11:45 PM - 21.04.05
A Tension
So, the townhall meeting last night was pretty interesting. There were three speakers who attacked the subject of inclusion of newly minted Canadian citizens from their own areas of expertise and their own experiences as newcomers to the system. They challenged the attendees to think of ways to turn obstacles into opportunities. I could relate to that, because one of the reasons I did so much volunteer work when my sons were small was that our quarter of the city always seemed to be excluded when it came time to divvy up resources to communities. That, even though the much greater population density and higher taxe rates we paid meant we were contributing a good share of the money to the communal pot. We were told that our starter homes and family structures - single parent/new Canadian/young newly married adults - were the reasons the resources were not being given. We didn't deserve them. Uh huh.
Our volunteer groups didn't have influence or money or any of the other traditional sources of power that can force different levels of government to serve the communities that elected/hired them nor to be accountable. We just found new and very different approaches to force the issues. A lot of the strategies came directly from what I had learned as a volunteer with Amnesty International and the Red Cross Survivors of Torture programs. Those organizations had the same Achilles heels as we did - no power/authority with the abuser - but they turned that into their greatest strength.
There was a very large turnout at the meeting given that it was a work night, mid-week and a very balmy, early-summer day to boot. At first the attendees seemed quite intimidated, because of the number of media people there, but the panel speakers had been so good at their job of provoking thought that they forgot their shyness and offered some very interesting observations, ideas and recommendations, first in the group as a whole and then again in the two smaller focus groups that were created to discuss the initial offerings. I was in one group, while my assistant and one rep that we work with from the city's election office, went to listen in the other. As with any group, some of the problem was a lack of understanding of Canadian laws and, in some cases, a complete unwillingness to learn about it or to accept that those laws applied to every Canadian citizen including them. However, the majority of people were willing to take responsibility for being good citizens and that was heartening. I think I ended up with six or seven pages of handwritten notes to cull through and my assistant just set me a summary of her observations as well. I thanked the head of the inquiry at the end for providing such a stimulating learning environment.
When I arrived home, I was just in time to catch the 11 pm news and to hear that charges have actually been laid under the Local Elections Act against five of the people accused of electoral fraud. It does severely limit the head of the inquiry, in that he can't ask any questions that might impair or impede the police in their investigation. The police only are allowed six months under the act to press charges, so they have no choice in the timing either. There was footage from the townhall meeting in the newscast too. We were seated directly across from the panel doing the initial presentations. My assistant had been really intimidated when the cameraman pointed his "weapon" our way, but relaxed when I reminded her that most stories on the telly are only 3 second clips. Not much of us would be visible, if at all. Turned out our faces did show up, briefly, in an early shot and then there was a shot from behind our chairs looking at the panel near the end of the story. So I lied, sue me.
This morning there was a beautiful sunrise and it was a balmy day. Tough to actually enter a building, except for the fact that the air pollution at rush hour downtown is so severe right now, that I feel as though giant talons are ripping at my lungs whenever I am outside. Stops as soon as I enter the building though. The one supervisor was lying in wait for me when I arrived at my desk. She rushed over and started in again about the absent co-worker at the next desk. I tried not to respond by changing the subject, but it was very difficult since she just kept going back over the same things again. There was staff around within hearing and that made me even more uncomfortable. The tension torqued up when the other two supervisors arrived for the day. They spent the whole of it together, part time at the one station near mine and the other time at the other's desk. They seemd to be taking back some of the tasks that they had downloaded on the absent co-worker. She was supposed to work 50% for the one supervisor who has been talking to me and then 25% for each of the other two. I know that the number of people one supervises is considered a status symbol in the work place in this industry, so the power struggle is predictable. I wonder, though, if any of them have bothered considering the impact of their actions on the staff they are dumping their toxins on. They may cause the coworker to lose her job. I know I don't even want to be interacting with any of them at this point in time. It's a lot like the dynamics in that one work place I mentioned when I first started posting to you, dear diary. The one where the showdown came over who organized the social functions and who set the tone for office dress. That insistence on each non supervisory staff member "picking sides" and by being angry if instead they were treated equally by the rank and file. I was going to talk about it with my supervisor - who supervises all three of them - but she was quite ill and went home around lunch. Had my headphones firmly in place and made certain I didn't make any more contact with any of them than was absolutely necessary. Makes it harder to do my job, because I can't ask the questions I need to as freely as I would like lest I appear to be cosying up to one or the other.
I did have some good discussion with a couple of the other teams' staff though. We all ended up at the coffee station at the same time. One person commented about the front page articles about the imminence - maybe - of another federal election. The one knew that I will have to go at the point when the writ is dropped, so they were asking about the implications from my point of view. I just noted that the likely result would be another minority government. That would then, in turn, likely generate another election again next year, if the pattern continued. Doing the math, for each election the cost just for the 308 electoral districts runs at about $154 million. That doesn't take in to account what head office at Elections Canada spends nor the money spent by each of the parties multiplied by each candidate for each party in each riding.
I recall an editorial cartoon some years ago, that had one panel where Joe citizen was saying he didn't want to vote because it didn't have any impact. Nobody cared about how he chose. The next panel showed him slumped in front of the TV in true couch potato form, listening to an announcer stating how many thousands of dollars were spent per voter trying to get people out to the polls. I think the commentator then noted that with a 50% turnout that doubled the dollar value of each vote and gave the participating elector the right to choose the country's government on behalf of some stranger who hadn't voted. I think the couch potato just muttered that he wanted the cash up front. Uh huh. Anyway tonight the Prime Minister was scheduled to "speak to the nation", with a promise of an important announcement. Added in to everything else, I was somewhat stressed wondering if it was going to be an election call or not. Since none of the Returning Officers had been told anything, it did make it difficult to stay calm knowing how much work will be required just to get the offices up and running - especially if all our computers and supplies are still in Ottawa. Last time there was a snap election it took two weeks before we received what we needed. The entire event is only 5 weeks long. Lucky we are all so creative when it comes to making things work without the tools we need, eh bien? Um could I just have my voting/election work money upfront too?
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