Me and the Library

The library in Fort Smith was opened in 1971. The architect was the same one who designed the town hall. In my years working at the library I often thought it would have been better if it had not had one tall dark wall fronting on McDougal Road, which is the main drag, and all the welcoming windows facing the back of the drug store.  I guess it had to be built that way in order to fit it into the narrow space available.  People might have been more drawn to it if they had been able to see into the warm welcoming interior from the street.

Citizens of Fort Smith, some who stayed around and some who moved on, helped raise money toward its construction with bake sales, flea markets, raffles, auctions, and under the leadership of Mayor Paul Kaeser, who considered it an important cultural issue to have a good library, it got built.

The Territorial Government had an excellent person hired as head of the Territorial Library Services. She was charged with getting the community libraries up and running; shelves stocked, staff hired.

Mary Darkes, who had been a teacher and a hard worker in the undertaking, I went to work after the opening as Assistant Librarian, which meant checking books in and out, shelving books and recommending reading materials to patrons. The collection was excellent and kept up to date. At that time there was a library page hired to help out on Saturdays and busy week nights. The staff was paid, strangely, by both the Territorial government and the town, which caused much confusion in subsequent years.

Many years later I was asked if I would serve on the Library Board and I said yes. It was a good board made up of interested people. On staff was an excellent creative librarian who ran so many wonderful programs that sometimes the library statistics rivalled those of the recreation center.
The Library Board had encouraged the writing of the book Wooden Boats, Iron People and through their marketing had made a sizable amount of money, which it had voted to use for enrichment equipment and activities for the library. It was not to be used for paying staff or for general acquisitions.

On thing the board did buy before the conflict over the money began was a Lego game which they thought would appeal to boys of the 11-13 age. The conflict came about because when the mayor and administration of the town discoverd the money they laid claim to it. When they were told no they set about on a campaign of harassment of board and librarian.

They had the library board folded into a general recreation board and caused so much stress to the librarian she ended up on stress leave.

Since thee was no longer a board I was out of a job and I have no idea where the money ended up, although I can guess.

I have decided to make this a  green site – as in I will search for clever and creative green energy solutions in countries around the world that the Canadian government should know about and perhaps emulate, since it doesn’t seem to be interested in any kinds of energy solution but the petroleum one.  When the Liberal government was elected I, and many other citizens, expected it to go full force into green energy 0production, but it didn’t.

 

Who is responsible for this deficit in democracy

The moderator on CPAc says it is just too too bad if there is such a low vote turn out in Canada. That is the personal choice of Canadians and no one can do anything about it. It seems to me a government concerned with the Canadian people and not its own power would make it a goal to do increase voter turn out. Governments do attempt to do this in Europe. But a government concerned with its own power will not. Countries with proportional representation do have higher turn outs. The moderator on CPAC said that he guessed the matter was off the table for the next four years. To heck with what the people might want I guess.

Here I am the morning after in Canada

trying to digest the happenings of the night before. I know 60% of eligible Canadian voters cast their vote and I know that 40% or thereabouts cast their votes for the Conservatives but it seems to me that only means 24% of eligible voters voted conservative. I ask myself if this really adds up to a real majority and I answer myself with a NO.

I am so in love with the idea of proportional representation and I know the NDP is also but if they can’t make the conservatives behave like they belong in a real representative government what can we all do about it.

Fair vote Canada drones on and on and I don’t know whether enough people are involved with them to make a difference. I have the feeling that if the whole rest of the 76% of the country was sitting on the lawn of the parliament buildings the conservatives still wouldn’t listen to them. Maybe they would send in the fuzz andthrow them all in their new prisons.

Climate Scientist Sues national Post

I was interested to read in the Guardian Weekly that a leading Canadian climate scientist is suing the National Post and three of its writers for grossly irresponsible falsehoods – two of the lies being that annual mean global temperatures have ceased to increase and that climate models are falling apart. This might put an end to climate change deniers lies. Imagine a newspspaper downright lying.
AND he is also suing several, as yet unknown posters on the paper’s online comment section, for calling him a hypocrite and a fraudster, accusing him of being a rat leaving a sinking ship of lies and red herrings and hysteria, and saying he should be thrown under a bus. Perhaps this might be a warning to people about what kinds of lies and insults they post on online comment sections

The Armageddon Factor

Perhaps the publication of the book The Armageddon Factor will be the catalyst for the discussion we should be having in this country about the fundamentalist beliefs of the Harper Conservatives and how they affect public policy. This has been the elephant in the room ever since that party has come to power. Their beliefs affect policy on climate change, public spending, law and order, foreign policy, the atmosphere in the House of Commons and everything else about how our government is operating these days.

I know it’s considered impolite to comment on others religious beliefs but when those beliefs are informing decisions made for everyone in the country they must be talked about publicly.

Conservatives at 34.4 in the Polls

What puzzles me is why the conservatives are still only at 34.4 in the polls. They have had all the country’s resources at their disposal for 5 years and have spent a good deal of them advertising themselves and putting on circuses to look good and seem important (the Olympics, endless military ceremonies, royal visits), spent wildly to buy us, even hired, at our expense, a stylist to make the PM look better, and still they are only at 34.4. That’s the real story.

Coalition Government Makes Sense

Germany has had coalition governments since the second world war. Their system was structured that way so that no one could ever again rise to power the way Hitler did. Instead of being a bad thing coalition governments have resulted in a strong economy in which tough adjustments have been made. It’s changes through consensus takes longer but are less divisive than first past the post decision making. The coalition building takes quite a long time too but is an opportunity for lots of good discussion to make the decisions instead of one party making them, often for their own political advantage. The countries of northern Europe all have coalition governments as the result of proportional representation and they work very well. There is a reason why only Canada and Britain have been left behind. It’s because the party in power knows it’s to it’s disadvantage to support it.

Tough on Crime Costs

Tough on Crime and What it Costs
“Pilot studies for the national addiction centre at King’s College London suggest allowing users to inject heroin under medical supervision could cut local crime rates by two-third in six months. Of the sample of heroin users studied, three-quarters substantially reduced their use of street bought drugs, spending 50 pounds per week down from 300 pounds per week. The number of crimes they committed fell from 1,731 in three months to 547 in six months.” In spite of the fact the math seems a little strange, it appears to prove something I have always thought true – legally supply addicts and you remove the incentive for pushers to operate and addicts to commit crimes. And offer addiction services with it. But I’m sure the police forces are not up for this because we would need less of them. And Conservatives would probably be convinced we would all rush to get our share of the free heroin. I can’t figure out if it would feel terrible, or in some crazy way wonderful, to believe that if some controls were lifted everything would degenerate into chaos and people would sink into the worst kind of moral decrepitude – except for oneself of course. And if while planning harsher punishment for others, one happens to make a young woman pregnant in an extramarital affair , necessitating a divorce from one’s longtime spouse, one won’t count that.

More about Shatner

And maybe raisin bran would help move things along in parliament so to speak. A few of those MPs are too sedentary by half. Soon they may have to do what the airlines did and enlarge the seats. Or get out and  get some exercise. Whenever I see them on TV I think of the 60 year old Swede and wonder where he is now. Must be those wonderful lunches in the parliamentary cafeteria. Perhaps the MPs would not be quite so anal and nasty if Shatner was there with his raisin bran. Perhaps Rob Nicholson might smile and stop shaking his finger and John Baird might use his indoor voice.

And maybe he could also use his space ship to instantly transport himself from here to there at no cost to the public. He has to remember he is in the richest country on earth but one where everyone is consumed with how much everything costs so that we can never do any real innovations at all without everyone squalling like injured cats. AND NO, conservative promotion at public expense is NOT innovation. And neither is having massive armies of police and soldiers to protect people who come here to meetings and events. They’ve been doing that in banana republics for yonks.