Seizing Canada's Moment Requires a Vision Not Talking Points from the PMO

By Michael J Morris

When I first saw the title of one of the Harper  government's Speeches from the Throne, I chuckled and thought to myself, they gotta be kidding.

But sure enough, they had entitled it, 'Seizing Canada's Moment: Security and Prosperity in an Uncertain World'.

Seizing Canada's Moment? Come now. Canada has had many great moments since confederation in 1867, and to even suggest that now is "the moment" in our nation's history is ludicrous and the height of arrogance by the Harper government. And for good measure, somehow this government wants us to believe it is going to provide "security and prosperity in an uncertain world." Talk about mixing metaphors. 

The world is always an uncertain place, and Canadians have met the challenges in the past -- for example, in two world wars in the 20th century, the Great Depression and the potential breakup of the country when separatist forces grew strong in the province of Quebec.

The country has also produced Great Canadians who have proven equal to the challenges at home and abroad.

It struck me that perhaps the Throne Speech writers in the Prime Minister's Office really wanted to encourage Canadians to trust them to carpe diem on their behalf.  I looked up carpe diem on Google and as most know it comes from Latin, meaning "seize the day". 

It added that the phrase is used to as a motivation for people to just seize the day, to stop messing around, and to live life on the edge.

If the Harperites had really wanted to seize Canada's moment they would have  come clean on the Senate scandals, and they would have their let Members of Parliament speak without talking points from the PMO. The Harper years have been nothing more or less that government by talking points.

They have messed around with our parliamentary democracy, with a prime minister more interested in  travelling the world for photo ops.

I have been a student of Canadian politics for more than half a century now, and just in case anyone thinks I am into Tory bashing, not so, but I am concerned that we are at least on the edge of witnessing the truth of the dictum attributed to Lord Acton that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".  If Harper is re-elected my greatest fear is for my country.

In 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, a Progressive Conservative, with very little resemblance in my view to the Harper brand, said during the election campaign in a nationwide speech said his program was for a united Canada, for one Canada, for Canada first, in every aspect of our political and public life, for the welfare of the average man and woman. That is my approach to public affairs and has been throughout my life ... A Canada, united from Coast to Coast, wherein there will be freedom for the individual, freedom of enterprise and where there will be a Government which, in all its actions, will remain the servant and not the master of the people."  

Indeed, that is my idea of seizing Canada's moment -- where there will be a government, which, in all its actions, will remain the servant and not the master of the people.

I was a young newspaper reporter in Toronto for part of the Diefenbaker years and covered a press conference he gave in the Royal York Hotel. He strode into the room and immediately the hard bitten reporters of the day rose in unison as "The Chief" strode to the front and took his place at the podium. For the next hour he answered questions without notes, and certainly none of them were vetted beforehand. It is difficult today to get the present prime minister to answer even one question.

Mr. Diefenbaker also presented a vision for Canada with a focus on the north calling for "A new vision. A new hope. A new soul for Canada." That's seizing Canada's moment.

Perhaps the present prime minister truly believes that part of seizing Canada's moment includes bashing the United Nations, other nations, and telling the president of the United States, Barack Obama, that he wouldn't take no for an answer on the Keystone pipeline project. 

Methinks his comments have been strictly to try and gain political points with certain voting blocs in Canada, and appeal to the "Tea Party" branch of his party in Canada by showing he is a tough guy who can handle the U.S. President. 

In reading the international press recently, it seems like Canada has become a bit of a joke over the rants from the prime minister. 

Another Canadian prime minister, Lester B. Pearson, when he was secretary of state for external affairs, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the work he did in resolving the Suez Crisis of 1957 through the United Nations. The Nobel committee in its presentation said that Mr.. Pearson had "saved the world."  

Seizing Canada's moment and giving Canadians security and prosperity in an uncertain world was the promise of the Harper government. Looking at that Throne Speech it seemed more like a hodge podge of talking points more designed to launch the 2015 federal election campaign than provide a vision for a Canada all of us deserve in which government once again is the servant not the master.  My email is mj.morris@live.ca

B.C. Boy Justin Trudeau needs to adopt no frills approach meeting, greeting and listening to folks across Canada this Summer

Justin Trudeau in Cranbrook Summer 2013

By Michael J Morris

In the Summer of 2013, Justin Trudeau, the 'B.C. boy' enjoyed celebrity status as he crossed the province on his RV tour of the Kootenays and Okanagan and arrived  in Vancouver where he was surrounded by the media and supporters in the city's West End.

The leader of the federal Liberal Party started his tour in Cranbrook on July 21 with a meet and greet at Rotary Park unusual in politics for its informality. Introduced by Mayor Wayne Stetski, Trudeau then hopped onto the stage dressed in  designer jeans and casual shirt and gave an impromptu speech - a formula that was followed at every stop of the tour with minor variations. 

Two years later, Stetski is the NDP candidate in the Kootenay-Columbia riding currently held by Harpercon David Wilks.

In Creston at Truscott Farms he was presented with a cherry pie, and in Nelson he arrived for the meet and greet  on the city's famous street car with his wife Sophie Gregoire and children Xavier and Ella-Grace.

The no frills approach continued across the province perhaps defining a new political style consistent with the kind of politics Trudeau wants to see in Canada. Based on the reaction from the crowd in Cranbrook and news reports from other communities  he visited, it worked. I just can't imagine Stephen Harper, the prime minister, trying it, although he did wear cardigans at one point.

Some of the shine has gone from Trudeau as the federal election approaches, but he can still attract a crowd and methinks his best asset is the no frills to  get out and meet folks approach across the country.

Hedy Fry, the Liberal MP for Vancouver Centre told The Province newspaper, she believes Trudeau’s popularity is rooted in his authenticity.  “I think he is not like other politicians,” she said. “When people see him there is a deep sense of trust. People just seem to naturally gravitate to him. He is a B.C. boy and British Columbians seem to be warming to him".

Yes indeed, he is a B.C. boy, and although he is the son of Pierre Trudeau, from Quebec, his mother is Margaret Sinclair, the daughter of James Sinclair, a Liberal MP representing Vancouver area ridings from 1940 to 1957, and minister of fisheries from 1952 to 1957. Trudeau also attended the University of British Columbia and taught in the province.

In Cranbrook, Trudeau talked about paddling the Kootenay River with his father and brothers more than 25 years ago, and prior to a meet and greet in Trail, Trudeau and his family hiked to Nelson’s Kokanee Lake, the site where Trudeau’s brother Michel died in 1998 during an avalanche.

Trudeau posed the question along the way: "Why has politics itself become such a dirty word?", in recent years.Answering his own question in part, Trudeau commented that it is always easier in politics to divide, to attack, go negative, calculate where most votes are and practise the politics of division. 

He even admitted elections can be won this way, but he hopes to turn it around despite many advising him that he must go negative.

In Vancouver, in a speech from atop a table at English Bay, Trudeau is reported by The Province as saying, ""What I have seen across the county is people want to reconnect – we want to be once again part of the solution,This is what people are excited about across the country. I’m just an excuse for it. It’s not really about me, it’s about all of you."

In Kelowna, Conservative Party MP Ron Cannan attended theTrudeau meet and greet and told a local newspaper he agreed with several things that the Liberal leader said. "I believe in working together, as Justin advocates.

"What he said, it's hard not to agree with—all comments about balancing the environment and the economy, working together for a stronger future for not only our children, but our grandchildren (as well)." Kelowna-Lake Country voters heavily favoured the Conservative candidate in the 2011 general election; Cannan earned about 57 per cent of the vote.

Good that this MP showed respect and common decency by attending the Trudeau function. Maybe the prime minister will get the message. So far, two years later, Harper still has not gotten it but remains totally surrounded by Steve.

As I was reflecting two years later, on Trudeau's road tour, and the positive reaction, one thing I sensed for sure, and heard it in Cranbrook, and still hear it,  folks are fed up with the present negativity and general goings on in Ottawa in the Office of the Prime Minister and the Duffy Senate affair.

I covered the "Trudeaumania" election campaign in 1968 as a reporter and editor and witnessed it first hand -- but hold on to your seats folks, in my view the son re-ignited the flame on this RV tour. Can he do it again in the Summer of 2015?

Pierre Trudeau led Top Ten list of most inspiring Canadians

Pierre Trudeau

Just imagine that you were the prime minister of Canada and had approved a poll, paid for by the taxpayers, to come up with a Top 10 list of our country's greatest heroes, and you and your political party were essentially shut out by the almost 12,000 Canadians who participated.

Well that's the news Stephen Harper and the Harpercon government received just about this time in 2014, as the result of an online consultation process over several months, conducted as part of the preparations for Canada's 150th birthday in 2017. I wonder if the results have changed a year later.

The Canadian Press announcing the results said that "Canadians have handed the Harper government a Top 10 list of the country’s greatest heroes, featuring some of the Conservative party’s greatest adversaries, past and present."

It is unlikely that the results would ever have seen the light of day had the Canadian Press not obtained them under an Access to Information Act request, even though, we, the taxpayers paid for the project.

In answer to a question "Which Canadians have inspired you the most over the past 150 years?" leading the list was none other than Pierre Trudeau, a name which would most assuredly have sent the Harpercons into a fit of rage. The former prime minister not only made the Top 10, he was Number One.

The rest of the Top 10 list in order were: Marathon of Hope runner Terry Fox; former NDP leader and premier of Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas; former Liberal prime minister Lester B. Pearson; astronaut Chris Hadfield; environmental activist David Suzuki; former NDP leader Jack Layton; Canada's first prime minister, a Conservative, Sir John A. Macdonald; hockey player Wayne Gretzky (who recently endorsed Harper)  and outstanding soldier and recently retired Liberal senator Romeo Dallaire.

To me at least, it looks like a pretty Canadian list, and I was really delighted that Don Cherry did not make the cut. The only Tory was Sir John A. If he was still around, it is highly unlikely he would make it into a Harper cabinet, much less become prime minister leading the Conservative Party as it is constituted today -- Liberal maybe?

Canadian Press reported that the consultation also asked which of Canada’s accomplishments of the last 150 years “make you most proud to be a Canadian?”
The results showed  that medicare topped that list, followed by peacekeeping, then the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms at No. 3.   The  rest in order were: Canada's contribution to World War II; the Canadarm; multiculturalism; contribution to World War I; bilingualism; space exploration, and the Constitution Act of 1982.

Again, although one may switch the preference order of the Top 10, a pretty Canadian type list of what makes us proud to be Canadian, although not exactly the Harpercon view for Canada.
As the Canadian Press story notes for example, the present government has "recently been buffeted by a series of Charter-based losses at the Supreme Court of Canada,  (and) did not mark the 25th anniversary of the Charter in 2007, nor the 30th in 2012."

In October 2015 , Canadians will judge the Harpercons at the polls. Personally, I am proud to be a Canadian, and generally agree with the Top 10 list of those who inspire me and the accomplishments that make me proud. Thanks to the Canadian Press for obtaining the results of the consultation and making them public. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

"The Chapleau Boys Go To War" presented to Cranbrook Public Library

The Chapleau Boys Go To War now has a place in the Cranbrook Public Library following  presentation of a copy to chief librarian Ursula Brigl.

Accompanied by  Ron McFarland a World War II veteran who served in the Royal Canadian Navy,  and Bill Nightingale who served 33 years in the Royal Canadian Air Force,


I presented a copy to Ursula,on behalf of my co-author Michael K McMullen and myself,

To have Ron and Bill take time to attend the presentation, made it especially meaningful, even though they are not "Chapleau Boys", officially, they represented all of them, and all who have served Canada in our nation's armed forces. Thank you so much!

Terry Burgess, treasurer of the Friends of the Cranbrook Public Library, made the arrangements for the presentation, and Ursula Boy, president of friends of the library also attended. Thanks Terry and Ursula.

Bill, Ursula Boy, MJM, Ron, Terrry (Joel Vinge photo)

Thanks to Joel Vinge for being the official photographer.

On a personal note, I have lived in Cranbrook just on 26 years now, and am so delighted that the library agreed to add The Chapleau Boys Go To War to its collection. I often visit Rotary Park here and spend time looking at the names on the Wall of Honour and the Cenotaph from Cranbrook and area who served in the armed forces. Every time is a visit home to Chapleau too.

I am reminded that it is so important to focus on those things bringing us together in this nation, rather than those dividing us. Thanks Ron and Bill.
IF YOU LIVE IN CRANBROOK AREA AND WOULD LIKE A COPY...
My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Making peace by "...overcoming lies with truth and by overcoming evil with good"

Maybe, just maybe, I thought as I mused about  Stephen Harper placing members of Canada's armed forces in harm's way in foreign lands, I should share a few words about war, spoken in 1948 at a Remembrance Day service. I decided to do so.

 Harper seems desperate to have Canada involved in a war -- any war, and more scary, it seems he wants us there for potential political gain as the Conservatives face an election they may very well lose.. Never before in my life have I thought for a moment that a prime minister would so blatantly pursue such an action. .

The following are not my words as I was only seven years old at the time, but I was at St. John's Anglican Church in Chapleau when they were spoken by the Rev. Canon H.A Sims, the Rector, a veteran of World War I.

It is a message that rings as true today as it did three years after the end of World War II, not just for the prime minister and politicians, but for all who would contemplate war or participate in wars today.

Canon Sims said:

"There is not the slightest necessity for civilized men to destroy their civilization in warfare. Nothing is settled by warfare which could not be better settled in some more reasonable, humane and decent way.

"Warfare is caused by men  who have allowed the spirit of the devil rather than the spirit of God to determine their thinking.

"Peace does not come through wishing for it or through praying for it: peace comes only from those who make it; who work harder at making peace than men working at making war.

VI was at the church that night with my family because a memorial prayer desk was being dedicated in memory of my father, Flying Officer James E Morris, who was killed on active service in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1943 during World War II.

In his incredible book, 'The Ordeal of Total War', Gordon Wright tells us that Sir Winston Churchill once commented that the effects of World War II, will be felt by those affected by it for at least 100 years. Trust me, Churchill was right. I am just shy of 74, and have lived with that war every day of my life.

Every time I hear of the death of one of the member of our armed forces, or for that matter police officers, firefighters, and other first responders, my heart goes out to their family and friends. I know. I care and I understand.

Be careful prime minister and members of parliament. The consequences of your actions will be felt for a very long time. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Swimming with dolphins and celebrating four years at the pool

It's time for my yearly celebration but this year it's not all about me marking four years  since I started swimming regularly at the swimming pool, aka Cranbrook Aquatic Centre.

 I had just returned from Orlando, Florida, where I spent time in the pool daily, and my friend Michael Pelzer suggested I continue to do so back here in Cranbrook. Michael has given me lots of great advice over the years, but I thank him again so much for suggesting I swim upon my return home. I have hardly missed a day for my "noodle swim".

Enough already about me. My friends Jessica Portsmouth and Dane Ries, who are also lifeguards at the aquatic centre, recently returned from a vacation in Mexico and agreed to let me share their swim with the dolphins. --- and sharks!

Jessica  related "Swimming with the dolphins was such a wonderful experience! I would love to go back and swim with them longer! Or even have one as a pet!. Honestly it has always been my dream to swim with them! And I never thought I would get to go!"

She added:  "They are such beautiful, wonderful and smart creatures! And I enjoyed every moment I couldn't wipe the smile off my face! 

Jessica also swam with the sharks! "Well.... It's me and I freak out about most things! I was super excited to get to experience swimming with sharks, but when I got there I got a little scared! In other words I screamed a lot. My favourite was to hold was the baby, because I knew he had no teeth so I felt safer!" 

Dane picks up the story.

"Swimming with the Dolphins was an experience I will never forget it was amazing to try something new. I was in awe, and have a whole new respect for the animal. I feel as if people are naturally drawn to them, because of their smile! But then again maybe that was just me hah".

"Being a lifeguard I guess I've always been drawn to water activities, so I have always been excited for the one day I got to swim with dolphins. And the experience definitely did not let me down."

"During my travels I have also been privileged enough to go cage diving with great white sharks and during our Mexico trip Jessica and I got to swim and hold a nurse shark. Although those experiences were like no other, I would choose dolphins again in a heart beat. Mostly because the sharks almost stopped my heart, but that's a whole other story in itself!"

I plan to be at the pool on National Health and Fitness Day, June 6, and although I am admittedly not in top shape as I slowly  reach "the winter of my years", I will be there with my "noodle".

 I will take advantage of the free community swim  and manage to find a small space in the "big" pool to do my laps.Dane presents rope swing video

Dane, Mj, Zach, Jessica, Louis

In 2014. Dane led the team of exceptional lifeguards who made it possible for me to relive a childhood dream and once again do a rope swing into the pool -- although as a kid it was into the cold waters of the Chapleau River or the muddy waters of the Humber River in Toronto,

I extend my sincere thanks to Dane and Jessica and all the exceptional lifeguards who from the first day I went to the pool have looked after me, and made me feel safe and comfortable. Kudos also to the staff at the leisure services desk.

Last word goes to Dane:   "I would recommend the activity to anyone/any age. It was great to learn and interact with the animals, and it's always amazing to try/learn something new!"

Who knows Dane! I am not repeating the rope swing this year, but maybe in due course, a swim with the dolphins may be in order. 

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Bud and Friends Selected as Volunteer Group of the Year 2015

Joel (with Duffy) Caroline, Elsie, Bud, Carol, Sara, Bill

Bud and Friends have been selected as Volunteer Group of the Year for 2015 by The Canadian Mental Health Association of the Kootenays.

The announcement was made at a gala held May 29 at the Casino of the Rockies.

Bud and Friends, on a weekly basis, for the past 20 years, have been singing at nursing homes and assisted living units in Cranbrook and Kimberley.

In addition, they hold a very popular Senior Sing Along at Branch 24 of the Royal Canadian Legion in Cranbrook.

Carol, Joel, Caroline

The group provides an hour of lively singing and engaging their audiences to "sing-a-long" with them from their book of 165 familiar songs.

Bud

The group consists of Bud Abbott, Elsie Barnett, Caroline Gottinger, Sara Kershaw, Bill Nightingale and Joel Vinge and their singing is enthusiastically supported by Carol McGrath on the piano.

Sara, Elsie, Bill

Congratulations to Bud and Friends on being honoured as volunteer group of the year. Much deserved.