New Liberal leader has right stuff

Armchair Mayor column in Kamloops Daily News, March 28, 2009

“Have you met Michael?” Donna Marchand asked me as Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff’s town hall-style meeting was breaking up at Forster’s on Thursday.

I was working my way out of the ballroom when she saw me and came over for a chat. That morning, Ignatieff had paid a call to the Marchand’s Sahali home for a one-on-one meeting with Donna’s husband Len, our revered former MP and senator.

It was a respectful thing for the new Liberal leader to do during the few hours he spent in Kamloops on his third visit here. Ignatieff’s wife Zsuzanna Zsohar went with him, and the Ignatieffs and Marchands hit it off right away.

So now, Donna — who is one of the nicest people imaginable — is taking me by the arm and pulling me to the front of the ballroom where Ignatieff is surrounded by admirers and having his picture taken. Besides which, there’s a lineup of people patiently waiting to meet him.

Mrs. Ignatieff spies Donna and leaves the throng to talk to her. Upon which Donna explains she’s trying to get the leader’s attention so she can introduce me. ‘Nuff said, Zsohar plunges back into the crowd, turns Ignatieff around, and pulls him the few steps to where we’re standing.

And that’s how I met the (officially interim but soon to be confirmed) new Liberal leader and the man many people think is going to be the next prime minister.

And he may well be. When he talked to the packed room (I counted about 350 people but others estimate as high as 600 — either way, an impressive turnout for a party that hasn’t elected an MP in this riding for about 30 years), Ignatieff did several things just right.

For one, he looked casual in a dark red sweater, but not dorky the way some politicians do when they try to dress down. The sweater-look fit his low-key style of delivery for the day.

He even complimented a couple of prominent Conservatives, the late Kamloops MP Davie Fulton and former cabinet minister Flora McDonald.

“I don’t want to be super partisan,” he said at one point. “I don’t think the other guys have two horns and a tale.” An interesting comment, and one not often heard from a politician. It sounded, well, prime ministerial, which is something this country hasn’t had in awhile.

Some people are comparing him to Pierre Trudeau as the guy who’s going to capture the imagination of the country and lead the Liberals back to power.

Ignatieff doesn’t have the arrogant charisma of Trudeau; he’s certainly self-assured, but his style is much less edgy, more approachable. With his impressive list of credentials and his obvious intellect, Ignatieff might be prone to talking above his audience, but he didn’t do that.

In his short opening remarks, he began by paying a compliment to the Big Boot Inn, the Victoria Street shoe store he’d visited. Back in the crowd, owner Frank Digeso was beaming.

The Liberal leader showed he knew something about what’s going on here when he referred to a new law school coming to TRU.

No doubt, not everyone in the room was a Liberal, and when the questions got underway they weren’t all of the softball variety, but they were respectful and genuine, covering a lot of ground — the GST, Canadian sovereignty, the CBC, student debt, human rights.

On a couple of occasions, he admitted he didn’t have a full answer, at least not yet.

The last question came from Daily News reporter Mike Youds, and it was on the carbon tax. Youds, of course, had written a story for that day’s paper on a plan by the Conservatives to manufacture a protest against the Ignatieff visit, with placards blasting him for supporting a carbon tax.

But, in response to Youds’ question, Ignatieff made it abundantly clear the old Green Shift carbon tax proposal of predecessor Stephane Dion is no longer in play.

A carbon tax during a recession, he said, “would slow down and choke off recovery.” Besides, he added, the public left no doubt it didn’t like Dion’s carbon tax and it would be political suicide to keep it on the table. “I’m trying to get myself elected here.”

Meanwhile, the anti-Ignatieff protest proposed by B.C. Conservative organizer John Buckham in an email to the Kamloops riding executive never materialized.

Buckham’s suggestions for placards would have given the impression Ignatieff backs a tax at the pump similar to the Gordon Campbell tax. (By the way, the Conservative Party of Canada’s home page features a headline, over top a picture of Ignatieff and Dion, that says “Ignatieff can’t run from carbon tax.”)

Buckham even provided instructions on how to make the signs — “Put two (placards) together on a paint stirrer from a hardware store and you have a pretty good sign to wave.”

Among the suggested slogans, “Please don’t tax me twice,” “Welcome to B.C., Iggy, we already have a carbon tax,” and “Ignatieff = double carbon tax.”

Womping up rallies by email would seem to be an MO for Mr. Buckham. A couple of years ago, Buckham emailed party members in the Lower Mainland to show up at a Vancouver Board of Trade function to counter a protest by the Campaign to de-Elect David Emerson.

The email asked the faithful to assemble at the corner of Georgia and Burrard Streets at 11 a.m. and added, “hand written signs would be a great addition to the day, not only do they show up well for those who are across the street wondering what is going on but they also provide a great opportunity to get our message of support to the media.”

Among Buckham’s suggested slogans, “United we stand” and “Emerson = Courage.” Apparently he’s partial to the = sign on placards.

At 11 a.m., at the corner of Georgia and Burrard, one Tory supporter showed up and left after 10 minutes, which is one protester more than showed up at the Ignatieff event this week.

Buckham is not returning phone, which is understandable, since Buckham should be embarrassed.

Ryan sparrow, the media guy for the Conservative party in Ottawa, did return my call. While not wanting to comment on specifics, he did say “we don’t normally do that.” He added that Ignatieff “has to be held to account for what he said in the past on the carbon tax.”

Politics is a dirty game, but faking public protests against the other party’s leader is on a par with defecating puffins. Fortunately, the local Conservative executive has a little more class than that and wisely ignored Buckham’s advice.

Best media lawyer dies at 60

I was shocked, and very  much saddened, to sit down at my email this morning and read a message that Vancouver lawyer Barry Gibson died of a heart attack yesterday. He was 60 years old.

His name won’t be familiar to many people in Kamloops, but among the B.C. newspaper fraternity he was admired and respected as the best libel lawyer around. I knew him for years as the go-to guy whenever we had a question about the legality of something we were about to print.

He was a crusty sort of guy in some ways, but friendly and always available. We always knew that, no matter where he was, no matter what he was doing, he’d get back to us fast because he understood newspapers and deadlines.

I never had occasion to doubt Barry’s advice, which was always swift and clear. If we were about to do something stupid, he’d tell us. If we were on solid ground, he’d tell us that. And if we were in a grey area, he’d outline with great clarity what the possible results might be.

Whenever possible,  I liked to have the reporter in the room to hear first hand Barry’s assessment of a story when we phoned him. Sometimes reporters can get pretty wrapped up in their stories and, if they went on too long about things that weren’t strictly pertinent to the legal issues, he’d cut them off and go straight to the point.

At the annual meeting of Glacier Media editors the past two years, Barry gave presentations about current legal issues and trends, and the stuff we learned from him at those sessions alone made the conference worth it. And he didn’t bill us for his time for those workshops, either.

One of the topics he covered last fall was about legal issues around bloggers who steal material from newspapers — one of these days I’m going to do a post on the subject, using my notes from what he told us.

Barry Gibson worked for the law firm Farris, Vaughn, Wills & Murphy in Vancouver, and he died on the job, in his office. When it comes to knowledge of media law, he will be impossible to replace.

Readers best source of local news

We had a group of school kids in for a tour today, a not unusual occurrence at a newspaper. One of the questions they often ask is, “How do you get the news?”

We get the news in several ways, of course — reporters dig stuff up from their regular “beats,” the City Editor assigns them to cover events, or we “localize” news from the wire services, for example.

One of the best ways is when a reader calls in with a good idea. Today, I got a call from Brocklehurst resident Janice Bradley, who reported that a 737 had just come in for a landing but had suddenly lifted its nose and done a steep climb. As we spoke, she said, it was circling around in the clouds.

So we called airport manager Fred Legace, who knew of nothing unusual, and said the Wesjet flight was sitting on the tarmac. Checking back with Janice, I found her insistent that the plane she’d seen aborting a landing was definitely not Westjet. She pointed out the Westjet plane was due for takeoff any moment, and wondered if there’d been a conflict with the other one.

Back to Legace, who now checked with the flight information centre, and found out that a cargo plane from Kelowna was testing out its gear on its way to Calgary, and had never intended to land in Kamloops. And, it was now on its way east.

Fair enough. We had an answer to the question even though  it ended up not being a story. But it might have been, just as one of our reporters was tipped off Monday night to the passing of former school trustee Dick Dickens, even though it wasn’t mentioned at that night’s school board meeting for family reasons.

Newspapers wouldn’t do nearly the job we’re able to do without the information and “tips” our readers often provide us.

If you had any doubt you’re getting older…

Armchair Mayor column published in The Kamloops Daily News,

Saturday, March 14, 2008

I call it, “seniors creep.” That gradual realization that you’re getting older. There are the obvious signs — age spots start showing up, the hair turns colour, and you find yourself renting a cart instead of walking the 18 holes.

But if you didn’t notice these things, The System is there at the ready to remind you that you’re past your prime. Maybe it’s the arrival of your new Care Card, the silver one (of course) that says in tiny letters, “For Seniors.” I figure they put it in such small writing in the belief that, since your eyesight is probably failing, you won’t see it and get insulted.

Or maybe it’s the cheery notification from your life insurance company, wishing you all the best on your 65^th and, by the way, your premiums will be about four times as expensive as they used to be. Why don’t they just come out and say it: “We’ve calculated that you only have a few years left, so we’d rather avoid paying out your policy when you croak.”

At 64 and a half, you get a note in your pay envelope that says, “This is to inform you that you are no longer eligible for Long-term Disability coverage.” Wonderful — when I bust a hip I’m on my own.

If that doesn’t wake you up, the letter from your credit card company apologizing for no longer providing medical coverage on your next cruise should do the trick.

These are what they call the Golden Years? Here I thought this was the time I was supposed to be on easy street, with The System taking care of my every need. After all, I built this country.

There are occasional upsides, of course. Like when the package arrives in the mail from the federal government asking if you want to apply for your Old Age Security payments and Canada Pension Plan. But, of course, if you’re between 60 and 65, you can’t get CPP unless you quit work.

So, let’s sum up: I’m supposed to stop working for a living, but I can’t afford insurance premiums and am no longer worthy of the same benefits everybody else gets.

However, I do get a shiny new Care Card and cheaper haircuts.

If all of this isn’t enough, I’ve been invited to moderate a forum on seniors issues Monday. The Seniors Information, Referral and Resource Society is putting it on, and lots of people who deal with seniors’ stuff will be there to talk about things like independent living and elder abuse.

I’m trying to convince myself they asked me to chair the thing because they think I’m a good moderator, but I have a feeling they just feel more comfortable with another guy with grey hair in the room.

Speaking of which, I remember the day I discovered my formerly thick mop of hair wasn’t what it used to be. I was filling out a form that asked my hair colour.

My secretary, Leah, came into the office and said, “You made a mistake on your form. Your hair’s not auburn.”

“Is so,” I said.

She shook her head and told me to look in the mirror. “It never was auburn, it was brown. And now it’s not brown, either.”

“Well, it was auburn when I started this job,” I mumbled, taking out a pen and writing in, “Auburn. With some Grey.”

I’ve groused about this before, about how I hate the term “senior.” Three years ago, when I hit 62, I wrote about some of the people in town my age who were still working: Al McNair, Alexander Watt and John DeCicco. And they’re still at it as we speak.

At 63, I described myself as being in the Labour Day of life, heading through a late summer towards the somewhat chillier weather of October.

Now, apparently, I’m heading toward New Year’s eve. I’m the old geezer in the editorial cartoon, the one who’s about to be replaced by the young spud representing a brand new year.

If all of this didn’t make it clear that I am entering the grey zone, no doubt was left when, during last fall’s civic election campaign, a supporter of one of the young candidates disdainfully called me “old man.”

Quite honestly, that stung. This young jerk, who wasn’t old enough to know much of anything, was insulting me based on when I was born. He may as well have uttered any number of racist or phobic insults.

That’s the way it is with “seniors,” apparently. Everybody talks a good game but the bottom line is you’re a pain in the ass who suddenly turns from a revenue generator to a cost centre, and everybody runs for cover.

There’s nothing wrong with getting older. I’m quite content with it. I just wish people would stop reminding me.

 

Seniors symposium offered valuable insights

I spent a very interesting day yesterday moderating a symposium on behalf of the Seniors Information, Referral, and Resources Society. Two topics were discussed: Breaking Down the Barriers to Independent Living, and Advocating for the Competent Vulnerable Victim of Elder Abuse.

SIRRS is developing pilot-project plans in these two areas, and the presenters provided valuable information on what’s happening in other areas. Rick Kanic, manager of the Seniors Services Division, Community and Neighborhood Services in Calgary, gave an overview of the comprehensive nature of seniors services in that city.

For example, Calgary has a great MOW/SNOW program, because yard and home maintenance is one of the biggest challenges seniors face staying in their own homes. Under the “Snow Angels” program, neighbours plough driveways and sidewalks for seniors in their neighbourhood, and receive recognition with a special pin and a thank-you letter from the mayor.

A gamut of programs provides services free for eligible low-income seniors, and at reasonable cost to those who can afford them. Kamloops certainly does a lot for seniors, but Kanik’s presentation showed we can do much more.

Another presenter was Linda Meyers, clinical specialist for vulnerable or incapable adults at IHA in Kelowna. She spoke of the need for greater awareness of elder abuse, whether it be through neglect or intention, and whether it be financial, physical or emotional.

Mary Polak, Minister of Healthy Living and Sport, gave a keynote address on what her minister is doing on seniors issues. MLA Claude Richmond, MP Cathy McLeod, and June Phillips of MLA Kevin Krueger’s office were there for most of day, along with an impressive list of others who work on seniors issues.

Thanks to Brenda Prevost and Brent Ekelund for inviting me — it was a great session.

And it was a busy weekend, too. It began Friday night when I had the pleasure of being one of the roasters at the Claude Richmond bun toss. The Colombo Lodge was packed, and a good time was had by all.

Claude was at the top of his game in his rebuttal to the roasters, and never fails to make people laugh.

Next morning, I got a quick tour of the new airport runway before the official opening. Then, it was off to the annual Daily News Regional Final of the Canwest Canspell Spelling Bee, where I played host.

This was one of the most exciting bees I’ve seen, as the two finalists battled round after round until young Jonathan Donas finally prevailed. He’ll make a great representative at the national finals in April.

Jumping the gun on City budget meeting

Every year before the City holds its mandatory public-input session on the budget, most of the councillors and some of the staff chip in five bucks apiece and organize a pool on how many citizens will show up.

Last night, it was time for the annual dog-and-pony show and, true to tradition, they put their money down. The winner was CAO Randy Diehl, who correctly guessed that 10 people would attend.

That seems like a dismal number considering the tens of millions of dollars of our tax money the City spends each year, but it’s not all bad. If there were any major issues, more people would probably brave the chilly night to drive to the Henry Grube Centre, but staying warm and watching sitcoms is a more attractive prospect than sitting on a hard chair looking at graphs and pie charts.

Some people say the City should stop wasting its time, a position with which I disagree. For one thing, it’s now the law for the City to hold such a meeting. For another, it’s one of the City’s inherent responsibilities to offer up information for those who want it. You can’t judge the desirability of such a thing based on how many people take you up on it.

I wasn’t one of those who attended, though I was tempted to just to count heads and see if I could get in on the pool. I’m told Bronwen Scott wasn’t there either, though she’d planned to attend to protest the cost of the Noble Creek water extension.

If she wasn’t, it’s the second time she missed the meeting in two weeks. Last week, she fired off an angry email to City utilities manager Tom Marstaller, the gist of which is this:

“I went to to the Henry Grube Centre tonight and there was no public open house regarding the city budget as per your message to me. . . . If the city decided not to go ahead with this meeting, it would have been decent of you to inform me. The fact that you didn’t I consider rude and inconsiderate. I live on the outskirts of the city, so had to hang around town after work tonight waiting for this non-meeting. There are better ways to get rid of a taxpayer with uncomfortable questions than to fob them off with a promise of a non-existent public process.”

A short time later, Scott followed up with a second email sheepishly acknowledging that she’d jumped the gun and gone to the Grube Centre one week early. 

“That’s what I get for ignoring my own best advice about sending emails when I’m irritated,” she says. 

Life on the street ‘not recommended’

One of the benefits of working in a downtown newspaper office is that it’s handy to people who want to come in and talk about all manner of things.

We have people with problems, people with causes, people with complaints — the gamut — who drop in to talk. We get folks with gripes about the system, with political axes to grind, with beefs against City Hall, or with “a good news story” they’d like us to write.

We’re sort of like an arm of government. When our reception desk rings my local, or my name is announced on the PA as being wanted up front, I’m never sure who it’s going to be or what it’s about.

One guy who was in awhile back pulled off his shirt to show me the sores on his back and demanded that he receive better medical treatment.

But, just as often, they’re here with a press release or a poster or just a request to help with getting the word out.

I had quite a few of them this week, but one was especially interesting.

This time, it was a tall fellow with a few missing teeth, a friendly smile and a pleasant manner who wanted to talk in private. His name is Gary Rembish, who describes himself as an unofficial advocate for the homeless in Kamloops. We met once a few years ago, he reminded me.

Rembish, who lives on Schubert Drive, was homeless for several years before he got straightened around. Now he buys fast-food burgers for street people and talks to anyone who will listen about what we need to do to help them.

After making good money driving heavy machinery for 27 years, his life started falling apart. His marriage broke up, he was out of work, and he made a decision — based on economics — to live on the street.

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” he said of the experience, which lasted about three and a half years.

He was here, he said, because he wanted me to listen to an interview he did with Arjun Singh on the former councillor’s Your Kamloops blog.

“I think it would really help people understand,” he said. “Maybe you could put something in the paper about it.”

He’s changed, Remish said. He used to be not a nice guy, but that’s not the way he is now. Rembish is battling some health issues, including being legally blind, the result of having a small tumour removed from his head. That doesn’t slow him down in his quest to speak for the homeless, though.

So I promised I’d give the interview a listen, and he was off. A short time later, I was on Singh’s blog.

The 26-minute interview is worth the time, and is more or less an expanded version of the chat Rembish and I had in our office. One thing that struck me about it is a seeming contradiction in his opinions of street people.

“I’ve met a lot of very intelligent people on the street,” he says in the interview with Singh. He talks about the comradeship of the street, where people share cigarettes and food and some laughs and try to help each other. “One buddy will get some wine and he’ll share it with another buddy.”

But, he also talks about the addictions — especially to alcohol — of the homeless, and their readiness to steal whatever they can to support those addictions.

While Rembish often gives them food, he won’t give them money, because they want to spend it all on alcohol, he says, and the homeless often have no respect for themselves or for others.

But those seeming inconsistencies are, perhaps, just a reflection of the fact that homelessness is a complex issue and the homeless are as complex as anyone else. Fundamentally good people, toughened by circumstance, are in survival mode and act accordingly at the moment.

Rembish has a piece of advice for those who are approached on the street by somebody looking for a handout, or who may have a particular perception of the homeless.

“Just be yourself, just have a little compassion. . . don’t snub us. . . don’t put us down.”

The interview between Rembish and Singh is one of the best entries I’ve seen on the Your Kamloops blog. Singh is back to posting more regularly now since the lull after the civic election, and he recently announced he intends to take the blog “to the next level” with what he calls “Kamloops Citizen Media.”

It will, he says, fit in somewhere between mainstream media and what comes from government. The Rembish talk is a good start.

 

‘Celebrity’ reading day was about the kids

Earlier this week I was out at George Hilliard school as a “celebrity” reader along with the likes of Coun. John O’Fee, Terry Sullivan, Ken Christian, Mike Puhallo, Spike Wallace and Bill O’Donovan.

After an assembly with all the kids, we were assigned our classes and off we went. Keith Anderson, one of our Daily News photographers, was there to cover it for the paper. As we walked down the hallway, he asked me if I wanted the picture to be taken of me and my class.

Well, everyone (almost everyone) likes to see their picture in the paper. And, I think the paper should give itself credit for its involvement in the community.

However, it would have been a little self-serving to order up a picture of myself when there were so many other prominent people there that day. So I told Keith to take a photo of Mike Puhallo or Spike Wallace instead.

It’s a not uncommon situation, one that comes up as I do my community thing at various events. Celebrity reading day wasn’t about me or The Daily News,it was about highlighting the importance of literacy and books to our kids,  and was better represented photographically by picturing one of the other community-minded folks who were there.

I must mention, too, that Coun. O’Fee deserves some credit — as do the other readers — for taking an hour and a half out of his day to take part. City council members attend many such functions around town, most of which go unnoticed by the public at large because they aren’t aware of it. It’s just one the things they signed on for when they ran for office.