Two: National Symbol

Well, Senator Nicole Eaton sure has her priorities straight. In a context of economic uncertainty, a widening gap between rich and poor and a government that is hell bent on spending a bunch of money on things we don't need and cutting the budgets of things we do need (that's a rant of its own, for later), the Honorable Senator has taken up the pressing issue of replacing the beaver with the polar bear as a national symbol of Canada.

Perhaps she has a point. Why associate ourselves with a hard-working rodent with a pretentious caudal appendage named after a deep-fried treat (or is that the other way around?) when we could tie our collective image to an animal that is teetering on the brink of extinction because of the climate change to which our own short-sighted actions have contributed?

I actually have a better idea on this one. Yes, ditch the beaver, as I'm none too fond of rodents. In its place, I humbly propose the pizzly or grolar, the grizzly-polar bear hybrid that has appeared on the scene because of previously separate ranges that now overlap. Why do they overlap? Climate change.

 

So let's step up, own our tar sandsy environmental excesses, and embrace the pizzly. Or the grolar. (Someone is going to have to settle that one soon.)

And if we're embracing a giant and dangerous bear, I cede my place to the Honorable Senator.

One: Hospital Parking

Okay, this might not be the rant you are expecting. I'm not here to rail against the high cost of parking at the hospital. Rather, I am here to insist that parking considerations have no place in the health care budget.

 

I confess that I live in a little bubble. I have never owned a car and I live downtown in a city with a reasonable public transit system. Oh yeah, I also have no children. So believe me when I say that complaining about traffic and parking woes from behind the wheel of the car you are sharing with…well, nobody…isn't really catching my interest. We spend far too much time and money accommodating the desire of people to drive their own cars places when they could take public transit.

Now, I do understand the exceptions. I grew up in a rural area, so I know what it's like for there not to be an alternative. I know people who have children, even multiple children, so I know how much easier it can be for certain voyages to bundle them into the car rather than trying to herd them through public transit. For the rest, there is public transit, and we could invest a lot more in making it responsive to the needs of everyone else in our society (more frequent passages, better services to the handicapped, etc.).

Saving time is not a good excuse: build the time into your schedule. If pressed, use the upper tier of our two-tier public transit system and take a taxi. You don't need you own car with all its attendant needs for parking, roadways, bridges, etc.

This all came to a head for me this past Saturday while puttering around my apartment and listening to the CBC Radio One program White Coat Black Art. It's supposed to be about the medical profession, but this entire episode was devoted to the problem of insufficient or too expensive parking at hospitals. What?! Arrange the hospitals so that ambulances have quick and easy access and so that people don't have to walk far from the bus stop to get there, even ensure that there is a taxi stand for those in a urry to get away from the hospital.

Just DON'T EVER spend a penny of the health care budget on providing parking for those who think their individual needs come before the needs of the rest of us.

Thirty Rants Hath November

 

I am entirely and most painfully aware of how much I have neglected my blog over the last two (!) months.

This is my curmudgeonly attempt to set a challenge for myself to reinvigorate my story-telling efforts. What better way than to lash out against the inanities I see about me? There may even be enough time for me to post other things during the month, so I will carefully identify the rants by number.

A friend has suggested that I also embark on a process of documenting the positive things in life. My reply was that I might reserve February for that. (If you don't pick up on why, you may be the subject of a future rant!)

So hang on to your hats (attachez vos toques!) — this is shaping up to be a gripey month. And if ever you have ideas to contribute to my cause, feel free to leave them for me in the comments.

Tribute

I'm not big on funerals, or any of the rituals of death that our society has built up over the years. Odd, then, that I found myself closely watching the funeral of Jack Layton, the recently deceased leader of the NDP (and leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition … do not like that term, but that's the reality for the moment). I'm glad I watched something that turned out to be both personal and political, moving and mobilizing. And I wonder how much of this has gone over the heads of many in this country.

Let's go back to that scary press conference where Mr. Layton announced that he was stepping down temporarily to deal with a second cancer. We were all frightened by the dramatic change in his appearance and the sound of his voice as he calmly made his recommendations (not final decisions, but recommendations) about what the party should do in the interim. Here's where the disconnect started to manifest itself, as media pundits predicted a terrible infight for power inside the NDP because he had recommended someone who had just been elected over his two deputy leaders for the interim role. And that fighting didn't happen, as it might have in one of the "traditional" parties. The process set out in the party rules was played out, a decision was made and the party members rallied to it.

Then our highly motivated press "dug up" the information that Nycole Turmel had been a member of the Bloc québécois and was a current member of Québec solidaire! Scandal! Those two parties both having Québec sovereignty in their platforms, how could she now assume the post of interim leader of the opposition? Did we all forget that Gilles Duceppe, as leader of the Bloc québécois, was the leader of the opposition in the past? Do we all expect all federal politicians from Québec to emerge from the provincial Liberal Party (because everyone else, progressive and not, has some connection with the sovereignty movement)? I was almost as offended by Ms. Turmel's defenders, who told us we should all be happy that she came back from the "dark side" to join a federalist party.

When Jack Layton died and his family released his letter to Canadians, I found myself very moved by a real expression of positivity that has really not characterized politics in Canada in the recent past. The Tories seem to be taking us down a path that looks very American, airing attack ads against the Liberal Party's last leaders to undermine them outside of the election periods, and the NDP under Jack Layton really didn't go that way, even under fire from the others. The message is positive, it is mobilizing, it is not centred on a person, but on a movement. (I was critical of the leader focus of all the campaigns in the course of the last election here.)

I worried with friends that the lead-up to the funeral was suggesting that the right was trying to bury the NDP with Jack Layton, to portray him as a person separate from his party and from his political convictions, worthy of remembering and celebrating, but not really worthy of following. You could see that in some of the choices of individuals being interviewed for their "person in the street" reactions: "I never voted for him or his party, but I always liked him." If you can look past an image, you will see that it would be impossible to separate the person from his politics. It is precisely his appreciation of people and their issues and differing realities that made him easy to talk to and likeable.

I was very moved by the chalk messages written seemingly all over Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto, where he was a city councillor for 20 years before making the leap to federal politics. Moving and personal messages about the impact of a man in a political movement, written in environmentally friendly chalk which washes away in the rain.

After all the efforts to exceptionalize and personalize his impact, I was very pleasantly surprised that his funeral itself was also very political. Not just the eulogy by Stephen Lewis, but all of it. Married gay pastor of a very LGBT-identified church, music reflecting a breadth of appreciation of the arts, including some political messages. I couldn't help thinking that some of the Conservative and Liberal frontbenchers in the room must have been a bit uncomfortable with some of the content. That made me smile (how mean-spirited of me!).

And now it all becomes about moving forward, because the movement survives its members. And we will see, too, how much Mr. Layton's leadership was about sharing the power and not hoarding it to himself: if that was the case (as we all hope and want to believe), then the NDP will continue to be in the good hands it has been in, minus one pair of good hands that gave it a big boost on the way out.

That was very well done and a fitting tribute to a man for whom — like many on the left — the personal is political.