Who Do You Vote For?

I am a married woman (coming up on 15 years) with 2 small children that I chose to stay home with as opposed to putting them in daycare. Although I taught for 14 years I no longer do and , my husband and I own a small business in the health care field. We employ several part time employees (and we voluntarily pay them above the minimum wage and often give raises unasked). We invest in RRSPs and RESPs for our children. We own a house with a mortgage. I do a lot of volunteer work in the arts and occasionally get financial compensation for that. I do not rely on that compensation for my living - my business supports me. I give to charities, primarily in arts and health. I spend 20 hours a week minimum in volunteer activities. I also go to University part-time and use this to pay in for my additional health care. My children are in arts and sports activities. Who should I vote for and why? And by WHY, I mean, how does that party represent my interests?

No Halloween at School this Year

I received a message from a fellow school parent this morning. Apparently Halloween dress-up has been cancelled. She was quite upset about this, because Halloween is her favorite holiday and she wants it to be the same experience for her children. She asked the school office about it and was told "More kids don't dress up, than do..." so her perception was that certain populations in the school were dictating the abolishment of the Halloween tradition. I told her I would write to the school principal to find out if this was the case. Halloween falls on a Saturday and apparently there is no school on the 30th (Friday) so the 29th was to be a dress in orange and black day. I have worked in schools so I figured there was more to it. This is the official response from the principal:

Since Halloween does not happen until Saturday, October 31 and there is no school for students on Friday, October 30 a decision was made by staff to have an orange/black theme day on Thursday, October 29th. Here is our rationale:
* minimize the disruption to learning and teaching
* meet the needs of a very diverse population
* minimize the cost to parents
* health and safety

Halloween is a tradition that can be maintained and promoted by families since the activity, dressing up and trick or treating, associated with it needs to be within the parent control.

I figured there was more to it than my friend was told and I think the front office should be careful about how they respond as their information was not really the official reason. I also wrote back to the Principal to indicate that the school might want to get something out to parents post-haste as all that is flying around out there is rumour and indignation. I also suggested she reassure people that when Halloween falls on a weekday that the custom of dress up will be re-instated.

People are emotionally attached to their traditions. You cannot just take them away. Already the Christmas Concert is a "Winter Concert" with no religious songs and this bothers some people. I am okay with that. I understand that with a school whose population is 1/4 Muslim, you cannot expect to sing religious songs (but I do like a good Silent Night or Oh Holy Night). Halloween, however, is not a religious festival but is more a cultural festival. It's fun and does not dictate doctrine or belief. Cancelling it will create a bigger rift between different populations in the school, so hopefully it is reinstated in 2011 when it next falls on a weekday. Traditions are important to people and when you monkey around with them, you create animosity. Not a good thing.

Right now I feel sick to stomach over the proposed Coalition government for Canada. To me, I see this as a total disregard for democracy in Canada. If this was really in the best interest for Canadians and respecting of their desires, then ethically, the three parties in question would have joined together prior to the election (held only 6 weeks ago) and let the population make their decision then. If the Canadian people were overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the direction the current government was going, then the minority government would have been smaller, not larger. It is clear to me that Canadians do not have confidence in Stephane Dion as the leader of our country. Perhaps in another time, but not now, or else the election would have had a much different result.

I write to you as someone who affiliates with no particular party, as none of them meet my personal beliefs exactly. I do, however, vote in every election. When the elections come I weigh my choice carefully. I look at the promises and plans made. In this past election, for the first time in a Federal election, I voted Conservative. Prior to that I have voted NDP and Liberal (I considered Green, but I find it's mandate too confined). I am angry that a small group of men and women want to disregard the way in which our government has been organized in an obvious power grab. You cannot say that this is best for Canada. It is abhorrent. There has been no transparency, and if the people involved were really being honest with the Canadian public, then they would have joined together prior to the election, out in the open, not in this back room dealing.

These men and women should tread cautiously. Just because you think you can do the job better, doesn't mean you should have the job. The way I see it, they failed the job interview when they lost the election.

Oh Yeah, this...

There was a lot of discussion on Facebook about this the other day, but I wanted to document it on this blog as well. Great that Obama won, BUT, apparently a lot of his supporters come from a very traditional, church-going, christian background and while they voted him in, they also banned gay marriage. So much for equality of man. One cannot simply assume that Democrat=Enlightenment. I am a little annoyed that the politicians are not being leaders and instead passed the decision onto the unwashed masses. I don't know about you, but I don't want Bubba and Trixie making decisions for how my society is structured. That's why we pay the politicians the big bucks!