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02:46 - 21.02.08
Debates
"Weather and economic forecasts are horoscopes with numbers." Anonymous

I really like our weather forecasters, especially in a location like this where weather is totally unpredictable and can change within minutes in extreme shifts. The meteorologists all demonstrate a strong sense of humour and are very open about the limitations of their craft/science. There was a lot of discussion among them tonight on various channels about the meteor that blazed across western skies on Tuesday, that lunar eclipse tonight, as well as the attempted downing of that out-of-control spy satellite. That was about as light as the news got today, but even a little relief was welcome.

Because we are in election mode in this province, a lot of hot button issues are emerging. The rights of immigrants is one. First there is the concern about integration. Having been a long time volunteer/advocate for human rights issues, I understand the importance of, and support making room for, those who need to flee violent and repressive regimes. On the other hand, I resent it when a small number of those refugees/immigrants then want to bring the same kind of poisonous ideas and practices into our country by displacing those held communally now. Becoming a citizen should be an act of wanting to build this country as previous immigrants did, not tear it down. When I was researching one of my great... grandfathers it was obvious that immigration law was strictly enforced then as well. He and one of my uncles (of some degree) were quarantined when they tried to cross the border from the US to their new farm because of a horse they had that was infected with glanders. That notwithstanding their wives and children needed their help at those new farms in this country. The laws are in place to protect the community when a newcomer can't or won't.

One of the biggest issues being debated is the state of disarray that the health care system is in. I was talking with a long time employee at one local hospital. Given the constant concern about a shortage of qualified medical staff, I asked them why they weren't recruiting in the UK where the BBC has been reporting that graduates from their nursing schools can't find placements. The person I was speaking with said that there were some of those graduates working here in support staff positions, but that they couldn't qualify for their medical accreditation for lack of a single specialty. Some had been trying to gain that paperwork for a long time. I asked them why there couldn't be a licence issued with a restriction for the missing specialty. For example, one support worker didn't want to work in the specialty that they were missing for accreditation, ever, which is why they hadn't taken it in the UK. The person responded that the main nursing body that represents and regulates nurses refused to consider that option when asked to do so by their constituents, therefore creating an artificial labour shortage.

Given that the province has been in the business of importing workers for the oilpatch simply to reduce their labour costs, giving their "friends" nice juicy contracts to do so, wouldn't it be deemed even more important to bring in qualified nurses from countries with equivalent nursing standards - the UK and India are both well reputed, for example - to protect our health and safety. I realize that probably one of the legitimate concerns of the nurses' representatives is that it would be used as a tool to drive down their wages, but withholding approvals at the expense of our population's medical needs is unconscionable. Our country has an economy that should provide fair wages be paid to workers. Bucking up coroprate interests at their staff's expense is also unconscionable. Instead of blocking out simple solutions to critical needs, maybe some of the political energy should be focussed on how to also maximize all the recent progress in health research that could improve our quality of life or at least prevent further damage from environmentally dangerous practices.

The other issue that keeps cropping up is the way North American governments - especially ours - censure and censor the release of information with respect to their own operations. Criminal activity such as money laundering, for example, should not be considered as a secret to be kept from the public. Ego sum rex Romanus, et supra grammaticam. "I am the Roman emperor, and above grammar". [Sigismund, at the Council of Constance (1414), to a prelate who had dared to point out a few errors.] We don't want de facto emperors here either.

One glaring example of political parties using their power to hide their own misdeeds, is the totally illegal sleight-of-hand financing and manipulation of election management practices to ensure that they can interfere enough to alter the voting results in their favour. I went back in my posts to you and found one incident where a provincial returning officer tried to force me to be involved in that behaviour. The fact that I reported it and stopped it as a result, might be one of the reasons my electoral district was posted - don't you think?

First up, they wanted access to confidential information that I couldn't release. They also demanded that I place the members of one of the political parties' board of directors and staff, their family and friends in key positions in my office. The spouse sat on that board and, I suspect, the Federal one as well. I had my own experienced and trusted workers from past elections. I explained I would not displace them to accommodate a political party of any stripe. There had already been a number of aggressive attempts by people who consider themselves "in authority" in this community to also insist I hire on this same group of people. It made me very uncomfortable.

At the beginning of one discussion the following communication was exchanged between us. They asked me "Have you started recruiting yet .. ie. phoning electors to confirm if they are still at the same address" making me wonder if they understood the difference between working for a political party as a recruiter of election volunteers/voters and working as a Returning Officer in a way that is politically neutral to hire office and polling day staff.

I called them after I received an additional communication, where they disclosed information about one political party calling and offering jobs to electors, telling them they would be working for Elections Canada. They were quite hostile on that call, first because the person who had called them to tell them about it appeared to be one of the people they had wanted me to hire and it seemed from their comments that they wanted that employment offer to come through them; both of which requests I had refused. It was as though they expected me to inform them when I did start hiring and before I made any decisions. When I said I would need to call the political party who was using Elections Canada's name illegally to tell them to stop and asked for the names of the people involved, they became even angrier. They said that "this was a privileged communication between two government workers and I'm surprised that you didn't understand that". They went on to say that for their own reasons that they couldn't disclose that information, because it was confidential and it would reveal information that was sensitive. I commented that representing one's organization as a government agency and attempting to conduct business under that false impression was a serious issue.

I also explained that in past elections I had had people show up both at my home and office insisting that they were entitled to a job (usually a senior position) because of their local political connections or because someone holding a position on a local political party's board had told them that their direction to me was sufficient to ensure the person a job of their choosing. They again stated that they would not tell me, because of issues they couldn't explain to me. I said I would have to send out a group e-mail to all the political parties, alerting them that I knew one of their organizations was doing it and that I expected it to stop at once, with follow up phone calls going to people who had been recruited under false premises. They demanded that I not reveal my source, since they had "provided it in confidence". I responded that I would abstain from mentioning names if they would agree to report the incident to their Chief Electoral Officer as a potential issue arising for them. They said they would do so. There was no recognition from that person or their cluster of hangers-on that there was anything wrong, let alone illegal, about their behaviour and that hasn't changed from then until now, apparently.

The cats are starting to insist that I go to bed before sunrise, so good night dear diary. If you are lucky I won't rant tomorrow, but I can't guarantee that given that the one big debate between political party leaders is scheduled to be on all three local channels around the supper hour.

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