Doug's Blog

So, I have to say I am sorry first off.  This column isn't about the last year, its actually about the next year.  Its common to discuss what you would do if this were your last day, but that is so hard to do, and quite frankly such an unlikely scenario.  Who, after all, actually finds out they only have 24 hrs to live?  Maybe a few weeks or a few months, but 24 hrs?  If it were me, I would not be able to chose and I would simply waste my time trying to chose.  Oh, ya, I would spend the entire time with my boys, so they would know and remember me . . . but they are very young so they likely wouldn't remember me anyway.  So perhaps the best would be to videotape messages to them to try to help them through elementary school, junior high, high school, college, marriage, and their kids . . . ya, I would know what to say to them in a world 20 years from now.  Or maybe since they wouldn't remember me and I wouldn't know what to say about the world 20 years from now I should just go to Vegas and bet the roll, or maybe spend my last day in the sun, or go digging for dinosaurs, or . . . . or what, what the hell could I really do with 24 hrs?

The better question is this: What if you discovered that you had one year, exactly 365 days to live.  What if you were sitting down tonight with friends and family and found out that 365 days to the hour from now on New Years Eve 2010, that you would die . . . where would you chose to be?  It may sound morbid, but honestly, if the people who read this column represent the average than 16% of those who read this, will die this year. So, if this was your last year . . . what would you do with it? And its not all bad or disheartening.  We all make New Years resolutions, but this mental experiment pulls us from the duldrums of life, it pulls us from a vague vision of 20 years from now, to one year, just one year to do all that you want, to do what you dream, to prioritize reasonably and decide what you really want from life, . . . if your life was just and only the year 2009 . . . and a chance to figure out where you want to be before 2010 starts.

Would you raise your boys at home, take them to see the world, curl up and prepare to die, get more exercise so you could toss around the old pig skin?  Would you look for business opportunities hoping to leave them a legacy of opportunity?  Would you take up skiing, or do more volunteering, or maybe, finally, learn to swim?  Maybe you would take Saturdays to paint, and Sundays to go to Church, or maybe it would be the other way around.  Maybe you would listen to more music and go to more plays, or maybe you would spend every ounce of energy to save, and build the future of your town, province, or nation.  Or maybe you would just take a risk and fall in love . . . or maybe you would fall in love with someone else . . . or maybe you would suddenly love everyone and chose to forgive those that wronged you.  Maybe your would go overseas to build houses for some people in some third world nation for a week?  Maybe you would fret over each day and wind up losing them all to worry and wonder and planning?  Or maybe you would go after your dream?

I don't know what you would do . . . but . . . I am starting to see clearly what I will do . . .

Too often when we make a New Years resolutions they are with the notion that we will live forever . . . but think of them as though they are for only one year . . . and that this year could be your last . . .

I think you will find that they won't be vague or huge . . . they will be smaller, consequential, and meaningful to those who love you and those you love.  Imagining this next year could be your last isn't morbid.  Planning as though it could be may just make this the best year of your entire life . . . and for all we know . . . it could be the last good year for you . . . or me . . . or him . . . or her. 

I don't know what you would resolve to do this year.  Go skydiving.  Make up with your sister.  Change the world.  Change yourself.  I don't know.  It doesn't matter.  All that matters is that you make it the best.  Make it meaningful.  Make a difference.  Make choices.  Make it all count for something.  Make New Years 2010 a celebration of what you accomplished this year, and the beginning of the next Last Good Year of your Life. 

I know I will . . .

Shane, first up, I want you to know I love ya, cuz.  I truly do, and I respect your opinion, but I have to point a few things out.

You live in the largest city by land mass on the continent.  That means you participate in a culture that has fewer people per square meter than anyother city in North America.  You are an environmentalist, yet you seem to support paving over your world and telling everyone from the Inuit to the Mexicans what they can do with theirs.  You seem to feel its all justified because you live in a nice sized condo and work in an environmental food store and  get regular blogs from David Suzuki (who has four houses three of which have bigger square footages that average 4.5 times bigger than the the average family of four.

I respect your criticisms but if I did everything you suggest you surely must have considered that your power will go out, and as nice as is that you live in in your sweet condo in a growing city that paves over nature, you couldn't do anything to heat your house . . . not even burn a stick of wood which the great environmentalist Henry David Thoreau did . . . as an environmentalist, and which I do in my house to conserve the electricity I use.

Perhaps you haven't considered that the goods you sell come from all over North America and "how would they get to you if we didn't burn carbon?"  Perhaps they would all grow here . . . in green houses . . . and we could use solar power . . . but as yet not one greenhouse in this province can claim to be off the grid . . . and so they use a lot of electricity, but that comes from coal and adds to greenhouse gases.

My point, Shane, is that I understand and I believe change is and will come and we need to lead it, but there are two types of dangerous people in this world.  Those who believe all is well, that we don't need to change, that we are doing great, that adaption is not necessary, that the world is just fine . . . or essentially . . . in the status quo.

And then there are the others, like you. I have my Honours Degree in Environmental Philosophy so I am not an idiot.  I studied a lot and I studied hard.  I read books from your god, David Suzuki, that screamed that the next ice age was coming and we were all going to die . . . and those were written in the seventies, Shane.

People like you scream foul and cry for drastic change, but honestly, your type screamed 'ice age' in the seventies, and now you scream 'global warming' in the ninties and '00s.  You aren't rational, you are emotive.  You are driven, by different motives, but by the same arrogance and ignorance as the those (noted above) who think all will be well.

The truth is that none of you know well, and none of you base your opinions on fact (I know your knew got has that great movie out that, by the way, was ruled by three national supreme courts now to lack accurate and full scientific evidence) rather than real fact.

That doesn't mean that I, and governments should do nothing.  That just means that government's and leaders, and the public too, cannot move on fear, but must always step back to reason.  Running and deciding on fear is what causes police to shoot boys with toy guns, or and multiple other cases of quick and inaccurate judgements.

I can assure you this.  You may not be happy there isn't a green seat and you want proportion represention so that every party gets seats based on popular vote, but if you get that . . . the greens will still be small and the votes and politics in the house will become about power more than about the environment . . . which to some extend, Gore and Suzuki have already done to damage your cause.

Just because green isnt in the name of the party doesn't mean they don't care . . . but good government and good leaders don't jump to rash decisions . . . or else you may discover yourself sitting in your high rise condo with no power, no food, no job, and no future.

I know you don't think about the people who drill for oil, or weld, or harvest trees, or use fertilizer on their farms, or the people that supply them with groceries and tools and all that stuff, cause you live in your little condo with no car and walk to your little organic store, but as a politician in Alberta, I must . . . and that is why I can't do what you demand (and it doesn't mean I am destroying your world) but have to try to find a way to guide, and lead, and teach, and transition millions to a new future.  If I did what you wanted and made it all happen now . . . there would be no future . . . even for you.

Ok, I would like everyone to remember this last few days the next time electoral and democratic reform is discussed.  I have always been wary of adopting a form of election that would mean that seats would be assigned based on popular vote.  I represent 34,000 people that live in the constituency.  They know that I represent them and that they come to me with problems.  There is an accountability chain.  I am not sure about a system that would have seats awarded by popular vote with no direct accountability to any particular group for day to day issues.

Well, after watching these events of the last few days, I am also worried that have four or five or more parties may fragment the Parliament or the Legislatures so bad that we could always have a government made up of coalitions, that may or may not include the party with the most votes.  Indeed, we could come to a situation where alliances shift and change all of the time for political expediency and power, which means our government could change often, with or without frequent elections.  I am not so sure that is such a good idea.

It is very easy to criticize the British Parliamentary system, and it has its flaws no doubt, but is it really that bad?  Any other system we could adopt may solve some of the problems inherent in the system we use, but any other system will present other challenges that may be even worse.  Perhaps we should remember these days and remember that the system we have has 300 years of history behind it.  Should we adopt another, the events of this week, may become weekly events.