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01/20/2003 Archived Entry: "Being Canadian"

When Jen arrived in Vancouver from Alabama, a book was waiting for her in a "welcome to Canada" package I'd put together. It was "How to be a Canadian", which is a brilliantly funny look at who we as Canadians are (hint: it centers around the fact that 'we are not American'). Anyone who is interested in coming to Canada for more than a few days really should read this book. Otherwise, how are you going to understand if you are being insulted when a Canadian says. "Heya, be a bud and go score me a mickey and a 2-4, EI's the sh*ts and my pogey won't come until after the Oilers and Leafs drop a puck, eh?"

But they don't go into how Canada really works (it doesn't) or why we keep electing the same morons (we do). Last week Gordon Campbell, the Premier of British Columbia (equivalent: governor of a US state) flew down to Maui on vacation, got drunk, drove, and got picked up by the Maui police department. People are screaming for his resignation and I even went so far as to make a funny t-shirt that you will hopefully buy to keep that pogey away. The thing is, while for a week there has been righteous indignation by all the peoples of the land, and now we settle into the 'forget it, eh?' stage. Heck, I don't mind if he stays on, it certainly could not possibly be worse than the horrific mess the people he replaced caused, but if you, as a citizen of BC, are choked and angered - well, then maybe you should stay choked and angered for longer than it takes to say 'lack of common sense'. While you meander through a life filled with Starbucks lattes and walks along the seawall, your decision to not get involved and forget the bad things makes us all go through the same cycles over and over again.

This brings me around to this fact: the NDP (New Democratic Party) which was replaced in the last election was so very nearly wiped off the face of BC is gaining new ground and is more popular than it has been in a good long time. It was (no exaggeration) reviled, despised, and hated prior to the election for a hundred reasons, almost all of them good. Now, because one dumbass Premier got drunk you are looking to go back to the good old days of inept policies and poor fiscal mismanagement and an economy that went from passably good to incredibly bad in the 13 years of their reign. Sure...go ahead and kick Gordo to the curb if you want, but if you rise up the party that caused so many ills just to spite his drunken butt, then you will do yourself much more harm than good.

Now I just wish I could run for office, but I speak my mind too much and my words are too clear to be elected by the truth-scared people of this province.