I don’t feel “new” here anymore, although I do still run into people who don’t know me and I have to explain that I bought Vera’s house (or Debbie’s if they’re a younger generation). My feelings of familiarity with the Island have brought me to the point that I’ve actually spoken to all three candidates for Mayor in the upcoming election. Even though I just found out who is running, I won’t have any trouble deciding who to vote for. 🙂
We had another election here recently. The Provincial Government decided it would be a good time to try for an extended period in power and I guess people thought they’d done an OK job during the pandemic. They did win.
One of the things that the pandemic taught most of the world is that “essential” rarely included suited professionals sitting in offices. It does include those who make sure we have food, and clean streets, and transportation, etc. Health care workers were suddenly a very visible component of our society but so were janitors, and people stocking shelves in grocery stores, and truck drivers.
Some areas of the service economy were given temporary hourly raises to acknowledge both their role during the emergency and the risk to them of soldiering on.
The new version of the same Provincial Government recently brought down its budget. I want you to imagine you’re one of those “essential workers”. Now imagine you hear that the minimum wage is being raised.
To give you some perspective “In 2020, the minimum wage rose by $0.20, in 2019 and 2018 it rose by $0.25 and in 2017 it rose by $0.35.” Wow big numbers eh?
Well after a year of shocking events, and the realization that we rely so heavily on them, the new increase is $.05. A nickel. You have to wonder if they couldn’t have found a more insulting or meaningless number. I’m sure they tried.
There’s a man leading one of the major political parties in this nation who just had a big convention. You know, one of the events where they establish their platforms and prove to us all that they should be in power. Now, he’s a (forgive my language) twat. A number of the elected members in his party that he has chosen to elevate to positions of power are better suited to places like Oklahoma (people in this country know who I mean) or Alabama.
He attempted to get the convention folks to vote on a platform that might resonate with Canadians. He failed (which shows just how much they think of him).
Among other things, they voted down the idea that climate change exists. The good news for me, I guess, is that “While delegates from each of the Atlantic provinces and Quebec embraced the “climate change is real” proposal — 70 per cent of delegates from New Brunswick and Quebec were onside with it — those from every other province and the territories voted against the change.”
So at least the ruling party around here has some operating synapses, the same can’t be said for their ability to actually learn from real events and see people as people – no matter what kind of job they have. Unfortunately, my vote in the local election won’t affect any of them. I might have to go back to those lessons in witchcraft. 🙂
This Fundy Migrant's Tale 