1:34 a.m. - 2002-09-20
Public Service
Sky blue pink with a purple border. What?
That's the sky first thing in the morning. Deep purple in the west and north. In the south and east, clouds of varying shades and textures of blue with pink where the sunrise kisses them. Clouds are good when the weather starts cooling down here. They are like a blanket that keeps the warm air from escaping into the outer atmosphere.
That's what its like most mornings now when waiting for the bus. The bus is jammed these days with students travelling to the university and the two major colleges in the city. They transfer to other busses at the train station while the regulars plod across the bridge to the train.
I was sitting across from two of my favorite strangers today. Two women from Thailand. How do I know that? The first time I observed them was when they were working on correcting one of the pairs' essay for English as a Second Language class. The assignment appeared to be to do a comparison between the culture of origin and Canadian culture. What was interesting was that they were conversing in French not Thai. Then I realized that the French were one of the major influences in that segment of the world so it made sense. Their brand of French is very soft and precise - I like it.
I graduated with honours after 8 years of French in my schooling but it isn't spoken all that much in Calgary. Use it or lose it. When I deal with the Federal bureaucrats in Canada's capital city of Ottawa for my contract with the government, I will try practicing on them because we are supposed to be able to offer service in both of Canada's official languages - English and French. If nothing else, it causes them some amusement at my expense.
What drives them crazy is how I go about making sure that the service is available in my election office during the run up to an election. You see, the French I learned was Parisian French. The French that is implicit in the official languages legislation is Quebecois to accomodate our one French speaking province - Quebec. There is quite a difference in phrasing and pronunciation. The largest population of French speaking people in my constituency is Acadian (think Louisiana/cajun) from the Atlantic seaboard but there is also a significant population of Alberta born French. They mostly settled in the northern part of the province and their adaptation of the language is quite different again. Finally we have a large population of immigrants who come from countries that the French settled in - like Thailand. The bottom line is that there isn't much call for service in Quebecois, but there is a demand for the other versions of French. I make certain that I have at least one person of Acadian heritage and someone from one of the northern Alberta settlements on site and I pinch hit when necessary. So technically I have met the requirements but it still doesn't meet the expectations of the federal bureaucrats. Its one of those theory versus reality issues. I prefer to deal with the reality of the voters I need to serve. One of the ways I can keep tabs on the actual make up of the population I serve is to use mass transit. The ladies on the train who came from Thailand to become Canadians are examples of my best teachers.
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