I made an error in my last column and I blame it on confusion – a state of mind that seems to be creeping up on me. Not from behind because that would be paranoia, but thinking one thing and writing or saying another. I mixed up National Geographic with the Canadian Geographical magazine names in my cheerleading for the chickadees as our National Bird. I knew better because we all remember in our youth ‘reading’ the National Geographic to see the pictures of near-naked people in far off lands. Our mag just has nature pictures – birds, flowers and the Bay of Fundy or the Rockies.
However it is easy to be confused when we are inundated with American TV and news. Down there they are having a Black Friday while it surely looks awfully white outside to me. It is bad enough that they wait until it snows before they have Thanksgiving, but holding Boxing Day sales in November is simply silly. Yes, I know, it is called black Friday because of sales returns so the accountants can go from red figures to black in the US. Here, we would have just declared bankruptcy long before the end of November.
It was confusing to understand the American election since theirs is a representative democracy while ours is just a straight run at the post for victory. There is grumbling in the Democratic Party about a recount but it is far too late for fixing the results (unless they were fixed – hacked by the Russians!). Imagine the confusion in a recount if we change our system to proportional representation and then demand recounts.
However, listening to the post-election banter it now seems that Trump may be breaking some of his promises already – something that has been much hoped for. That is a switch – hoping a politician breaks his promises. On the other hand we have young Trudeau not exactly keeping his promises, something we hoped he would honour. I wonder what they had in the soup they served for that little fundraising dinner Justin and his Chinese buddies had – must have been really, really good.
There’s another thing: my spell checker wanting to spell honour the other way, and if you don’t watch it, the darn Artificial Intelligence in my computer will spell words the way it prefers. Mind you, my fingers do get confused at times and the spell checker does help. I was going to title this piece Confusion Reigns but the machine thought it should be Confusion Rains. I guess either would have worked.
Nonetheless, I am not the only one who gets confused. Take for instance everyone, driver and pedestrian alike, who stops at the lights at McKeown and Champlain streets. Drivers watch the traffic signals while pedestrians watch their crossing signal. The two devices seem to be out of synchronization or at best, at odds with each other. Yes, there is an advance green turn and that may be part of the problem but it seems pedestrians can be stranded at the intersection, confused as to whether they should make a dash for it when their signal refuses to say ‘walk’. Gone are the days when everyone just looked for a green light to GO! And the gremlin inside that particular signal controller can fall asleep, leaving cars on Champlain stuck through a normal cycle or two. I`ve actually seen drivers get out of their car and push the crosswalk button to get a green light.
Speaking of confusion, did I actually hear Wynne say she was to blame for mess she got us into with Hydro? I’m guessing she had a hand in a number of other boondoggles that have marred the province in the past but it is too late to fix those past sins.
It was interesting to listen to an American trade official who was wringing his hands in glee at the prospect of Canada adopting some form of carbon taxing. (Republicans in general do not believe in climate change, let alone science). He thought that any American company that came to Canada for the advantage of lower dollars would now go directly home with their jobs. And I believe he may have been onto something. I think the Wynne government (and others) are looking at the tax income from carbon with small intent of moving those tax dollars to environmental benefit. They are looking at a short term gain to lower their deficits to look good until the next election. Am I being pessimistic or just confused about their intentions?
Anyway, (or is it ‘anyways’) the chickadees were wondering whether New Brunswick would offer to change their Provincial bird to the Canada Jay so the country could have Chickadees as the most fitting of birds for the National Bird . . . they were just saying.
