Category Archives: Thoughts

Consider, Provincial

A Plague on Both.

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The Canuck’s season ending loss, coming on the eve of the provincial elections and dashing dreams of Lord Stanley’s Cup, seems almost Delphic in mature. Victory by either the Liberals or the NDP on the morrow will bring sorrow to the citizens of BC.

The airwaves of BC are full of Gordon Campbell boasting of his and the Liberal party’s prowess on the economic front while ignoring the economic reality that existed worldwide over the Liberals term in office.

By implication the fact that the world economy enjoyed its biggest boom and only a complete idiot would not benefit from the boom had nothing to do with the good economic times. Of course he is quick to lay blame for the economic downturn on the world wide economic downturn even though following his logic on the economic boom should mean that the economic downturn is a result of Liberal economic policy in the same manner as Liberal economic policy was responsible for the boom.

So what else did the Liberals accomplish during the time of economic boom? The wealthy certainly made out like pirates as the Liberals brought about the largest transfer of wealth to the wealthy from working and poor BC Citizens; they managed to increase the number of homeless, poverty, addicts and mentally ill on the streets; increased the numbers of poor and the numbers of working poor; failed to address addiction and mental illness while ignoring effective best practices; ignored the increasing social issues in our society; they refused to consider light rail for the valley even though this was the preferred option of valley residents; they did manage to gloss over that they are less fiscally responsible than they claim as demonstrated by the massive overrun of the convention centre; boldly claimed tax reductions by pretending that fees raised or newly imposed are not taxes; built an unequalled record of questionable ethical behaviours.

Liberal platform, policies, ideology, priorities, record, performance claims and behaviour, taken in concert with the NDP attack ads, drive home the fact that one can give no credence to Liberal claims that they are capable of providing the leadership BC needs at this time. Meaning there is no way one should vote for the Liberals under Gordon Campbell’s leadership.

The NDP remain fiscally irresponsible in not formulating sound fiscal policies or policies reflective of the real world most British Columbians live in; that the first two planks in their election platform have more to do with their two major union supporters and saleability to the public than addressing the truly pressing issues in BC; homelessness, addiction, poverty, the poor and other social issues are not “pretty” but they are major issues facing BC; that they are against the carbon tax (one of the good choices made by Gordon Campbell and Liberals) because as an electorate button pushing issue it is politically convenient, calling into question their commitment to the environment if it is politically inconvenient; they attack the Liberals on issues such as John Van Dongen’s tickets but make excuses for why these standards should not apply when it comes to light their candidates suffer similar lapses; ignore the reality that throwing money at healthcare and education will accomplish nothing until the education and healthcare systems are reformed so new monies invested do not get spent mainly on administration and not providing services.

The NDP platform, policies, ideology, priorities, record, political expediency and behaviour, taken in concert with the Liberal attack ads, drive home the fact that I can give no credence to NDP claims that they are capable of providing the leadership BC needs at this time. Which means there is no way I would vote for the NDP under Carole James’s leadership.

Of course the fact that I sent a question to Carole James at the start of the campaign did not help any. It wasn’t that I did not get a reply that was so aggravating, rather it was that after sending the inquiry I was spammed by the NDP wanting money, money and more money.

When I have expressed my deep regret that there is not a “None of the Above” option to choose people have suggested not voting but not voting is not an option to me. Not voting simply favours and encourages our current politicians in their current slipshod and undesirable behaviours.

Besides I have to go and cast my NO to the Single Transferable Vote (STV) proposition because I feel strongly that STV is not a good or wise change.

An electoral system needs to clear and understandable on how the vote (or votes) a voter is casting will affect the outcome of the vote – as they are casting their ballot. A complicated mathematical system does not meet this most basic requirement, no matter what claims for clarity or the understand-ability by the boosters of STV.

Any system that results in the outcome (who is elected) of the ballot a voter casts being, in the view of the voters, indeterminate or a mystery is not a system that should be used. If the desired goal is to ensure minority parties such as the Greens have representation in the legislature there are better, more direct and simple, reforms that would achieve this.

If the purpose of the reform is to ensure that the legislature reflects the province wide vote totals and percentages I must disagree with this goal. The Province of BC is to diverse not to ensure that ridings are represented as they choose even if it results in a difference between the province wide vote totals and the results on a riding to riding basis.

In our diverse society we should not be applying the bell curve to election results to massage the results into being homogeneous.
My preferred option is not open to me as unfortunately I live in Abbotsford West not Abbotsford South and so cannot cast a ballot for Tim Felger. Yes I know … but can you think of a better way to express and drive home voters dissatisfaction with provincial politicians than to send Mr. Felger to Victoria with them?

With out the Felger option I am left to decide between spoiling my candidate’s ballot or voting Green.

The concept of voters who find themselves disenfranchised by our current electoral system getting out and spoiling their ballots by marking them for all the candidates or none of the candidates holds the possibility of sending a powerful message.

With so many Canadians feeling disenfranchised, feeling they have to choose the least objectionable choice when casting their ballot, Canadians who have stopped voting because “it makes no difference who you vote for” and the pool of voters who are unmotivated to vote there is the potential in all ridings to have more spoiled ballots cast than are cast for the “winning candidate”. This type of result would send a very powerful and clear expression of citizen’s thoughts and the need for reform.

Indeed with the turnout for elections in Canada it could turn out that more spoiled ballots would be cast than ballots for candidates or their parties. Now that would be a message.

To be effective as a message would require a large number of ballots be spoiled which would or perhaps that should be will require time to get the idea out into the public and make it part of the debate about voting options at the next federal or provincial election.

I also am considering the option of voting Green as a way to say that I don’t want either the Liberals or NDP to have a minority government, but prefer a minority government with the Green Party holding the balance of power.

People voted for a minority federal government, many BC citizens would prefer a minority government over having either the Liberals or NDP form a majority government. What does this say about the state of politics and Government and/or the lack of real leadership in BC and Canada?

Consider, Federal, Provincial

A matter of Choice, not Vote.

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It is a matter of choice, not a matter of voting.

The majority of people equate being able to vote with being or living in a democracy. They are wrong.

If it was merely a question of being able to vote in elections then China would be a democracy. After all the Chinese government regularly holds elections for elective office that citizens turn out in their millions to vote in. Yet most Canadians would not consider China to be a democracy.

Why? While Chinese citizens get to vote and are encouraged to vote, they are limited to casting their votes for candidates all of whom are from the Communist Party and approved by the Party. They cannot make a choice onthe policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours of their government.

Democracy is not defined or contingent upon voting; rather it is a matter of choice, the ability to use your vote to choose and/or have a say in the policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours of the government.

Since incorrect policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours by the government will give rise to negative, perhaps very negative, outcomes – citizens want to choose MLAs and a government that will pursue policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours that will bring about positive outcomes.

If, as in the current BC provincial election, only bad policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours are offered to choose among, without some way to reject the bad choices citizens are denied the ability to make a choice that will have positive outcomes.

In being denied the ability to choose policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours that will have positive outcome; citizens am denied the ability to choose.

It is the inability to choose, to vote for desired, policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours that makes the current provincial election an undemocratic election.

Indeed given the current state of elections in BC and throughout Canada, denying as they do citizens the ability to choose policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours they want their government(s) to pursue, Canada has ceased to be a democracy.

While Canada has not yet become as undemocratic as China, until we as a country adopt election legislation that presents citizens with a range of choices reflective of desirable policies, direction, priorities, practices or behaviours or enables citizens to reject all choices if they are considered unacceptable – elections will be undemocratic in nature and Canada will not be a democracy.

Consider, Federal, Provincial

Current BC election illegal and undemocratic?

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The judgement that emerges from a deliberate consideration of the choices being offered BC voters in our current BC provincial election is that this election is no more free and democratic than elections in China.

In China voters “choose” from among candidates presented to them from the Communist Party.

Our provincial BC politicians would undoubtedly claim that citizens can “choose” from among the candidates and various political parties.

The problem is what, as is the case in the current election, if none of the choices offered are acceptable?

This is exactly the situation that more and more citizens find themselves in at election time and either have no one to cast a ballot for or, if they want some kind of say, are forced to vote for the least objectionable.

If citizens are denied their right to vote because there is not a candidate who they want to choose to represent them or are forced to vote for the “least objectionable” choices then these citizens have been denied their right to vote for candidates of their choice.

Therefore it follows that the current election in BC is not occurring in a “free electoral system” and thus is not a democratic process.

This is the exact position I find myself in. No party or candidates are addressing the issues and priorities I deem most important. I also find myself with serious policy differences with the positions taken by the parties and their candidates.

In a democracy one would have the option of addressing this lack of acceptable choices among those being offered by choosing to run oneself. Indeed in the municipal election in November of 2008 I was able to exercise my Charter guaranteed right to seek office and thus raise issues.

In BC my right to seek office and be heard is denied me in violation of my Charter rights, a right acknowledged by Elections BC on their own website.

Livings in poverty I am prevented from participating and seeking office through the imposition of the $250 fee required in filing the appropriate documents and running in the election. There are tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of poor and those living in poverty who are in a similar situation and denied the right to run or be represented by peers through the agency of the filing fee.

My right to run is a Charter right and I could seek to have my rights recognized and enforced by the Supreme Court of Canada. All I would need is the money to hire effective legal representation. Of course if I had that kind of money I could afford the $250 and the point would be moot. Catch – 22.

Whether it is tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or simply me – the current electoral system violates our/my Charter rights to seek election, to be represented by peers and/or to vote for candidates of ones choice.

Thus the current BC election is undemocratic in nature. Any results arising from this election can no more be called democratic or claimed to represent the will of the people than an election in a nation such as China can.

Further, since it violates the Charter rights of BC citizens, this election is illegal and any outcome tainted by that illegality.

Addiction, Caveat emptor, Consider, Issues

Bacons and the drug war.

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Listening to the news coverage of the arrest and murder charges against a Bacon brother I was left shaking my head.

What had me shaking my head was the implication and statements in the report that this was somehow a major success in the drug war in the lower mainland – it wasn’t.

It was a success the legal system and the family of the innocent people killed in that Surrey condo. An extremely expensive “success” that requires millions of dollars more to carry through and attain convictions.

Leaving one to ponder just how many more of these multi-millions of dollars “successes” we can afford and how are we going to pay for them?

But in terms of the drug war in the lower mainland the only real effect it will have is to change some of the players. Reality: even if the police went out and arrested and jailed everyone in the illegal drug business in the lower mainland right now, in a matter of hours people would be stepping in to take advantage of the lucrative employment opportunities in the drug business, in days the business would be flourishing again with a new cast of characters and be back to “fully staffed” in short order thereafter.

The drug trade sings its siren song of impossible promises of pleasure in the same manner as politicians and governments make impossible promises and when reality turns out to be something quite different it is the victims of the promises who suffer the consequences. When circumstances intervene to remove players through arrests or election losses the players are simply replaced by others.

As is the case in government we will have no effect on changing behaviours in the drug business until such time as citizens accept the reality of these businesses and choose to change our behaviours in order to bring about changes that will produce the positive outcomes we want – good government and taking the billion dollar profits and violence out of the drug trade.

Until such time we as citizens are willing to change our behaviours, rather than continuing to make the same choices and employ the same behaviours hoping that this time things will turn out differently (which is insane), we are going to keep on getting the same pointless and unacceptable results.

The difference at this point in history, as opposed to our past, is that Canada can no longer afford this type of behaviour. Economic, environmental and social systems no longer have any slack or fat in the systems. Every dollar wasted in programs and policies that do not achieve positive outcomes inflicts damage, pain, suffering and negative consequences on a wide range of Canadians and Canadian society.

Government or the illegal drug business: Canada cannot any longer afford to merely change the cast of characters. We have to think, think, and think. Then make the difficult choices that, while we may wish we did not have to make them, reflect the real world we live in and will affect positive results and a bright future for all Canadians – not just the privileged few.

We have squandered our easy choices on ineffective behaviour and as a result have left ourselves having to make hard choices if we want to remain Canadians and a Canada that makes us proud to declare “I AM Canadian.”

Consider, Issues

Wellness should not depend on Luck

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I get interesting email ideas and questions from students spanning grade school to university about homelessness, addiction and mental health. This is due to the fact that if you google Abbotsford and homelessness, at or near the top of the results is homelessinabbotsford.com with its email link to me.

In recent weeks I had spoken to several university students doing papers for their classes with questions on homelessness, addiction, mental health, the current system and what I would do to end homelessness and address addiction and mental health.

One comment I made to all the inquirers was that if you set out to deliberately design a system to not only keep people down but to beat them down, frustrate their efforts to get back on their feet and strip them of self esteem – it would look pretty much like our current system.

In a twisted quirk of fate I am, as I write this, currently living one of the (many) nightmares that those on the Ministry of Housing and Income Assistance disability constantly live with as we struggle to rebuild our lives.

At $375 per month the rent portion of welfare is ridiculously inadequate. It takes the $375 plus all, nearly all or more than all of the $235 ($282 on disability) monthly living allowance to pay the rent for a safe, healthy home environment.

Yes one can find places cheaper but those places are neither safe nor healthy. When you are working on recovery and wellness a home space that is both healthy and safe is vital.

I have watched people who were honestly struggling to find and stay in recovery and wellness, have their efforts destroyed by being forced to live in unhealthy and unsafe housing. This is one of the reasons I say that it is as if the system is designed to break people down and keep them down.

I feel so strongly about the importance of environment to wellness and recovery that when I had to move out of the supported independent living spot I was in I chose to move back into my car for the two additional months it took me to find a safe and healthy place. A place I have been in for near a year and a half and that supports my continued recovery and staying in wellness.

Given that my life is still moving forward in a positive manner the decision to live in my car for those two months, while an inconvenience, was the right decision for my recovery and wellness.

I said additional months because I had spent the two months before I had to move out searching for someplace to move into. When a place I judged acceptable for pursuit of recovery and wellness failed to be found I moved into my car rather than become another victim of being forced into an unhealthy environment.

Four months. It took me four months to find my place and I have a large network of people and contacts that were helping me look. Indeed, it was one of these people who not only found my place but whose landlord recommended me to my landlord.

One of the problems of having found oneself homeless is that you do not have a ready current reference for yourself as a tenant. Couple the lack of references with the prejudice that is attached to the term homeless and the problem is not only finding housing but being accepted as a tenant.

Given the rent levels in Abbotsford and the problems that simply being homeless causes in being accepted as a tenant it is far harder for the homeless to find safe, healthy housing that most people realize it is.

Safe, healthy affordable housing is a scarce precious commodity that is an integral part of wellness and recovery. The community of Abbotsford must demand that governments at all levels, municipal, provincial and federal, make a priority of bringing into being the hundreds of units of this type of housing desperately needed in our community.

Losing safe, healthy affordable housing and ending up homeless and on the streets again is mentally and emotionally devastating.

My monthly cheque covers my rent. Now fortunately being on disability I am allowed to earn up to an additional $500 a month. Phone, insurance, gas, internet, pool pass, old debt repayment and office supplies leaves me with a surplus of $20 – $30 a month as long as gas stays under $1 per litre. As it rises above that $1 level money gets tighter and tighter for me as it does for most people.

And no the pool pass is not a luxury. Swimming is, for me, the difference between walking and not walking; for being able to get out and accomplish things relatively pain free and being confined to bed where simply getting up and going to the bathroom leaves me covered in a cold sweat from agonizing back pain. Swimming keeps my back and back muscles in shape so that most days I am mobile and the pain level is such that I can live and deal with it.

I still cannot fathom how it is that Income Assistance does not consider a phone a necessity if one is going to find a job or simply for emergency use.

Not only does my budget not contain money for food, there is also no money to put away for those emergencies life throws at us such as car repairs or any other of the many somethings that require money to address. Honesty requires me to admit that using a change jar over the past 18 months did allow me to save up the $100 I recently had to spend on a new car battery.

A belt on my car broke. Now a broken belt is an annoyance but at $23.42 falls within the discretionary spending limits of my budget.

Unfortunately, shortly after installing the new belt the real problem announced itself with a horrific squeal and the engine temperature gauge soaring.

I was afraid it was the water pump which would be the end of the car because there was no way I could afford the cost of the repair and where would I find another $100 car that was as reliable as mine had proved to be for the past 18 months?

Sitting there with my anxiety threatening to turn into a full blown panic attack the ringing of my phone was a lifeline of a distraction. The friend who had helped install the new belt in the parking lot of Canadian Tire called to see how it was working. When I related the new belt had been eaten by the engine and that I had concluded it was the water pump and a disaster as I had never had an alternator that needed replacing seize. “Oh no it could be the alternator” he said.

A trip to the car revealed the water pump turned fine but the alternator stuck and when it turned you could hear the bearings grind. The pulley wheel on the alternator also had a large lump of melted belt material on it.

Hmmm. Not a total disaster then as an alternator is a cheaper repair still….
That is cheap in auto repair terms which in the case of an alternator range $190 – $350, depending on finding an appropriate rebuilt alternator or being forced to buy new.

Even at best case scenario of $190 that $190 has to come out of my budget someplace. Rent must be paid. Insurance comes out of the bank automatically. I have to swim to walk.

I can minimize my driving by not attending any of the committees, meetings or board meetings I participate or am a member of. Such actions would be extremely unhealthy to take from the mental health aspect of my life and would have consequences for others and the community as a whole.

Even cutting back gas it would still require not paying other bills in order to have the cash to pay for repairs.

This is why a car repair or any emergency that requires as little as $200 is one of the nightmares those on limited incomes live with as a day to day reality.

You get behind and you have started down the slippery slope that leads to homelessness, where even the $23.42 cost for an engine belt is now a problem pushing you out the door and onto the streets.

It is a nightmare you live with because even if you have been fortunate enough not to have been down this path to the streets (and I have been down that path) you know people who have been; know people currently in this or a similar situation who are struggling to stay off the streets.

A possible reality that gnaws at you day after day, undermining you mental health, until and unless you learn to accept that there is nothing you can do about it except let it go and focus on wellness and recovery.

Until the laws of probability catch you and you are face to face with such an emergency. At which point any gnawing worries are lost in the face of anxiety, panic attacks, depression, agoraphobia and the possibility of homelessness.

Your life implodes, mental health wellness and recovery disappears into the black pit you mind becomes and you are back on the streets struggling to survive – never mind get well or into housing.

This is why I have a WRAP plan; a Wellness Recovery Action Plan. When the *bleep* hits the fan and you are staring at the black abyss of plunging back into the dark depths of your mental illness; when your brain is heading so far into overdrive that rational thought is beyond you; when your thoughts are racing at the speed of light in endless circle; you can pull out your emergency sanity kit and break out of the downward spiral.

Forget base jumping or bungee jumping for shear heart pounding terror there is nothing like teetering on the edge of madness looking down into the abyss.

Which is where I found myself the other day and the fact that I managed to back away from the edge is why I find WRAP an invaluable tool of recovery and mental health.

It was by following my WRAP plan, that when it developed that an alternator for a 1987 Plymouth Turismo of the subspecies Duster is a rare bird meaning that I was facing putting a new alternator in, I dealt with it.

While I do not know all the details of the final outcome of this matter as I write this, I am calm about the matter. Mainly because as far as my mind is concerned the matter is dealt with since it is in the hands of competent and good people and the little hiccup, the weekend delay in not getting it resolved until Monday, is neither here nor there.

Little hiccup? There was only one alternator in the warehouse and when it was installed and tested it was found to be faulty. Getting a replacement in will take several days, hence the delay until Monday in getting my car back.

When the fine gentleman responsible for the repair apologized for the problem I told him I considered it an inconsequential minor inconvenience and I was just truly grateful that the matter was, to all intents and purposes, resolved. That having the matter resolved allowed me to find my serenity and that was the important concern for me.

Sitting here typing this I am calm and relatively serine because of having a WRAP plan. I facilitate WRAP groups to “pass on” to others the boon that I have found in the plan.

I say relative serenity because, as I shared with a friend, I was and am most fortunate to have people to reach out to who could and did help me out on the matter of the alternator. Thank you seems so inadequate to express the immense gift they have given me. This is not the type of gift you can repay, but you can pass it on to others.

But what about those others? I had and have people I could reach out to for help dealing with my car problems. Our current assistance system is loaded with people dealing with the same financial reality, the same grinding poverty, that live with. What happens to those people when one of their financial nightmares occurs?

Without help my most viable option would be standing on the street somewhere with a sign asking for donations to repair the alternator, the brake pads and rotors or deal with whatever small disaster needs a relatively small amount of cash to deal with it. My $200 share of the repair may yet find me out there with a sign.

Standing there humiliated and knowing that most people think it is money just for drugs (admittedly often the case) but having no other choice but to swallow your pride and beg.

As I said the system beats you down and strips you of any self-esteem.

The soul devouring reality of disaster being one small emergency away is a fact of life for all those without supporters to whom they can reach out and ask for help.

My luck is not the type that is going to win me the 6-49 millions; my luck is the more valuable type that has put people who will help me over the rough spots into my life.

Luck is not what a persons wellness, recovery and future should depend on and any system were a person’s wellness, recovery and future depends on luck is in need of serious change.