--Morning Frost

FTLComm - Tisdale - November 16, 2000

As November moves toward December the days grow shorter and the late rising of the sun adds charm and beauty to each day. These pictures were taken around 8:45 this morning and begin with this scene on the right from the North East corner of town looking over the Doghide and from that view it just seemed right to head out East and catch that morning light as it washed the East side of the community. The solid over cast of the early morning was rapidly breaking up as the warmth of the sun caused the gray to dissipate into a light rash.

A mile East of town along highway #3 the sun caught this grove of trees giving the appearance of hoar frost but in fact throughout the night there had been little flurries of fluffy snow that has been collecting on the tree branches and everything else giving us a bright and white morning. Two miles East it was time to turn South and see what the sun was doing to the open

country. About a mile or

so South is a great farm yard with the morning light pouring through the poplar grove on the farm's North side, which gave us the picture at the top of this page. The picture on the right and the one below show us the apparent fragile skinny trees and the mottled morning sky. It is light that makes the difference about what we see, low angle, or high, crisp or diffuse, our perception and that of the camera lens are slaves to the illumination that reveals what is and what could be. Its hard not to see the similarities between the sunlight and the attention given the politicians as an

election marches along. With the light of the past week shining on the Alliance's Alberta view of Medicare and every man and woman for himself or herself the party has attempted to turn attention from that arena toward its other social goals. Its hard line on crime, especially young offenders, its desire to destroy the First Nations treaties and its wish and intent to keep out foreigners from immigrating to Canada. It is not surprising that cries of bigotry and prejudice immediately arise often those views that Alliance party member espouse are precisely the views we associate with prejudice and bigotry

Perhaps the issue should be, is this a just condemnation of the Alliance leaders and their candidates. Each issue by itself seems only modestly offensive but taken as a group, viewed in the light of the big picture, with a wider angle this is not the sort of view we Canadians like to have of ourselves. We are a nation of immigrants, we owe the peaceful use of the land to the First Nations and Canadian young people are among the most law abiding people in the world, well at least the ones I meet. With Albertans supposedly the most wealthy people in the country because of their low taxation and American style government why than is this Canadian Alliance party sounding like they wear uniforms and click their heels?

You might want to look over Alan Fotheringham's editorial in the last issue of MacLeans and see what he has to say about the Canadian Alliance leader. Fotheringham does not like our humble Prime Minister and says that this leader from Alberta needs to be given a chance but at the same time he points out that the man is more than just a little short on education. Apparently he went to school in Montreal, got his high school went to U of Victoria where he dropped out, then went to a holy roller college for Pentecostal ministers where he also dropped out.

Check out the other leaders and you will see each one with a solid academic and earned reputation, people who have worked and achieved. Chretien, Clark and McDonogh all excelled in their post secondary education and all have put their education to good work. Clark has been in politics all his life served in cabinet and was prime minister, Chretien was an outstanding lawyer served in cabinet and has been a successful prime minister and McDonogh has a good education and was a more than successful provincial politician. We need to see things in

the light of the morning,

in the light of the mid day, the late afternoon and night. Our view and our perspective must encompass the reality of time and place. These trees in this pleasant farm yard protect this farm house and its inhabitants from the fury of the wind, the excesses of the sun. They are there to serve and protect day in and day out. We need government like these trees, something we can trust, something we can rely upon and something that will not infringe on our lives or try to impose on us a life style or system that will place us in jeopardy. Enough about our problems perhaps we ought to fret a little about the plight of our

neighbours to the South.

Close elections are standard fare here in Canada within the past year we had an election result sorted out in the courts and had to go to a by-election to get that seat settled. No big deal, democracy works. The US presidential election is not a crisis. They have a whole month to figure out what to do and so what if they are a little anxious about the outcome. The voters of the US have spoken and both the Democrats and the Republicans need to consider the large number of voters who chose not to vote at all and those who voted for third party alternatives. Their two party system is really the issue and both the parties have to look deep and hard at themselves to determine what they need to do to reflect

more accurately the needs of the American voter. Perhaps the most laughable part of the Florida fiasco are the ridiculous ballots that were in use. The whole Florida vote was designed for trouble from the very beginning and explains a good deal of the stupid wrangling we have seen since then. I am confident that Bush knows he has lost and that after the court dust settles Albert Gore will be sworn in at the January inauguration But by far the best scenario is one that they will not do, that would be to vote in Florida again with a proper "made in Canada" ballot.