Misty

I found a picture of Misty

Travesty of democracy

Another election in Alberta and another sweep by the PCs. They took two of the 4 ND seats, 7 of the Liberal's 16 and even got the one Wildrose Alliance seat (the crazy right winger from Cardston). I am dismayed, discouraged and disolutioned with the political process. How and why did it happen? There was so much optimism about the need for change and that it was the time. The Liberals were poised for a breakthrough. Dad mostly, but me too, had invested time in helping out our Rhodes Scholar Liberal candidate.

Is it that Albertans really are a bunch of mindless sheep? In spite of the fact that the conservatives have been the authors of everything that is bad in this province, we vote for them anyway? By slashing and burning in the 90's this government has created the infrastructure deficit, the education and health care crisis, the housing shortage with its homelessness and exacerbated the employment issue with uncontrolled economic growth. Still with the thinking that is applied to the issues,they are the teflon government - nothing sticks. Is there no cause and effect thinking here?

Or is it that winning elections is really just about power and money. We are to be sure caught in the "success to the successful" systems archetype. The more you have the more you get. They had millions to spend on the election and they did. The liberals were a million dollars in debt and they couldn't get their story out. We know who will get the donations now. We are caught in the vicious circle and we all feed into it.

Is it about personality? Do we prefer stupid politicians? Stelmach is not like Kline. Kline advertized his lack of education. Stelmach is just steady Eddy, dull boring and can hardly put a sentence together. He is at his best, sweet and good and kind.... and not too bright. Doesn't intimidate anyone with his style. Taft is also dull and boring but brilliant intellectually and it shows. He got cudos from all of the interest groups and political scientists for the well thought out and reasonable platform. The pcs on the other hand did the, "we are going to spend and fix everything, all at once" platform. Do we like politicians who don't threaten our own shakey confidence?

Is it just about smart strategy? Stelmach moved his party to the left and so gave the Liberals and ND nowhere to go. They stole their base. Are the pc's just successful at doing what John Kenneth Galbraith said about good leaders - nothing more than able to voice what is already wanted. There are no fundamental values - just calculated shifts to stay in power. Have they retained power for so long,not be they are good or effective at taking us where we should or could go because they are just so good at giving voice to our own poorly thought out wants?

Is it about us and our need for absolute certainty in an uncertain world? Are we comfortable in this province with a one party system because it eliminates dialogue and conflict and we are conflict aversive? Is it comforting in this world of increasing diversity to be part of a group - a team that all wears the same colour and thinks just the same? I can't help it. I want a new team. We there isn't one and won't be for a long time. We have what we have and we will have it for at least another 4 years. I should be used to it. Its been the same for the last 30!

Any one who wants more info on the election go here and check out Alberta votes. Check out the faces. I couldn't figure out how to add them.

Musings on Winning

It’s a fairly established idea that losing is hard for anyone to take. Setting goals, working hard, putting all you have into something, only to come up short and lose is framed as either character building or soul destroying. Our choice, the motivators of the world say. What do we make of our failures? Examples of famous perseverance are quoted - Diefenbaker who lost 4 elections and eventually became Prime Minister. Keep trying and you too will win. My cynical self wonders how many failures of the world have done then and actually never won. Should have given up at the beginning. The personal experience of losing however is not my concern in this musing. What is, is the meaning of losing to others who watch.

This week-end Anne had 3 playoff basketball games in 24 hours. These rounded out a week of 8 basketball games and practices in 6 days. Friday her school team was playing for the Division championship, have beaten their closest rival by only one point on Wednesday in a nail biter. Friday the same close game was repeated only this time to see them lose in overtime by one point. Anne was not happy with her playing and, had she made her usual number of points, likely the outcome would have been different. She is arguably one of the very best players and plays almost the whole game every game on that team.

On Saturday the losing was repeated as her community first won another close game against a bunch of giants. The final game for them in the afternoon that would have given them the bronze in the A division, saw them blow a 10 point lead and lose by, you guessed it, only a couple of points. Anne’s take on it was - no big deal, they couldn't go to the provincials anyway.

My take on it? These losses came at the end of a very long and difficult week and seemed like a metaphor for my life. Almost winning but not. I had so wanted Anne to win. Winning seemed important, almost life and death at the time. Why? Because it was someone I loved who lost. I think it was not the winning or the losing but the meaning I put on it.

I thought about my own athletic career and remembered my favourite volleyball game ever. It was in the Canadian National Junior championships. We were fortunate to be there. We were ranked 3rd in the province even though our school had only 250 students and had beaten the junior teams from UofC and UofA to get there. We had a hippy for a coach who was a visionary leader but not an athlete. The game I was thinking about was against a team from Montreal. It was so close with long rallies and hard fought points and ... we lost. And, I didn't care. It was a thrill to play so well, so hard and winning didn't matter. I just felt good and that was all it meant. It really was like the cliche, how I played the game and not about winning or losing.

On another note - cudo's to Andrew R and his basketball team. He has taken talented individuals and turned them into a wonderful and winning team. They were great to watch last night as they trounced Winston Churchill.