DEAR JASON, BRIAN, AND DEREK
:
This is an open letter to one wannabe and two current Alberta MLAs who should know better, from a former MLA who does.
I’m ashamed of you.
Here are a couple of definitions of that phrase:
- to feel disappointed or upset by someone’s behaviour
- to feel embarrassed because you are related to someone or connected with them
What Justin Trudeau did on Canada Day was to make a mistake. What you three did on Canada Day, by comparison, was beyond the pale.
Very early on in politics, I was given a good piece of advice: when in a situation where you’re required to acknowledge a large number of people or organizations, mention a couple of really key players by name and follow with a phrase like, “and everyone else involved.” Rhyming off a long list of names makes for a very boring speech, and if you try to acknowledge everyone by name, you are bound to forget somebody. It’s human nature, and it leads to hurt feelings on the part of the one whose name you left out. It’s advice that the Prime Minister should have taken, but didn’t, in his Canada Day speech. As a consequence, he forgot to mention Alberta.
I suppose some Albertans’ feelings were hurt by Trudeau’s omission, although I really wonder how many even knew or cared about it. We were out and about on Salt Spring Island, celebrating Canada Day the way most Canadians celebrated — checking out the classic cars at the Show and Shine on the baseball diamond…enjoying the music…watching kids having fun…chowing down with the neighbours on barbecued burgers and potato salad…watching the fireworks. In short, we were too busy behaving like most Canadians do on Canada Day to pay attention to political speeches — honestly, I get that prime ministers are expected to make speeches on Canada Day, but surely they understand that people are having too much fun to be bothered listening. And we were too busy being Canadian to give any thought to any of the provinces.
It’s called Canada Day for a reason, after all.
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