11:06 p.m. - 2004-05-16
Jam packed
There was an interesting item buried in the newspaper on about Wednesday of this week. It reported that there was a court judgement that found Elections Canada in error in the way it reconfigured the electoral boundaries in Atlantic Canada. Although the Prime Minister could still call an election using the old boundaries, he has committed to allowing the new Electoral Districts to come into being first. All the parties have had their nomination meetings and set up and registered their riding associations on that basis. Ditto for Elections Canada. I don't think they will proceed until that issue is resolved. I believe that any redrawing of the boundaries has to be approved by Parliament and the Senate. However I'm not a lawyer, so there may be regulations that allow for adjustments after the fact without that entire process being required. My very uninformed guess therefore, is that the election won't be called on the date(s) speculated so heavily in all the media, especially not with all the other issues that are airing in the papers as well.
That notwithstanding, I arrived home on Friday to find several e-mails from Elections Canada demanding all sorts of work be undertaken and completed by Monday. No mention of either hours assigned or that payment would be forthcoming. In addition there was a demand that we now have our cell phones on and answer them every day from 9 am to 5 pm. Again no mention of pay for pandering to the political parties on Elections Canada's behalf. I'd already discussed the issue with my supervisor and he said it would be acceptable to check my voicemail every so often. Although that is reasonable the problem is with returning the calls. I am not going to jeopardize a new contract that has already given me one paycheque (the first I've had since the beginning of March) by spending office time on the phone so EC can have it's little ego trip. They have already compromised my finances in a way that it will take some time to clear everything up even after they pay me. I simply can't believe the arrogance of the head of the organization.
Besides the work EC wanted was the reconfigured report that my supervisor wanted. After our meeting on Friday, it was agreed that the weekly reports for the first two weeks would be combined. I also offered to build a spreadsheet that would track all the anomalies record by record so that remediation could take place by the company if they choose it. I spent two hours this morning and another two after supper making certain that was complete. Then I did the election work I felt was essential and that took a couple more hours. In between everything else I had to respond to or initiate a lot of discussion by phone, fax or email.
The middle of the day was family time - number four son's twenty first birthday. Legal in Las Vegas, he is. My second son's partner had her birthday last weekend so we combined the two and had everyone over for dinner and cake today. I had no intention of changing that plan even though my son said he didn't mind when we celebrated. He might not, but I do. He had a big bottle of rum and he shared it with the rest of the family. I rarely drink, so I had less than an ounce so that I could function well enough to focus on my paperwork after the party was over. The boys were very entertained by the fact that even that amount made me tipsy. I was giggling and they know I never do that unless I'm tippled. Oh well once a year isn't such a bad thing is it? Anyway time to go get ready for work and bed. Um well maybe bed then work - whatever.
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