Here's the ultimate history lesson... everything was worse before. My father used to say that he could remember when The Good Old Days were called "These Trying Times". Today a cannonball crashed from history into modern Quebec city. A live round from 1759 was uncovered in the city by work crews. An artifact of a half forgotten war. Nothing could more forcefully impose itself on the present than a live bomb. Nothing could be a more stark reminder that the past was fundamentally different - worse - than our present. CBC Image from July 15th Protest The importance of retaining historical ideas within their context is crucial to reading and interpreting the past. Some of the most important memorials are formed by freezing the frame of a lived moment of history. Jewish concentration camps, left as they were, remote and silent, are a chilling reminder of Nazi horror; Nelson Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island says more about his incarceration and resilience than any exhibit. The 'feedback loops' of history are also worth recording and remembering. In Halifax today we're having an interesting discussion about how to think about statues of historic figures like the modern city's English founder Edward Cornwallis. This week the Halifax Examiner published an interesting article that investigated the public narrative view of the 1931 erection of the statue of Cornwallis. When Cornwallis School was similarly renamed I couldn't help but think about the builders of the school in 1948, then men and women who where just beginning to see the light after a decade of war and its aftermath darkened the world. They built the school as a living temple to the thing they believed would solve the problems of the past and point the rising generations - us - to a better future... Education. They weren't vexed by the Cornwallis issue. He was simply and uncontroversially named the founder of their town which they loved. Today the elite who set our public narrative and provide the content for others to read look on the people of 1759, and 1931, and 1948 as benighted fools; people disconnected from the knowledge, the moral and ethical superiority we all have simply by virtue of our place in the present. The truth is much has been lost. We are the disconnected ones. We're separated not just from our communities but from the spiritual and natural world around us; we've not been educated in the fundamentals of reason, logic, argument that would have made occasions like the discussion of the Cornwallis statue opportunities for improvement. Without the ability to argue we end up with argument's poor cousins - fussing and fighting, and worse, political 'slow walks', a new type of discourse that breaks down responsibility and accountability into small forgettable pieces over a long timeline and layered bureaucracy so that decisions are made but no one is actually responsible for making them or accounting for their meaning. In this world the citizens aren't easily lead, they simply choose not to believe or think anything at all. They are disenfranchised, disappointed, discouraged and disconnected. Nothing could mater less to them than history or the shape of things to come. Talk of the legacy of the past and human destiny leaves them cold. They remain detached from everything of the past nd future that could make them whole. What's the most important thing we can learn by arguing about the past? The answer is simple. It was well known by the people who we so easily look down on today. In generations past any school kid could have told you the answer and ricited a little Aristotle to poetically support it. Argument has tense: past, present and future. According to Aristotle, all arguments boil down to just three issues: Blame, Values and Choice. For example, “Did Cornwallis order scapling?” is about blame, “Is the statue offensive?” is about values, and “Should take the statue down?” is about choice. These three kinds of arguments are each associated with a different verb tense. If you understand tense you understand a lot about argument, others, and the world. Blame = past tense Values = present tense Choice = future tense It’s important to focus on the type of argument – and the tense – that will achieve your ultimate goal. For example, the past tense is what you use to determine “whodunnit”, to apportion blame and mete out punishment, while the present tense is great for getting your audience to unify behind a particular belief, identify in a certain way, or judge something as good or bad. If you want to come to a joint decision about something, however, you need to focus on the future – the kind of argument Aristotle called “deliberative”. Deliberative argument is the most pragmatic, productive and interesting because it helps build our future together. Arguing about the past is the most difficult and quarrelsome... that's why we have police, courts, lawyers, judges, and prisons. One way we can improve the quality of public argument is to actively agree on the tense and try to focus on the future. We can go from blame to choice by saying “What should we do about it?”, “How can we keep it from happening again?” or “These are all good points, but how are we going to…?” It's pointless to wish for a better past. That's the root of most of the world's bitterness. But think of any language, anything you can say about working for a better shared future. It almost always sounds sweet. Neo-Folkie Dan Bern wrote the most poignant verses I know about the conceit of judging the past. God Said No The past is cherry picked and treated horribly by those who find power in divisiveness and bitterness. It should be resisted. The political armchair quarterback. The clearness of hindsight. These are poor populist arguments. So, if we don't get much out of arguing about the past, if we can't change it, what's it good for? In Dan's song he realizes the significance and power of time as nature (God's) ultimate tool. Time, like argument, beauty, and death, is something we don't choose to take the opportunity to think about often enough. We are less than whole and life is less for it. One of my favourite writers, thinkers, leaders and managers, Adm. H.G. Rickover USN, wrote most clearly about the past. "We need to regain some of the certainties of the past. For the uneasiness and the malaise of our time is due to a root cause: In our politics and economy, in family life and religion, in practically every sphere of our existence the certainties of the 18th and 19th centuries have disintegrated or been destroyed. Much of the social cement that has held our society together - shared values, strong family structure, the influence of the church and the local community - has been dissolving steadily over the years. At the same time, no new sanctions or justifications for the new routines we live, and must live, have taken hold. So there is no acceptance and there is no rejection, no sweeping hope and no sweeping rebellion. There is no real plan of life. Many certainties of the past have been lost through ill-founded criticism of past customs and institutions. It is easy in the light of present-day knowledge and achievement to ridicule and condemn the men, the ideas, and the customs of a past age. But this is a mistake. Much of the wisdom and most of the beauty of the past is lost because we do not have sufficient knowledge and imagination to divest ourselves of our modern refinements and to relive the struggles, the hopes and fears, and faiths and beliefs of our ancestors who were in contact, like us, with the mystery of life." I would urge a more sympathetic understanding of the past, so that we may recapture some of its beauty. Certainly, some of the past is not worthy of preservation. But much is. In nature, the demolition process is a living process; the destruction of the old is caused by and is part of the generation of new life. In all areas of our existence, the present is the fruit of the past and the seed of the future. It is ourselves who, for all our cleverness and intellectual development in temporal matters, are nevertheless plunged in darkness and ignorance about our own nature, the invisible world around us, and the eternal spiritual verities. The opporutnity here is concious conversation with shared understanding about what argument is, what it is good for, what it can do - blame, value, and choose, and how we can use it to improve ourselves and our community. Nova Scotia releases its annual report on gambling... well... not really... they call it gaming and as an accounting document it is woefully short on truth.Alexander Gilbert was a Montreal journalist who toured the Maritime Provinces in 1867, with an interest in exploring anti-Confederation feelings there. The following is condensed and edited from his From Montreal to the Maritime Provinces and Back, first published in the Montreal Evening Telegram, and describes what he found in and around New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.
Read about what Angus L. MacDonald and Robert Stanfield thought about the failed economics of Confederation NOVEMBER 24,1966
A Nova Scotian View Of Confederation AN ADDRESS BY The Hon. Robert L. Stanfield, PREMIER OF NOVA SCOTIA To think of Nova Scotia is to be confronted by history. This is the "akade", the Micmac Indian word for "place", where Cabot and Cartier found the new world, where Champlain built Port Royal over 360 years ago and where the ravages of the wars of Europe left their toll during a period of 100 years, long before Canada was born. "...the scheme [confederation with Canada] by them assented to would, if adopted, deprive the people [of Nova Scotia] of the inestimable privilege of self-government, and of their rights, liberty and independence, rob them of their revenue, take from them the regulation of trade and taxation, expose them to arbitrary taxation by a legislature over which they have no control, and in which they would possess but a nominal and entirely ineffective representation; deprive them of their invaluable fisheries, railways, and other property, and reduce this hitherto free, happy, and self-governed province to a degraded condition of a servile dependency of Canada." Be beautiful and vote says the election advert for Lebanon's 2009 election. Either the best or most ironic of the many "just vote" ads coaxing and cajoling citizens to vote. In Canada we citizens have our Charter of Rights and Freedoms that are the envy of the world's citizens. But beyond the ballot box and beyond the Canadian box of citizen goodies, what does it mean to be a citizen? Canada Day is coming up. A summer holiday long week end. Another reward for being a good citizen? What makes us so deserving? I know, from recent controversy, that history is as much about forgetting as remembering. Canada Day is a melancholy one for Nova Scotia. What was lost and what was gained remains, nearly 150 years later, largely uncounted and unaccounted for. Maybe it should be a day of sadness.
Here's an accounting of Confederation and "Canada" from newspapers around Nova Scotia on the first "Canada Day", then known as Dominion Day... John Wesley Chisholm The question I get asked the most by smart and informed voters in Halifax-Chebucto is what would I do different. There’s a lot of political talk these days but to them all the ideas are the same old same old repeated since the sixties… more taxes and debt to finance ever bigger government and corporate interests that, like a “mousetrap” game are purported to be the means to the economic and social ends we want but never really come through. Where will our wealth come from in the future? How will we create it without making a mess? And how will we keep it, and our work, here? We do need new answers. Voting has historically served as a powerful expression of political voice. But over the last 30 years voter turnout has steadily declined. Making things worse, young people, newcomers, the weakest and most vulnerable among us are even less likely to vote. It becomes part of a cycle of exclusion. The situation is compounded many times worse when modern politics discourages citizens from running for office and offering for public service.
In the next Nova Scotia Provincial Election where we elect local members of the legislature and the party with the most elected members decides the premier, it's likely that only a little under half of the total citizens in the community will vote. Are you part of the "Voting Class"? Story-based voting is the idea that in the current circumstance a citizen who votes has the opportunity to cast a ballot to represent the interests of many. When I was a little kid and got sick while visiting my grandparents in Pictou County it was Dr. John Hamm who came to visit. Through fevers, croup, mumps, measles, chicken pox, and a nail through my lip; after the home remedies, baby aspirin, calamine lotion, iodine, Mercurochrome, vicks vap-o-rub, and vaporizers with fryer's balsam failed to get results it was Dr. Hamm who was called. The thing I remember most is his calm kindness and the scientific approach he would take to the problem - testing, measuring, writing. He took responsibility.
Many years went by and I was only slightly aware of politics when I heard he had been elected premier. Last week many Nova Scotians shared outrage and concern at the outcome of the case where Judge Gregory Lenehan ruled in Halifax that Bassam Al-Rawi was not guilty of sexual assault. By now, everyone has read the facts presented in the case as reported by the media. The verdict turns, by the judge’s account, on the notion that an intoxicated person can give consent. Many called for more training for judges. And that’s great of course. But that’s not how government and the legal system best work together. The idea is that government makes clear laws, supported by the people, which the legal system applies fairly and impartially as society demands. This is my research on Fracking. This is no fracking joke. Media reports that fracking is a serious environmental concern across the globe and/or it’s the future of jobs, energy and saving everything we love from certain death. Some predict an economic boom, others predict environmental gloom. Nova Scotia, like many thoughtful places in the world, is trying to figure out fracking. What’s it going to be? To frack or not to frack? OK! Let’s Go! Lots of folks have asked what I would recommend doing regarding the teachers contract.
Here’s what I would recommend… It’s not a simple fix and I want to “show my work” because I think that process matters - so this is not a short note. None of this is intended to be even an implied criticism of contemporary school teachers. We have many fine teachers in our schools. Most of them, however, are required to spend so much time on so many things having nothing to do with the basic education that they were trained to do that they have little opportunity to teach. The good teachers are also victims of the systems and ideologies "educationists" have imposed on our schools, which we are not prepared for or able to finance properly under the current system. For those looking for a simple ‘yes or no’ quick fix easy-way answer to this complex problem faced in uncertain and changing times… well, I don’t have that. I do have a process to follow and ideas, including the notion of a "non-stoppage strike", that I will work as a citizen to see pursued now, at the next election, and as the next contract negotiation comes up in the not distant future. The Rhythm of Rest Let’s rest here. Rest is part of the rhythm of life. Rest isn’t the end, something we do when everything else is done. Everything else will never be done. In music ‘rests’ define the spaces between the notes. Music itself has been defined as the space between the notes. That’s to say that the beauty of music comes in part from the rhythm of the quiet spaces – the rests – the parts where notes are not played. In the good life rest is part of every day. Think of the 24 hours in a day divided into three parts. 8 hours for work, 8 hours for relations with others and the world, 8 hours for rest. These are not options. Without this balance, without this rhythm, the good life isn’t possible. Everything suffers. Why is rest important? Creativity, Character, and Conserved strength are built in rest.
Hey ! Where's our $110.3 m to build the new hospital in Nova Scotia? !!!
In the April Nova Scotia Budget the government said... well, something like the opening of the convention centre was so awesome it would give us $110.3m to put toward a new hospital and a BIG budget surplus of $127.4.
*PSAB = Public Sector Accounting Board is a public service organization. Invoking their name here and implying they're the boss and endorse this budget is incorrect
BUT... wait, there's more. In this month's fiscal update the $110.3m is gone... Where did it go? Heck, where did it come from in the first place? Who's got it? When will we get it? And most important... what is it? I started to write it out. But I was even boring myself. So, I've made a video to try to explain... “Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” We've had a a big week in Education. The homework is piling up.
OK then ! Let's recap this bad boy. In Nova Scotia teachers are represented by a union led by president Liette Doucet. After their latest contract ran out they went in to negotiations with the Nova Scotia government led by premier Stephen McNeil and education minister Karen Casey. You see the government came in on a mandate of good communication, fair dealing and working with unions. But somehow, after a short time in office, morphed into a kind of 'austerity' regime that has not been... pleasant to deal with. Now there's lots to catch up on! What’s the common thread through the songs and music of The Band and The Last Waltz? What explains their enduring following among musical people? Coming up to our 40th anniversary THE LAST WALTZ HALIFAX musical celebration I’ve had time to really dig in to the songs, the characters, and the event itself. The music is fun. Good for toe tapping, touch dancing and singing along. But there's a story to it too... The Crosswalk at Quinpool and Beech - one story from hundreds. As it gets dark earlier and the weather turns worse I see the poor school kids waiting every day for indeterminate amounts of time in the rain and cold, often dashing when they get impatient because it is impossible to know, after pressing the button, how long it will take to get a walk signal.. The crossing light is being used effectively as a traffic signal. Cars waiting on Beech to get out onto Quinpool wait for the crossing light and then dart out ahead of or on the heels of the pedestrians. This happens constantly. It causes many fender benders and means walkers have to wait for the light then wait for the cars that are using the light to get onto Quinpool. I have some ideas and suggestions to actually help awareness of crosswalks: I tell myself to calm down, to take less interest in things, to not get so excited and to mind my own business. But the journalists won’t let me. They won't release me from the problems of the day.
Innovation is the buzzword of the current government in Nova Scotia. Nearly half the recent throne speech concerned itself with innovation as the new savior of Nova Scotia’s economy. They're right. Innovation will define our changing future. From Economic Development to Education, Health Care and the Environment, innovative ideas will change everything. Here’s the problem. The Nova Scotia government does not have a clue what innovation is, how it works, where it comes from, or what it can do. The Wall Street Journal, in an article titled You Call That Innovation, says, "Like the once ubiquitous buzzwords "synergy" and "optimization," innovation is in danger of becoming a cliché—if it isn't one already." (Note the article lampooning the misuse of the word 'innovation' is from 2012... that's how far behind the curve the current government is.) With only a couple days to go until the municipal election most people are going to the polls with the impression the Mayor runs the city. This is just plain wrong and we got to get it sorted.
I'm happy the media is covering something of the Municipal Election. The last few days Metro ran interviews with both Mayoral candidates. But they're getting it all wrong. The Mayor, whoever it turns out to be, does not have the power to do ANY of the things the media talks about. The mayor DOES NOT hire or fire anyone - no one reports to the mayor. They don't write or sign cheques. They don't set policy or even vote on policy except in the rarest circumstance. They don't even speak at council except under special conditions. They don't decide the budget, the business plan, or any element of how the city works. They sure don't get to decide the 'vision' or strategy for the city. The word "responsibility" is not in the Mayor's job description because they are not responsible for any aspect of city government. The mayor's job is completely ceremonial. They ride floats, cut ribbons, entertain visitors, send out notes to old people, and specifically their job description in the Municipal Government Act is clear... they are to chair council meetings, but if they are not available someone else can do it, it doesn't matter. In Halifax we have a CAO-Council form of government. It's widely known as a "Weak Mayor" form of government and it has been the most widely used form of city government for over 50 years in North America. But since we get our ideas about government from movies, TV shows and comic books we read when we were kids we often misunderstand the Mayor's role... and the media sure isn't helping with the crazy articles. The mayor has no more power to effect change in any of these areas than you as an average citizen. However, because of these massive misstatements of the role of mayor and our form of government the job has become more mischievous than any other in Nova Scotia. It's our own fault. In Weak Mayor governments the mayor is normally selected by council to conduct ceremonial duties or elected at large but has NO executive duties. In political science they call what we have created in our local mayor 'soft power' . In local politics it's bad. It's mischievous, distracting, overly political, open to influence of moneyed elites and special interests. My position is that we should not be having these distracting mayoral elections. We should save the money and effort and do it as Manager - Council governments work best. For the purpose of this election though, if you gotta vote, just vote for the one whose mischievous influence most suits your purposes. It's not democracy, but it's all we got. We were encouraged again this week by the Mayor and media to write about the centre plan.
I've often written generally on this theme and I'm happy to write more. You should write too... Centre Plan Everything that's happening in Halifax is too big. It's all out of proportion with the scale of our city, the pace of our lives, and the way we curate our culture. It's Monopoly gone mad. Each new thing adds to a cacophonous giant unusable, unfriendly clutter. Rather than creating a city with a message, it all just seems to pose unanswered questions: Why is this important? What is this supposed to be? Who are we? Where are we going with this? Who will live here? How will this be paid for? Progress is not about just racing forward, it means moving toward our goal. If we're going in the wrong direction progress is about turning around, adjusting course, and being clear about where we're going. The future asks very little from us. But it rewards certain things more than others. The future rewards, education, effort, courage, change, clear thinking, big picture thinking, inclusivity, new ideas and careful planning.
We learned all this from The Three Little Pigs and other nursery rhymes we all heard before we were 7. This week Lil MacPherson launched her campaign for Mayor in Halifax. The media was openly doubtful of her chances. Ms. MacPherson had to spend the valuable media access she had at her launch discussing her longshot, against all odds bid rather than how we might all work together to fix a broken city and create a real vision for what the city will look like in the future. Why? Developers are in the business of building. Cities are in the business of being. There's a big tension between the two filled with money, power, influence, and the darker side of life.
When news was revealed after the last municipal that huge portions of the mayor and council's campaign funding came from property developers the new municipal government was quick to do something about it. They said clearly... it wasn't their responsibility and the municipality, as a 'child' of the province, was powerless to make changes on campaign finance reform. With pretty good political sensibilities, timing and speed the provincial Liberal government picked up on that responsibility. Zack Churchill introduced a bill in April 2016 and by the end of May the city had all the power it needed to fix campaign financing before the next municipal election coming up this October. Bill 154 explicitly gave council the power needed to limit developer donations. So with the election now weeks away you'd likely be wondering what changes they made... On the occasion of my 53rd birthday I've taken an hour out to think of the last year and how I am when I'm at my worst versus when I'm at my best. Careful and clear thinking, especially in positions of responsibility requires a lot of mental work. Being smart and being right aren't the same thing. The only way to be right more often than not is to be able to change your mind - a uniquely learned human skill that does not come easy especially in the emotional language we all use and abuse these days.
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John Wesley
Writing about life, citizenship, and Nova Scotia. Archives
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