Canada Votes 2008

So, its been a while, but I return with a political message this time. As some of you may know, Canada recently had a Federal election. The incumbent party was the Conservative Party, with a slim minority government. They just returned to power with another minority government, this time holding 143 of 308 seats in the House of Commons.

The Prime Minister, Stephen Harper stated Canadians "Voted to move our Country forward". The party is hailing the result as an indication of increased strength and the desire of Canadians to move toward a Conservative majority. I personally see quite the opposite. I believe that today's result is far from a decisive victory, rather a narrow defeat.

The main opposition to Stephen Harper's Conservative Party are Stephane Dion's Liberals. Although the Liberals lost a number of seats in this past election, they can claim their 77 seat opposition spot as a major victory.

Ever since the last election, the Liberals have been in a state of upheaval and disarray. They have lacked strong, decisive leadership since the retirement of Jean Chrétien. Although Paul Martin lead them to a Minority government, his role as Leader and Prime Minister was transitional. In the wake of major scandal and a political fall from grace, Martin was seen as part of the "Old Way" and would be fighting an uphill battle to win over Canadians.

Enter Stephane Dion. During a controversial and scandal ridden leadership convention, he emerged as somewhat of a surprise winner, the Heavyweights Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff being the two favored to take the top spot. Vote-splitting amongst delegates from other hopefuls lead to Dion securing the popular vote.

After the dust settled on the convention, there was shock and awe. Many members threatened to quit the party and great divisions began to grow within the ranks. These divisions went all the way up to the highest level of the party. People were not confident in the abilities of Stephane Dion, and furthermore noted his difficulties with English. These difficulties were reminiscent of the days of Chrétien and his notorious mangling of both of Canada's official languages.

So the infighting began. Mud was slung within the party, divisions ran deep and the party was in a state of total disarray. Even long time party supporters refused to back their leader (and still refuse to this day) because of their concerns for his policies and what most insiders consider to be one of the worst platforms ever devised.

So on one hand we have the Liberals in a state of disaster, scrambling to try to form some semblances of unity to try to conduct a successful campaign. On the other hand you have divisions within the Left. Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) became embroiled in scandal when he told the media that he refused to attend a leaders debate if Green Party leader Elizabeth May was allowed to attend.

Both parties targeted similar demographics, but with a distinct difference, the NDP has a chance of winning seats. These divisons destroyed what could have been a powerful venture. Although no chance for either party to form a government, with the elimination of Vote Splitting on the left, they would have stood a better chance of gaining more ground against the Conservatives.

My conclusion about this Election is that the Conservative minority is a clear message that Canadians aren't comfortable with the direction that Harper wants to take the country. The opposition parties were in a total state of disarray, there were no hard fought battles. The ads were uncreative and really disappointing, and there wasn't the strong spirit that usually gripped an election. Partially shadowed by economic slowdowns and the US presidential election, the election brought about a surprise. When Stephen Harper should have rallied his party to a landslide, instead, he limped them into another 4 years of Minority Government. I think the message is clear, Canadians aren't willing to take a chance on Harper, they want to keep him in check.

Dinner For one, Part 10.

Well, here I am again. Another large Hiatus from posting, mostly due to writers block, being busy and being without internet. This is a rather large chunk, I was going to post it in two, but....well, I decided to give y'all something big to chew on for a while. I'm hoping to have a new story up and running fairly soon, because "A View From The Dark" got good reviews. Enjoy.

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While I was still trying to absorb the information thrown at me during my so called orientation, I was driven to an acreage about 15 kilometers outside Grande Prairie. I was given a quick tour of the “Crew House”, told where the trucks were kept, as well as the keys, and told to read the bulletin board for my day's assignment.

A large bulletin board greeted me as I walked in the door of the house. Attached to the board was a sheet of paper with my name on it. It detailed the time I needed to be at the site, the directions and my unit number. I grabbed the sheet and wandered in to meet the rest of the people staying there. They seemed friendly enough, sitting on the couches in the television room, they showed me to an empty bedroom and I made myself at home for the night.

Early the next morning I hurried to get my truck and get supplies for the following day. I bought some snacks to keep me going through the day and I headed off to a place called Elmwood. I had a map, directions and a healthy dose of divine guidance as started out on the highway. By some strange miracle, I didn't manage to get myself lost en route.

Although I had been developing quite a keen sense of direction, there was always the distinct possibility of becoming hopelessly lost through the thousands of kilometers of forestry roads and goat trails that seemed to pass for roads.

The oilfield isn't built on its own land. Where I was working, the land belonged to the federal and provincial governments, and had been leased to forestry operations for harvest. The forestry operations took a healthy sum of money from the Oilfield to allow them to use thier roads, clear patches of land known as Leases and drill for whatever petroleum product is buried deep within the earth.

This particular lease I arrived at was nestled 30 kilometers from the nearest stretch of pavement, deep in a wooded area. It was a fairly large piece of land, a few hundred feet by a few hundred feet, just dirt and a few pieces of pipe sticking out of the ground. I found a nice looking piece of dirt to park on top of, and I prepared for my first day of work with a new company.

Being the inexperienced medic I was, I was expecting a rig of some form or another, as the call sheet didn't outline exactly what I was to be supervising. It turns out they were finishing a pipeline and attaching the pipeline to the well. At the time, it was the most boring thing I had ever done. I was parked on a piece of dirt, watching a bunch of heavy equipment push dirt around for 12 hours.

As I tried to kill time, I played with my computer, occasionally wandered out to see what was going on. I had never been as depressed as I was when I looked at the clock and realized that I had successfully killed 45 minutes. Only 11 hours and 15 minutes to go.

Nothing happened while I was there. Nothing continued to happen for the next 4 days either. It was an exercise in the maintenence of some form of sanity. I sat and watched dirt get pushed around, 12 hours a day. I became somewhat of an expert in the pushing of dirt. I could tell if the dirt was wet or dry, if it had twigs or rocks in it, if it was hard or soft. I never wanted to know that about dirt. I'm happy as long as dirt is either outside on the ground or in a plant pot somewhere. When I was told that they had finally finished pushing the dirt, I was ecstatic to see what other wonders awaited me.

Another day brought another call sheet. It was raining when I woke up, I knew it wasn't going to be a good day. I had learned a lot about dirt in my previous posting, the most important thing I learned was that dirt and water should not be combined. Most roads in the oilfield are made of dirt, some contain small amounts of gravel, but never enough to prevent the inevitable mud that seems to form.

The directions pointed me to an unfamiliar road, and once again with divine guidance, I managed to find it. As I continued down the road, I realized that the conditions were less then good. The road itself was a giant mud puddle. Even with four wheel drive, the road was treacherous, made moreso by the semi trucks that seemed to carelessly fly by, splattering my already dirty windshield with yet more mud. 75 Kilometers down the road, I saw my turnoff. I proceeded down the road, watching my odometer as I had to make a left 16 kilometers after the turnoff. As I was making my way down the roads, they were getting narrower and narrower, barely wide enough for my truck. As the roads narrowed, they also worsened.

I was up to my hubcaps in mud, and sinking. Pressing onward I came to a realization. There is nothing down this road, I'm in the wrong place. So I carefully turned around and went back up the road. My knuckles were white on the wheel, driving up the narrow mud trail. I drove back to the main road, and realized that I had made a wrong turn altogether. I turned a half kilometer early, which sent me off on a wild goose chase up an unfamiliar trail.

When I finally got onto the right road, my trip became more fruitful, but, alas, I was late. When I was only ten minutes from my site, I saw a truck coming towards me. I tried to be courteous and pull off to the side of the road, which ended in near disaster. I had gotten myself stuck in the mud. When the other truck came up to me, I asked for help, and was informed that not only was he pulling me out of the ditch, he was also my client.

I had never been so embarrassed, however he was good about the whole thing. He understood that I was a rookie, and I make mistakes. He happily pulled me out, revised the directions to the site and told me he'd be back in a couple of hours. I drove quite carefully to the site, and introduced myself to the site supervisor. I was told that I would be supervising, once again, the pushing of dirt. Well, I guess this time it would be the manipulation of large amounts of mud.

I couldn't think of a better way to spend a saturday, watching mud get pushed around. They would dig it up, then put it back in the hole, and sometimes dig it up again. I didn't know what exactly was going on, all I knew was I had a very long day ahead of me, a longer drive and worst of all, I was going to have to wash the truck.

I was happy to get back to the crew house. The truck was cleaned, I was getting ready for bed when there was an invitation to go to town for strippers and beer. I didn't care much about the strippers, I was just happy that there would be alcohol involved. While the others were watching naked women waggle thier breasts, I decided I needed a walk, and not to pay ten bucks for a beer. There was only one store open at that time of the evening, a strange book and hemp store.

Dinner For One Part 8

It was about ten at night when I got back into Calgary. The truck was washed, my Mother was waiting to pick me up after I dropped the truck off at my boss' house. I cleared out the gear as I chatted with my mom. I told her everything went fine, I didn't know when I'd be back at work again, I was happy to be home. She smiled and nodded as we packed the last of my stuff in her car.

I talked to my boss the next day, inquired as to my next posting, but again, she was unsure of when I'd be needed next, things were slow. I didn't know much better about the industry, so I thought that if she hired me, she'd need me. I got a phone call a couple of days later from another company, asking if I could be in Grande Prairie in 5 hours. I knew I wouldn't be able to be there with that short of notice, but I said I'd see when I could get there.

I had a flight booked for 2 days later. I was going back to Grande Prairie to work. This time for the largest industrial medical provider. I was once again excited about what was to come. When I boarded the plane, I didn't have the slightest idea as to what was about to happen to me.

After a somewhat quick flight, I walked off the plane onto the tarmac at the Grande Prairie Airport. I didn't exactly know who would be meeting me, but I figured somebody would claim the lost looking guy in the EMS T-shirt. As I waited for my luggage to arrive, I heard what sounded like a heavy object in a duffle bag being thrown about. When I turned around, I realized it was the sound of an elderly gentleman's head hitting the brick floor of the airport terminal. Being the eager first responder I was, I sprung into action, taking control of his head and beginning an assessment while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. It was only after he was carted off on a stretcher that I realized my new employer was most likely watching this whole event unfold.

I found out that the person who was sent from the office to pick me up was in fact watching, but completely clueless as to the events. She was rather oblivious to most of the world around her. I didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed, it would be nice to make a good first impression.

I was driven from the airport to the Grande Prairie field office. I met the staff at the office, was given a very quick orientation, signed a large stack of papers and was told that I had a job waiting for me the next morning. I was still recovering from the flight, so I didn't completely grasp everything that had happened to me, from my impromptu patient to the whirlwind orientation I recieved. The only thing I knew for sure by the end of it all, I didn't really know any more then I did the day before.