By, Jody Wilson-Raybould
Your Mother got this book for me for Christmas...I know she too reminded me that I am on the Right side of things so to speak as the name of my Blog attests. So why would I ask Santa to bring me a book written by a former Liberal Cabinet Minister?
Good Question which I will try to answer and do not worry ...the following is not a Book Review:
You may likely think the Reason that I would request this book is to get the down and dirty on the Lavalin Affair which led to her ouster from Cabinet. But no you'd be wrong since I know as well as you do what transpired with respect to this Scandal. And the same goes with the issue of learning the inner workings of Government since I am quite familiar with that too. Trudeau Senior got it right when he said the ordinary MP was a nobody 50 feet off Parliament Hill. Since then this can be said of Ministers of the Crown.
So why did I want to read Ms. Wilson-Raybould's Book?
It goes back to when I was but 11 or 12 years old when I first got interested in Politics ... I was well and truly bitten at a very young age. It was then that friend Allan Armit and I began putting up Election Signs (sometimes taking a few down) and hanging out in Election Rooms and their in Back Offices. The old pros did not seem to mind and even seem to get a kick out of it.
So I have been steeped in politics - Riding President for the Conservatives, In Organization for the National PC Party and then working for my Member of Parliament - George Hees when he was Minister of Veterans Affairs and Minister of State for Seniors. But the one thing I lacked was to explore the insight of someone who came to power from the outside of Canada's Political Milieu. Jody Wilson-Raybould possessed that something.
She was not new to politics per se - since politics is everywhere but the politics she well knew was due to her active involvement and participation in Affairs of the Assembly of First Nations. She explains in her book how it was like Night and Day different from the way things are handled here in Ottawa.
She explains the difference as follows:
The Liberal Party and indeed All Federal Parties focus is on keeping and holding onto power ...which causes them to move away from core values and principles they profess earlier on.
Indigenous Politics, in contrast, is focused on the collective way of doing things better - seeking consensus not division and one up-man-ship. Securing the best outcome for their people.
The former Justice Minister does not say so specifically but her analysis applies equally to any and all Parties throughout the world that labour in our ever-becoming more delicate Democracies. The bottom-line here is that it would be far better we adopted the Indigenous Way of Conciliatory Politics. Sadly, it will not happen at least in my time.
To better illustrate what I mean here is to reproduce the following passage from her Book which deals with the time after she had left Cabinet and was sitting in the House of Commons as an Independent Member of Parliament:
Looking around at the empty posturing and game playing that is unfortunately all too dominant, I feel like I am in an environment that has lost its soul. The sense of purpose that many hard-working and well-meaning members bring to Ottawa when first elected is obscured in an environment that feels more like the worst reality show than a place where people are truly trying to effect the best change for Canadians.
Amen to that.
Though I share Ms. Wilson-Raybould's opinion on this I do not though share her Progressive Views on many and numerous other topics. For instance she states in her book that one of her proudest moments was in seeing the MAID Legislation pass into law. MAID of course stands for Medical Assistance in Dying which is anathema to me. As a Christian I view life as Sacred and would think that given her Aboriginal Background that she too would be of that belief.
So I would never vote for her but do respect that when the time came to Protect the Rule of Law here in Canada she stood up to the Powers That Be and paid the price for having done so. It also makes me wonder that had she come from the common background for politicians would she have made that same decision.
I fear not.
In closing it brings to mind an exchange I had with another at a Seniors' Discussion Group. He had often razed me for being Christian while he professed to be an Athiest. I could handle the razing and often the issue of MAID came up - he was a big proponent because he said no one needs to suffer pain as part of dying. I said I agreed with part of what he said - in that no one needed to suffer pain and that medications have advanced to the point where that is not necessary. He would shrug that off.
Move ahead a few weeks and he led of the day's discussion bemoaning the fact that his mother-in-lay in a nursing home had been cut off her pain medication because our Province made it very hard to prescribe due to its misuse in the streets. "She was suffering" according to my friend and that it "was not right nor fair".
I shot up my hand and said to Him - 'you have the solution...it is called MAID'.
The colour drained from his face and he never raised the issue with me thereafter.
As I See It...
'K.D. Galagher'
