10:13 p.m. - 2003-07-14
Survey Says
There's a tongue in cheek joke, that says that the Irish children of the Celts wanted to play a joke on, in their opinion, their dour and fractious cousins the Scots. So, one day they arrived in Scotland bearing what they told their cousins was the most magical musical instrument in the world - the bagpipes. It is said that the Scots still haven't caught on that it was intended to be an early version of belling the cat. Now, quite frankly I love the skirl of the pipes being a properly brought up daughter of Scotland - a few generations removed. Many people don't.
I was thinking of this last night after another surveyor called for my esteemed opinion. The topic? Where and what clothes I buy - how to help marketers target their market better, I guess. Very young thing she was and I don't think she understood why she was having such a hard time communicating with me. For example, one of the first things she asked me was to name stores that carried the most fashionable clothes. I asked her to define fashionable.
To me couturiers and their gewgaws fall into the same category as the Irish and their gift of bagpipes - too many women still don't get it. I'm a woman - I've never wanted to pass for a little boy, a business man or a boytoy. So, if not that, then what? Well what age group and culture are we using as a benchmark? Well what did I mean? I live in a very culturally diverse neighbourhood. A trip to our local school or grocery store is like a trip to the United Nations - all ages and stages included. I explained, that to me "fashionable" is a meaningless term. What suits one's body type (not accounted for in the survey)is much more important when buying clothes than any of the criterion she listed as far as I was concerned.
Therefore, if the question was really to find out what stores attracted me the most, the answer had nothing to do with "fashion" - it had to do with my personal comfort, taste, and budget. In all honesty, I prefer cuts of clothing that are simple "classic feminine" - hold the frills, or that have a Middle or Far Eastern styling. I prefer lace, silk, or soft, napped fabrics like velvet and suede. They have to be easy maintenance - and yes they are out there, but not in any of the stores paying her company to gather stats that would "validate" their popularity with the buying public. None of the little niche stores I shop in were on the survey.
All the questions were based on underlying assumptions I don't accept and refuse to be bound by. I don't equate quality with cost, for example. I worked in a fabric store, so I look for a good weave of cloth with quality construction and clean finishing. Gosh there were no spaces on the survey for those answers, either. The young lady had bought into those unspoken assumptions so strongly though, that it appeared that she thought I was doddering and either couldn't hear or couldn't understand the questions she was asking. Her response to me refusing to select any of the options offered was to become louder and shriller in an attempt to get through to me. I finally had to ask her several times to stop shouting - that I wasn't deaf. I just didn't have any response to those carefully crafted questions because they were irrelevant to me. Oh well - live and learn I guess.
Today was mostly just work at home. I got all the data for the hearing sent so far, into the template - about a 75 pages I think. Sort of like the survey in some way. The intervenors all trying to elicit the "right" answers to support their positions by crafting carefully worded questions sequenced in a very particular way. One intervenor forgot to disable their change tracking options before they forwarded their paper. All the changes and discussion magically appearing as I imported their data into the table. Quite revealing it was.
A call from Elections Canada. Why haven't I sent all the information requested for May in yet. Well, of the missing pieces they want, all are contingent on finding an office to rent. There was only one landlord of all the properties I viewed in March and April, who was willing to rent to EC. Their price? $22,000 PER MONTH excluding tax. When Hades freezes over! I told Sylvie - who is one of my favourite people to work with from Ottawa - that I would use a parking lot first.
Our Prime Minister said he was planning to step down next February after the leadership convention is completed in November this year. Even if the election is called for March and April, (we don't have fixed terms of office) I'd rather freeze myself, than spend taxpayers' money (mine)that extravagantly. I'm not signing off on a budget where just that single item could cost $80,000 when tax and utilities is added in. Last event total cost for an office was about $18,000.
I checked Statistics Canada's website. The rise in the Consumer Price Index between 2000 (the last election) to approximately this time next year will be no more than 20% - still obscene, but....! The budget for just my constituency last election was about $350,000, almost all of which was salaries for 750 staff for the length of the event and rental of the office and the polling stations for voting. I had to apologize to my staff because I could only offer them wages at the bottom end of the payscale for this city. Most of them took it on, because they love the excitement of the elections and they could fit it in to their other part time jobs.
Anyway, I agreed I would send in the bits and pieces but that I wouldn't complete the sections that were directly impacted by the office rental. Sylvie apologized and pointed out that she wouldn't be able to pay me for all the time I've invested until I send her an address for an office. I need the income since this contract will not pay me as much as what I usually earn (less hours, less per hour) but not at that price thanks. And we're back to marketers and underlying assumptions again aren't we. This very occasional civil servant doesn't sign blank cheques. Sylvie and I ended the conversation laughing though as we tried to come up with fit punishments for vendors like the landlord who think ripping off taxpayers is such a good thing. I like wanted posters in the post office myself.
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