Thank you, Alberta

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This is an homage to a province I love, where my wife and I were married under the majesty of the Three Sisters in Canmore, where my Best Man makes his home in Calgary, where I got to celebrate the glory of the cattle culture at the Calgary Stampede, where I first got to watch a golden eagle soar underneath me from a peak in Waterton Lakes, heading south without a passport.  For all the degradation that  the oil industry has foisted on Alberta, remember this is also the province of the Flames and not just the traded away Oilers.  

Witness the recent municipal elections where Calgary gets a forward thinking Muslim Mayor, and Toronto goes backward with Boss Hogg and his bother looking in the rear view mirror.

Alison Redford, I love you. Your thank you speech to your supporters, and your speech to Canada that declared uniquivocally, I love you Alberta; I love you Canada, that was perfect.  Now THAT is national unity. The wild rose had too many thorns in this election campaign.

Who could live,  mythologically and realistically, in a country without  our Alberta cowboys, our Quebec Coureurs de Bois, our Maritime fishermen, our Prairie sodbusters, our BC foresters.  And before that who could live in a Canada where we forgot that this country was ihhabited ten thousand years ago by our Asian ancestors – Japanese sea otter hunters, Siberian whalers who made small inroads on the west coast islands long before the Bering ice-bridge hunters crossed into the new world.  The first Canadians were Asian.  Full circle on immigration in British Columbia. And what of the "navies" and the "coolies", thank you, Gordon Lightfoot for reminding us, who t really took the railway coast to coast.

So, Alberta, in choosing diversity and unity over homophobia and racism, you have sent a beacon of hope to the rest of this marvellous country – wake up, Canada!  Get your heads out of the potash Saskatchewan; congratulate Alberta, Ontario, and proclaim long and loud the impact of accererated climate change on the Arctic.  We are Canadian!

Alison Redford, you have shown us the way whether you wear a Flames or a Canadiens jersey.  It is the spirit of a country, coast to coast, with one citizen code that says simply "Speak Right, Act Right." You have won a victory for the inclusive kind of progressive conservatism that blessed the reigns of Peter Lougheed in Alberta and Bill Davis in Ontario. May the Spirit That Loves Life watch over Alberta, and may Canada learn a lesson in how to honour the Centre.

Skid Crease, Caledon

Speaking Truth to Power

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At Woodbridge College today, students were introduced to the realities of environmental issues and political literacy.  They were made aware of the state of environmental legislation, or lack thereof, In Canada, and the new retroactive powers of the Prime Minister to veto, retroactively, environmental reviews that he deemed to be detrimental to the "economic security" of Alberta, and by extension Canada.

They were taught to get information that was peer reviewed, by practising scientists in their field of expertise, and currently published in reputable journals. They were taught to triple check their sources and learned that The Fraser Institute and Sun Media were the last places to go to get valid information.

They learned to balance information from reputable environmental foundations like the Suzuki Foundation and The Pembina Institute, with business oriented organizations like the well respected C.D. Howe Institute. They were taught how to separate the junk science sponsored by extreme right wing organizations sponsored by the oil, chemical, and agricultural industry against the legitimate science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the muzzled scientists of Environment Canada.

They were also taught how to write a letter to their municipal, provincial, and federal representatives. No one had a clue that they could send a letter to the Prime Minister without a stamp – a national right! Business letter, proper address, positive opening, views expressed clearly and with respect, and with a response or action required. The website, How to write a letter to an MP, by Citizens for Public Justice, provided an excellent resource for informed students. Julian Fantino MP, Conservative Reform Alliance Party, will be getting some interesting letters.

Mail may be sent, postage free, to your federal Member of Paliament at:

House of Commons, Parllament Buildings, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A 0A6

For more personal letters, also try their constituency offices, available at <www.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament>

They would love to hear from you.  This is, after all, still a democracy….but remember our history lesson, and how quickly The Night of the Long Knives changed a democracy into a dictatorship.

For Woodbridge students your provincial rep is Greg Sorbera MPP, Liberal, who can be reached at Rm. 241, North Wing, Legislative Building, Toronto, ON  M7A 1A4

Municipal rep for Ward 2 in Vaughan (that's Woodbridge College) is Councillor Tony Carella (your Mayor is Maurizio Bevilacqua), Tony can be reached by e-mail at <tony.carella@vaughan.ca>

Let them all know what you think.  You are about to inherit the 21st Century.

Skid Crease, Caledon

Earth Day Paradox

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 Happy Earth Day 2012. Just put fifteen new native trees down the side of my house, and reseeded the lawn with heritage grass seeds. Feeling very green. Went to the park across the street that I usually clean up every year with my son.  This year he had a baseball date with his friends.  

When I went to the park, I was surprised to see it was covered in paper flyers – the type that normally get hung on exterior doors by special delivery contracts.  These were for "Weewatch enriched home child care" and were advertising reliable home day care.  I am sure that <www.weewatch.com> never intended their flyers to end up scattered all over our municipal park – certainly that was the responsibility of the contracted distribution agent.

Still, the idea of a child care organization with their literature littered all over the earth on Earth Day – it just struck me as a paradox – the idea of "enriched home care" while trashing the community playground seemed an unintentional example of everything that is wrong with Earth Day.

We take 1 day to clean up our habits and 364 days to drive our SUVs 5 km to the local supermarket to buy refrigerated foods transported from around the world to our local tables.  Curious and curioser.

Think globally, act locally, care personally.

Happy Earth Day!

Skid Crease, Caledon