Loose Cannon

The cracks are starting to show in the new Tory government in Ottawa.

PM Harper says cabinet ministers must clear press statements with the PMO.

Did Minister Cannon clear his recent bomb shell concerning the relevancy of the NCC?

Is this premise Government policy or just friendly fire by a new and inexperienced minister?

I suppose budgetary concerns might account for the statement but let’s examine the relevancy of a minister whose riding is in the National Capital area. His next missive might be the relevancy of the Parliamentary structure. Is the money spent on the Speaker’s office and house security really necessary? After all 308 accountable members should be trusted to police and discipline themselves.

Recent news items indicate that the three mayoralty candidates are in favour of keeping the NCC in place, its time for the Citizen and Randall Denley and all municipal, provincial and federal politicians and minister Cannon to cross the floor and support a sound and prudent business arrangement that has prospered in the National Capital Area for nearly fifty years.

Even more recent news items suggest that Ottawa Councilors Harder, Holmes and Hunter think that the hotel and restaurant operators should pay for festivals that generate tourism dollars. I wonder if any one of these councillors bothered to ascertain th gross property and business tax paid by these businesses Holmes and Hunter have both been members of the Board of the Tourism Authority they would know at first hand about the generous contributions members of OTCA make in participatory marketing endeavour.

THE NCC and the National museums also share in these vital initiatives. THE NCC and its management must reassess its mandate and its modus operandi Such an internal review would smooth the troubled waters especially if Chairman Beaudry and his Board would make their operation more transparent by opening their meetings.

I would Suggest that the NCC establish a coalition of the willing ,drawn from all levels of government the private sector, OTCA, OCCRI and others should all be heard in a joint effort to establish the ways and means of working together to maintain and continue to develop our proud and glorious capital of our proud and glorious country. Minister Cannon suggests downloading NCC responsibilities to already cash strapped municipal legislation with millions of dollars worth of buildings in the capital are to be managed and kept in repair. Lets recall the sorry state of the Lansdowne park buildings especially the Aberdeen pavilion after years of municipal neglect. At that time the city of Ottawa was forced to borrow money from a tenant, the CCEA. In the form of prepaid rent to replace smashed and broken windows and plugged toilets minister Cannon contends that the private sector might be better equipped to operate some of the Community events. We already have remarkable examples of festivals conceived and implemented by entrepreneurs, with support from government and private sector sponsorship.

The JAZZ FESTIVAL founded by Jazz musicians and supported by a vibrant jazz community, and their association JAZZ OTTAWA BLUES FEST has enjoyed phenomenal growth...mostly due to the tireless efforts of its founder MARK MONAHAN and a host of enthusiastic private volunteers. THE CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL, again instigated by enterprising local musicians is a world renowned example of cooperative administration and planning. Winterlude too, had a brief flirtation with the private sector. When responsibility was shared with the WINTERLUDE FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION (WFA) funding and sponsorship issues prevented this partnership from succeeding. Private sector members of WFA recognized at that time the value and good business aspect of the NCC presence in the National Capital area.

Under the leadership of the NCC and its professional programming and prudent investment of time and resources we experienced events as diverse as horse racing on the frozen canal and a full outdoor wedding on the ice to curling on Dows Lake and international ice sculpting contests that attracted contestants from all over the world.

In fact Winterlude was first conceived by radio hosts at CBO with support from the membership of CANADA’S Capital Visitors and Convention Bureau CCVCB the forerunner of the tourism Authority.

I had hoped that with the passage of time and events that the NCC might be allowed to fulfill its mandate without the constant slings and shots of other years by The Citizen, columnist Randall Denley, Mayor Jim Watson and others, but it seems only the combatants have changed. Now minister Cannon seems to have allied himself, if not his government ,with NCC naysayers.

A May 4th article appearing in the Citizen describes an annual open meeting of the NCC Board wherein attendees implore the NCC to reinforce transit plans of both Ottawa and Gatineau..surely in itself a compliment to the leadership of the NCC and Chairman Marcel Beaudry.

I implore Minister Cannon and his government to study the historic value of The NCC and its many linkages in the National Capital Region.

Thank You

Reflections on Flight

Oh Indian if you could see
From high afloat a jet
The land where once you romped so free
The land one can't forget.

The warrier and his gallant steed,
Standing on a crest,
Could never know the wondrous greed
of Nature in the West.

Or in the north, the beautiful blue
of Myriad million lakes
The rocks, the pines, the hazy hue,
The rivers like curling snakes.

Or in the east, along the shores,
The farms in gentle row,
The scraggy inlets, like giant gores
Hindering the ocean's flow.

This Canada, Oh warrior braves
Has changed since your silent time.
The cacaphony of commerce waves
To the cities' rhythmic rhyme.

The sleepy villages, the busy towns,
Know a peace that n'er was yours.
Your life was free... but it knew bounds...
And on the liner soars.

Comparing then your life to mine
I'm glad that I was given,
The magic of a strato-line
To embrace my land from heaven.

Inseparable

Each day of life is a new beginning
Each loss but a step to a final winning
Each happiness a result of an earlier grief,
For life is like a wind-blown leaf
With no direction, no master plot
That the wind of chance has cannily caught.

Life is the total of the good and the bad,
The gay and the merry, the sombre and the sad.
And, knowing its agony is to know its balm,
For the wind of chance is sometimes calm
And the leaf of life that today might fly
Tomorrow might flutter and settle and die.

Yet none is free to die, having been born,
For certain bonds unite - as the sheaf and the corn.
The farmer, whose fields yield forth his grain,
Is he dead, when dead, never to produce again?
Or lives he on, in crops to be reapt
From seed he stored before he slept?

And none is free to live, having died.
For death like the ocean flow cannot be denied.
And the living still must live, to link the chain
Of continuity, that make the dead alive again.
For the leaf of life that today might fly
Tomorrow might flutter, and settle and die.

Life is death and death is life, moreover
Inseparable the two, as the bee and the clover.
And whether the leaf of life flies on
Or whether flutters, settles and is gone
What follow death is life renewed
A link... a connection... an interlude.

A Subject for Inquest

A little boy -
Belly bulging
With delight,
And, Black-blotched without,
From ice cream dripping
That didn't make it.

A little boy -
Feet dirty
From city cement,
And hard-crusted with skin
Abrased by their piston action
On the baked pavement.

A little boy -
In blue bathing trunks
Covering white buttocks
Untouched by prairie sun
But, bobbing busily in response
To the piston feet.

A little boy -
In desperate competition
With traffic lights
And diesel trucks with weary drivers,
Frightened, as a panicked fawn
Encircled by snarling wolves.

A little boy -
Belly full - piston feet dirty,
Buttocks white, but now still,
Lying, limply lifeless
In a weeping mother's arms
Dead, in the hot summer.

KES Summer 1967

To a Mirror Rescued from the Sally Ann Second Hand Shop

What friend are you that flaunts our history?
After Thirty years, am I still a mystery?
As vain as I, when you consider all we've shared
Should I not assume that you really cared?

It was my artistry that antiqued your fading style
and saved you from ignominy in a refuse pile.
I provided you with life and purpose and stature
And personal moments that were yours to capture.

Now you hang omniscient on the bathroom wall
reflecting... revealing... showing it all.
I charge you, O Mirror... be faithful... be fair.
Lie to me... coddle me... show me you care.

Though my face is leathered, weathered and lined
Must you, my friend, portray it so cruelly unkind.
Could you not search your file of earlier reflections
And delude me, your benefactor, with kinder selections?

O Mirror, Mirror, don't abet life's relentless race;
But stop the process and restore the face
Of the youth who held you in such respectful esteem.
Lie to me... Coddle me... Allow me my dream.

KES April 1992

On Pollution

I build a dream
and in that dream all Nature
combines to force a scheme
whereby mankind no longer knows travail.

The wind in gentle ways
removes impurities from the days -
the sun and moon provide the light
and verdant growth delights the sight.

What farce is this?
Is not all Nature now
geared to provision and control
for the benefit of Me
and all Mankind?

'Tis Man, who in his greed
has caused the little child to bleed -
and pain and anguish everywhere
that Man has gone.

Nature cannot be improved
except in Man whose vessels must be moved
to eliminate human suffering and pain
rather than the search for gain.

fragile little tea set

To My Granddaughter, Jessica

This fragile little tea set has played many starring roles in its lifetime. I first discovered her as the centrepiece of a fancy gift display. I visited her every day. I worked in the Loblaws grocery store right next door. Nervously, I entered the gift shop with a crisp five dollar bill scrunched in my hand.

‘Was there something you wanted young man?’ asked a very severe type voice.

I answered by offering up the five dollar bill and stammering, ‘I’d like to buy the tea set in the window please.’ I knew immediately that Old Severe Voice didn’t approve.

‘Five dollars wouldn’t even buy the box the tea set would come in,’ she said, ‘but wait... five dollars would be enough to use our lay-a-way plan. You leave the five dollars with me and we will hold the tea set for a month or so and we will guarantee not to sell it to anyone else. You could come in each pay day and put another dollar with the five dollar bill.’

I’m glad she explained that because I had no idea what a lay-a-way plan meant. This was my first major purchase and I intended to give the tea set to my mother on her birthday two months away on April 15th.

Suddenly Old Severe Voice got softer as she explained more about the lay-a-way plan and the star of the show, the fragile little tea set.

‘Since you are paid by Loblaws every Friday at noon hour, you could arrange to come see me at one o’clock on Fridays and I would have a credit receipt ready for you when you pay the dollar on your lay-a-way plan.’

‘Wow!’ I answered. ‘There sure are lots of new words to learn just to buy my mom a simple birthday present. Lay-a-way plan, credit, receipt.’

Old Severe Voice continued, ‘You must not tell anyone about our arrangements because I could lose my job for extending credit to a twelve-year-old and you could lose all the money you will have paid on your lay-a-way plan and as well as the fragile little tea set.’

‘I’ll never tell,’ I said... and, until now I never did tell.

As each Friday came and went, I picked up my pay packet at Loblaws and then trudged next door to the gift shop.

‘Oh Keithie!’ she said on seeing me. ‘Last Friday is coming up. Next week will be the final payment on your lay-a-way plan!’

I remember it seemed like that last Friday would never come but, finally, I had the full credit receipt in my hand.

‘Now Keithie,’ a surprising gentler and softer voice said, ‘I would be happy to help you pick out a birthday card to go with your gift for your mom and also to help you gift wrap the fragile little tea set for the birthday party.’

Now, above all, I did not want to hurt Old Severe Voice’s feelings but wrapping gifts in our family was always the job of my older sister Rose. Old Severe Voice said she understood about families even though she had no family of her own. She seemed very pleased when I told her that she was an important member of my family... after all, she introduced me to the lay-a-way plan.

I folded up the last credit receipt and filed it in my wallet with all the others. Then I picked up my mom’s birthday gift and sneaked it into our house so mom wouldn’t see it. Sister Rose did her usual beautiful wrapping job and mine was the prettiest and largest package on the table.

Everyone’s attention was rivetted on Mom as she carefully unwrapped each gift, her face aglow with the joy of receiving such loving gifts. The faces of all of us at the birthday party were also aglow with the joy of giving to a Mom we knew was the best in the whole world.

The stage was finally set and the fragile little tea set was ready for her second starring role in Mom’s china cupboard along side an impressive collection of china cups and saucers, cream and sugar sets, and cake plates. This stage run was a record breaking 40 years until Mom’s death in 1976. After that, the fragile little tea set performed a similar role in your grandma’s china cabinet with your dad and your uncles and your Aunt Leslie as a daily audience. I find it hard to watch the tea set often because it seems to make me very emotional.

Joannie and your dad have promised to allow the tea set to perform in their home and to hold the fragile little tea set in a sort of lay-away-plan until you are ready for it to perform in your own grown-up home. I hope that this final show will be a long and successful run and that someday you will pass it on to another little lady, maybe my great-granddaughter.

In the meantime, little one, have a good life. We love you and good luck!

with Love,
Grandma and Papa
Winchester, Ontario
January 25, 2006 .

To a Friend

To be a man of sound decision
To live with the bite of other's derision
To heal the scars of jealous division,
These are the things that lead to vision.

To walk a path of one's own direction
To achieve the goals of one's own election
To rejoice in gain and to suffer rejection,
These are the things that lead to perfection.

To make a mark or to fan the flame
To lose the point but to win the game
To run with the strong, but support the lame
These are the things that lead to fame.

In all these things dear friend you've scored
And in your lifetime you'll reap reward,
Now ply the knowledge so well you've learned
And live the dream so well you've earned.

K.E.S. ~ September 1970

Lighthouse
(watercolour by KES)

Why Canada?

Some time ago, before the disruption in scheduling made normal programmes unavailable, (one can only hope that the words disruption and unavailability will be permanently stricken from the lexicon of CBC on-air staff), I listened to Anthony Germaine (or was it Allen Neal) questioning a hypothetical group of recent immigrants about why they had chosen Canada as their new home. I pondered both the question and possible answers.

Why Canada?

Could it be... the brightly painted houses on the Newfoundland rockscape; or, the world-respected hospitality of all Maritimers in all of the Maritime provinces; or, the Fundy tide-carved rocks of Hopewell Cape, Albert County, New Brunswick.

Might it be... the happy stories of WWII’s displaced persons and war brides whose initial introduction to Canada was the heartfelt welcomes received at immigration’s fabled Pier 21 in Halifax; or, the aura of confederation history in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; or, the fantasy world of Lucy Maude Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables so loved by new Canadians (especially those from Japan).

Perhaps it is... the old-world charm of Quebec City and Montreal; or, the charming villages on St. Laurent’s north shore, each centred with the spire of a living church; or, perhaps the formidable architecture of Ottawa’s parliament buildings and the Peace Tower sometimes blending with the natural ‘V’ formation of Canada Geese leaving on the long journey to warmer climes flying high overhead of nature’s glorious panoply of autumn colours in the Gatineau Hills of western Quebec.

The reason may be... the melting pot ethnicity of Toronto; or, from nature again, the vast northern expanses of ice and snow crowned with the functional Arctic seaport of Fort Churchill, Manitoba (natural attributes do seem to be the dominant answer to 'Why Canada?’). Certainly the imposing Rocky Mountains with some of the world’s best ski runs would appeal to many immigrants and wannabe Canadians!

Then again, maybe it's... the unique setting of Vancouver nestled between the Rockies and the Pacific Ocean making it the obvious gateway to East Asian immigration and investments of time, money and ideas; or, the magical allure of Niagara Falls and the delicious fruits of the orchards and vineyards of the Niagara Penninsula.

Is the canny immigrant looking at Canada’s universal social programmes as sound factors in choosing Canada? Perhaps the ultimate attraction for immigrants is our venerable institutions such as: the CBC, the RCMP and the NHL. Yes! Even our national heroes: Tommy Douglas, Terry Fox, Maurice The Rocket Richard, and Number 99 The Great One Wayne Gretsky; and, Rich Little, Paul Anka, Celine Dion, Oscar Peterson, KD Lang, Glen Gould, and countless other talents.

Remember the kind gentle people that have melded together to make up the diverse population of Canada from sea to sea to sea. Certainly today’s immigrants are looking at the successful integration of hundreds of earlier immigrants from the breadbasket of Europe - Poland and the Ukraine - to the breadbasket of Canada - the Prairie Provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba. Then again, maybe today’s new Canadian regards the oil wealth of Alberta and the offshore giant oil developments in the Maritime Provinces and British Columbia and the attendant employment possibilities.

Whatever the reason, the gifts of diversity brought each day by the arrival of new citizens has enriched and heartened the cultural landscape known as our Canada.