It is what it is…

 

By Marc Chayer

 

At Christmas, I decided I would take a break from writing for the holiday. Long holiday, eh?

Good Day Folks! During my time away from writing, I was surprised to run into people who reached out to tell me about how much they enjoyed the column. I found this surprising. Why would I be surprised, you say? Well, really, it is because when you write something like this, you don’t have a way to gauge who is reading or what they think when they do read what I am writing.

What I missed the most about the column was the fact that getting a local feel for what is happening in the community is not always easy. What do people think of the trade show, or what is the reaction to Mayor Chichak announcing her intentions to run as the UCP nominee or, my own personal favourite, what is that moron in Ottawa doing now and how will it affect us.

The need for a local view is always refreshing. You don’t have to agree with what I might write, but I may have you thinking about it. Well, now we have something! It starts a discussion and makes people informed about what is happening.

I had a conversation with Jim Rennie not long ago about some of the things he was working on and he mentioned an upcoming trip to our nation’s capital to meet with the feds on the Caribou issue. He said he wanted to let them know how this would affect his community!

He could have said the community but in his choice of words, he wanted to ensure they knew he was not talking about some abstract thing or place on a map a world away from Ottawa. He wanted it known that this was his community, and these were his people they were tangling with.

This is what I think needs to be known from week to week. A trip and a discussion about an issue, especially in politics, is dry and at best “not boring,” that is until you put the personal perspectives in place. Then the issue takes on a life and becomes something we can all relate to. The view of the mayor adds a dimension to a discussion we would otherwise ignore.

Our community needs a local voice and a view on issues. Even if you don’t like it, it is what a democracy is about, plain, old regular folks seeing the world through local eyes and how a policy could affect us in our day-to-day existence. Only through an informed electorate do we get the country and community we deserve and expect.

In future columns, I will write about PM ZOOLANDER. (Hi Justin! Didn’t vote for ya and never will!) I will write about what I have seen and learned about the social environment in our schools, (and it isn’t pretty). I will write about what leadership is doing in the community to not only sustain our way of life, but to add to it. I will write about the differences in the generations and the challenges this presents to all of us as we try and communicate with each other. (If you need a spoiler on this one, go talk to your teenager and you will see where this is going!) I will write about the things that I think matter and I will extend the challenge to you to debate and discuss the issues you read here. In the end, yours is the voice that makes change happen or allows the status quo to exist.

I had a chance to take a step back and look at what is going on. I also had a chance to get involved in some of these things. Now I will renew the chance to reach out to you and, hopefully, keep you informed with a local look on a variety of issues that will affect us all. Hope you like it!

It is what it is…