Category Archives: Consider

Consider, Issues

How does anyone survive …

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I acknowledge that my depression is currently, as it likes to from time to time, making my life and simply functioning extremely challenging. Nevertheless I do not believe that is the reason I find myself feeling that Abbotsford’s City Song should be Gene Pitney’s ”town without pity”. Be that as it may, read and judge for yourself:

I first met Dave when I was homeless myself and he was attending and graduating from the R.I.T.E. program at Triangle Resources. Over the years since then I have spoken to Dave sometimes frequently, sometimes infrequently. Over that period he suffered the ups and downs of many of the homeless as they struggle with life and drugs while falling in and out of housing – good, bad and ugly housing.

The one thing that never changed over the time I have know Dave is my evaluation that what he needed to do well, perhaps even thrive, was pro active supportive housing.

Finding oneself forsaken to the streets has health consequences that are costly for the medical system and all too frequently fatal for the homeless.

I ran into Dave last night pushing his loaded shopping cart along and he was looking far too gaunt. It seems that he was recently told that cancer has reduced his life expectancy to a matter of weeks. And our government and our (laughable) social safety net still have left him living on the streets and pushing his cartload of meagre possessions around Abbotsford.

Then there is the case of the gentleman whose camp the City of Abbotsford and Abbotsford Police Department felt compelled to destroy, leaving him without shelter on what was perhaps the coldest night of last winter during the coldest spell of weather of said past winter.

Since beggars cannot be choosers, especially where shelter during a killer cold snap is concerned, the gentleman in question ended up finding shelter in a crack house – ironic in that he was not a drug user.

I heard today that the police were seeking him in connection with or as a result of his involvement with that crack house. Ah yes, the criminalization of homelessness – even more fun than harassing the homeless even though they have nowhere to go.

Now I have no doubt both the City and Abbotsford Police will beat their breasts and claim it is not their fault because of … whatever rationalization they decide to lay claim to. Notwithstanding their claims of non-culpability, if you start a boulder rolling downhill you bear accountability for what gets smashed when it reaches the bottom of the hill.

Then there is the kid, yes he is twenty but he is still a kid, who is hyperactive, has the attention span of a gnat, and has mental challenges and the challenges that arise from his upbringing. All of which make him a handful and a challenge (OK pain if the butt) to deal with.

However the reality of his situation is that he is not capable of functioning well enough to jump through all the hoops the system imposes on his own, he is literally his own worst enemy and he needs to be in supportive housing if he is to have any chance of a life.

Getting this young man into the housing and connected with the services and programs he needs is time intensive. In other words somebody somewhere in the system needs to invest the hours, more likely days, to get him properly connected since he is not capable of going and doing what needs to be done on his own.

On this subject, I told one of our Liberal candidates at the candidates meeting at Community Services on poverty that if the Liberals were re-elected and ever really wanted to actually reduce homelessness etc to call me. I also stated that programs need to be outcome focused rather than focused on generating nice, but meaningless, numbers.

For example: If you add up all the numbers cited by various organizations in Abbotsford for the numbers of homeless housed and those gotten into treatment you will find that we not only do not have any homeless or addicts on our streets, we have negative numbers of homeless and addicted on the streets. A very neat trick you must agree.

Numbers, without being in the context of outcomes, are for the most part meaningless in determining whether a program is actually accomplishing, or contributing to accomplishing, the goal or desired results.

Catch twenty-two for the young man. Even if people were not avoiding or refusing to deal with him because of the challenges he represents, they would not be investing time and effort on one human being when that time could be used to take actions that would generate lots of nice numbers to cite to justify the program.

Because he is hard to deal with as a result of his personal challenges and that it would require a large investment of one on one time, the young man finds himself on his own, effectively abandoned to the streets.

With his personal challenges the consensus on the street is that he is going to end up victimized, beaten or dead or in jail unless he gets the help he needs delivered in the way he needs. It should be about what he needs, not about the convenience of those charged with delivering services.
Three individuals whose paths have crossed mine in the last twenty-four hours and you need care, One of whom I witnessed nice words spoken and undertakings made on behalf of, which remain mere words. All the fancy words and undertakings are worthless unless they are turned into actions.

Three people: the dying, the criminalized and the likely dead or criminalized. Is it or is it not fathomable why the Gene Pitney song lyrics run through my mind when I reflect on the situation each of these gentleman finds himself in?

No, it isn’t very pretty what a town without pity – Can do.

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.