material. Almost every day I read or hear something about Harper that drives me crazy. The most distressing thing of all is that the race for PM is so close. There is indeed a strong possibility that the reign of this man might continue.
When someone is Prime Minister for a short term there may not be long-lasting effects. Years later you might be hard pressed to remember any major changes that happened while they were in power. This is not the case with Harper. He has been in power for so long and has reached into so many facets of goverment. It will take years before our country will be able to recover from the drastic changes he has imposed on us all. Many of those changes may not be reversed … like mail delivery. For now, our neighbourhood still receives door to door service. If that changes before the election, would door to door service be revived?
However, there are many more important issues. Yesterday on The Current, CBC's Anna Maria Tremonti interviewed Mark Bourrie. "The journalist and historian takes on the Prime Minister and the Ottawa media in his new book, "Kill the Messengers: Stephen Harper's Assault on Your Right to Know." Bourrie lambastes Harper for his systematic shutdown of information and access to the government. Throughout Harper's reign, access to ministers and bureaucrats has steadily decreased to a point where it is almost impossible for journalists to gather basic information. Access that was the norm before Harper, has now vanished.
“Harper is intent on changing the way Canadians see their own country,” Bourrie writes. “He once said Canadians would not recognize the country after he was finished with it, and he’s done a lot to make sure that they do see it in a different light: as an energy and resource superpower instead of a country of factories and businesses, as a ‘warrior nation’ instead of a peacekeeper, as an Arctic nation instead of clusters of cities along the America border, as a country of self-reliant entrepreneurs instead of a nation that shares among its people and its regions.”
Have a listen to the show. Perhaps this is one of the main problems with this government: the secrecy, and the withholding of information. Like the new fencing all around Paliament Hill, this government is very much shut off from the people it is intended to serve. We and our press corps are treated like the enemy, if we dare to ask questions.
Saturday 17 January 2015
Free wine
Just for the record, I do enjoy a glass of white wine. However...
Yesterday, while doing the last of my Christmas returns at Carlingwood Mall, here in Ottawa, I saw a pathetic sight. In a hallway, outside a small wine store, a young employee was standing, looking rather forlorn. Over his head he held a large sign, proclaiming, "Free Wine Tasting." He looked so bored. I realize there are a lot worse jobs out there, but what must it be like to stand there, bored out of your skull, while trying to entice people to taste and buy wine?
Free wine tasting in shopping malls is one of my current pet peeves. Yes, after I finish tromping all over Superstore buying groceries I do feel worn out and look forward to getting the heck out of there. I'm ready for a break. However, that does not mean that when I roll my overloaded cart past the wine store, that I want someone to put a tray of plastic wine glasses in front of my face and offer me a taste. Can we do nothing, not even grocery shop, without alcohol?
Before Christmas, when offered the wine, I told the young man that I thought it was wrong to offer alcohol so freely, at all times of day, in a public place. I told him my concern was for all those trying to stay away from booze, those struggling with addiction. Why put it right under their noses? The young man was not impressed with my concern and dismissed my comments with a heartless laugh.
So I was interested when I saw a headline in The Ottawa Citizen on January 9th. "Easily available alcohol a problem, doctor warns" was written by David Reevely. It's an interesting piece about Ottawa's top public health doctor, Isra Levy and his reaction to the provincial government's trend to making booze more available. "I'm not a prohibitionist about just about anything,"Levy says. "But I am interested in mitigating harm, when harm can result." Amen.
Yesterday, while doing the last of my Christmas returns at Carlingwood Mall, here in Ottawa, I saw a pathetic sight. In a hallway, outside a small wine store, a young employee was standing, looking rather forlorn. Over his head he held a large sign, proclaiming, "Free Wine Tasting." He looked so bored. I realize there are a lot worse jobs out there, but what must it be like to stand there, bored out of your skull, while trying to entice people to taste and buy wine?
Free wine tasting in shopping malls is one of my current pet peeves. Yes, after I finish tromping all over Superstore buying groceries I do feel worn out and look forward to getting the heck out of there. I'm ready for a break. However, that does not mean that when I roll my overloaded cart past the wine store, that I want someone to put a tray of plastic wine glasses in front of my face and offer me a taste. Can we do nothing, not even grocery shop, without alcohol?
Before Christmas, when offered the wine, I told the young man that I thought it was wrong to offer alcohol so freely, at all times of day, in a public place. I told him my concern was for all those trying to stay away from booze, those struggling with addiction. Why put it right under their noses? The young man was not impressed with my concern and dismissed my comments with a heartless laugh.
So I was interested when I saw a headline in The Ottawa Citizen on January 9th. "Easily available alcohol a problem, doctor warns" was written by David Reevely. It's an interesting piece about Ottawa's top public health doctor, Isra Levy and his reaction to the provincial government's trend to making booze more available. "I'm not a prohibitionist about just about anything,"Levy says. "But I am interested in mitigating harm, when harm can result." Amen.
Monday 5 January 2015
Christmas reflections
Well, that's it for another year. The parties are over and the kids are gone. The house, although still dressed for Christmas, is strangely quiet. I love having our children at home and always look forward to their visits. However, it's time to pick up the pieces of our regular life. It's also time to stop drinking and eating so much party food.
As I walk around the house, there are remnants of Christmas activities and visitors in every room. We rented a hotub for a week so there are bathing suits hanging up in the basement and a small mountain of towels in front of the washing machine. The high chair, playpen (sorry that sounds so 1960's..the pack n' play) and toys are in the rec room. The mark of Prince Avery is everywhere - We keep finding Dora stickers on furniture, clothes and windows. Princess Eliza's baby blankets are washed and back onto the shelf, awaiting her next visit.
Say what you will about Christmas. Yes, it's a lot of work, before, during and after. However, it is still a grand occasion for family and friend visiting. When else in the year do we all make a point to be together, to sleep at the same house, to buy each other gifts, to sit around and visit and watch funny, old movies? There is something comforting about gathering together at this, the darkest time of the year.
Here is part of a reflection that our friend Roy sent to us. It's from an editorial in the Vancouver Sun, in 2012.
As I walk around the house, there are remnants of Christmas activities and visitors in every room. We rented a hotub for a week so there are bathing suits hanging up in the basement and a small mountain of towels in front of the washing machine. The high chair, playpen (sorry that sounds so 1960's..the pack n' play) and toys are in the rec room. The mark of Prince Avery is everywhere - We keep finding Dora stickers on furniture, clothes and windows. Princess Eliza's baby blankets are washed and back onto the shelf, awaiting her next visit.
Say what you will about Christmas. Yes, it's a lot of work, before, during and after. However, it is still a grand occasion for family and friend visiting. When else in the year do we all make a point to be together, to sleep at the same house, to buy each other gifts, to sit around and visit and watch funny, old movies? There is something comforting about gathering together at this, the darkest time of the year.
Here is part of a reflection that our friend Roy sent to us. It's from an editorial in the Vancouver Sun, in 2012.
"Whether Christian or Hindu, Jew or Buddhist, Sikh or Muslim, agnostic, atheist or secular humanist, there is something for everyone in the big tent of Christmas with its principles of good will toward all others, devotion to peace instead of strife, celebration of family and community, generosity in equal measure toward friends and strangers, toward the poor and the lonely and the marginalized."
Today was the start of the new work year, the week to put the trees and decorations away, to get back to the ordinary. As we resume our more mundane lives, I will steal another bit from Roy's Christmas letter. Happy New Year to All!
When the Song of the Angels Is Stilled
– by Howard Thurman
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.
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