Second Ramble 06 2006

Well, it has been a long week. It was the first week back to school after the Christmas Break. At our house the Christmas Break refers to my father-in-law’s hip fracture that occurred on December 23. We had a two week holiday , not a rest. Today, after my lunch time library supervision, I filled the afternoon assisting my father-in-law’s transfer to the manor’s respite room where he will spend a week recovering. He’ll be able to spend time with his beloved wife, who resides at the manor permanently, and he will have easy access to physio-oh-oh.

I did take time out to watch the Great Debate between the leaders of the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP, and Bloq. For my observations on this see my comments on Antonia Zerbisias’ Media Blog pages(Toronto Star). I also took my Media class to hear the local candidates present their platforms and answer the students’ questions. See pics here. We took part of another class period to deconstruct the speeches as media texts: "Who was the intended target audience? What was the message?".

We have a large riding , Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing, and the communities are spread apart and are not all directly connected by roads or flight. I do not envy the candidates’ many hours of traveling. The incumbent is a Liberal, Brent St Denis. The signs in town feature Brent’s name and the Liberal Party. Paul Martin’s name was not featured, unlike the NDP signs which feature both Jack Layton and Carol Hughes’ names. Brent is selling his excellent track record as a community representative. Carol emphasizes her strong community activist efforts, the NDP platform as well as the party leader’s strengths.

The Conservatives only recently put up any signs. These feature the Conservative name and logo ( still want to refer to them as PC’s , till I think of the leader and the word progressive goes right out the window). Some of the signs also have the name of the candidate, Ian West. He seems really young ( but then more and more people seem really young), as he emphasized with the students. Another young candidate is Sarah Hutchinson of the Green Party. Boy I am feeling older and older.

There are two additional candidates, an independent, Donald Polmateer, and William Morin of the First Peoples National Party. Mr. Polmateer could not attend the school presentation. His concerns include gun control, increased violent crime, veterans, and water ( especially among First Nation Communities). Mr. Polmateer has applied for Metis status.

The First Peoples National Party platform can be found here. I’ll need a whole other Ramble to explore the ideas presented in the document. I’ll close with this observation; we have had over 130 years of essentially two parties controlling the political power in Canada, and we complain about how things remain the same. If we looked at alternative parties and do not just use them to somehow punish or threaten the Liberals and (no longer Progressive) Conservatives, we might actually get something different. Could it be that too many Canadians really just want to complain about the status quo not change it ?

First Ramble 06 2006

Welcome to this ramble through the Dark Pines of an middle aged diabetic Canadian who is too busy to update a regular blog. Between teaching at Elliot Lake Secondary School, maintaining web sites for the high school, my English and Media classes, & my wife's art-business, AND assisting my wife in the day-to-day raising of our teenage son and eleven year old daughter my thoughts ramble and roll.

I didn't mention that our daughter has the the special challenge of Downs and my inlaws havw recently moved to the community. My mother-in-law is in the grips of Alzheimer's Disease and my father-in-law fractured his hip December 23. The holiday break has left our family somewhat stressed.

Well, why post my ramblings ? The obvious reason - I need to vent and relieve stress. The less obvious reason is my interest as an educator and Media Teacher in the quickly evolving forms of communication. So as a typical teacher I am once again combining personal interest with the job. Teachers are constantly drawing on their personal experience and blending it with the professional demands of their occupation. We sometimes have trouble turning off the TEACHER even when we are "relaxing" and living like Normal people.

So that does it for the first post. I have rambled enough. Let's see if I can post this thing and link it to my other web creations.

ELSS Library Online

ELSS Teachers' Web Pages

KB Creations for Celebrations