Pass the pie

When I started to write this column, I was sitting with LOML, my brother and his wife in Toronto, after the second leg of our trip from CFB Shilo to our home in the County. On Sunday morning, we were drinking coffee and feeling a bit travel weary with another two and a half hour drive ahead of us. LOML and I are very thankful for what we have (at that particular moment it was the coffee, the pie and talking politics). At times, the Sunday morning discussion got rather loud. When one of us begs to differ, we use our outdoor voices. But the coffee was hot and we managed to squeeze in more than a few laughs while we sorted out our country’s problems and made bets on who will be running the show over the next four years.

Like a lot of good, ol’-fashioned family discussions involving politics, someone is always a bit more right than everyone else in the room. It’s the family way. Personally, I hope you enjoyed your family and friends while talking about the politics of this country on the second-to-last weekend before election day. It’s a good chinwag to have, especially if your family includes young voters, and even more importantly, if your family includes an “I’ve always voted that way” voter. I do believe, however, that politics and pie can cause indigestion or severe heartburn, so remember to drink lots of water and have those antacids close at hand if your blather continues this week.

As our second day of travel progressed along the 401, LOML and I continued our debate. In total, our trip would cover over 2,300 kilometres from CFB Shilo to our PEC home-sweetpotato- casserolehome. As we sped along, we marvelled at the scenery, a change from the drab sameness of the Manitoba prairies to the lush explosion of fall colour here. But the scenery is only pretty punctuation in politics. Canada is ready for big changes.

We need the transparency we were promised so many years ago. We need assurances regarding income support for seniors, programme support for our veterans and tax relief for families. Canadian families shouldn’t have to bear the burden of the cost of corporate handouts and bailouts. The so-called Canadian middle class is rapidly losing ground. Many Canadians are underemployed, underpaid and underwhelmed with the Federal state of affairs. I know so many young people who are working two, or more, jobs to make ends meet. Many young families are deeply in debt with the basics of life, including rent or mortgage payments, utilities, food, medical expenses and transportation. And then? Well, and then, what about the issues of Canadian women? Glad you asked.

Early in September, a party leaders’ debate regarding women’s issues was called off. The report tabled from the Status of Women Canada was not glowing. Women’s wages still trail those of men by around 20 per cent. The rates of violence against women have not declined. The rate of poverty among single parent families headed by women continues to climb.

In spite of this, our Prime Minister continues to be elusive about women’s issues. Although he did say he hadn’t seen the report from Status of Women Canada, he insisted his government had reduced child poverty to record lows. Stephen Harper told this country an enquiry into the missing and murdered indigenous women was not “high on our radar” despite the UN insisting it should be. Mr. H-E-double hockey sticks has shut down more than one half of the Status of Women offices in Canada, slashed funding for women’s advocacy and virtually eliminated legal funding for women and minority groups. Read the newspapers. Listen to Canadian broadcast news. Talk to your family and your friends about what’s going on in this country. Don’t go blindly into that voting booth, kids.

Oh, pass the coffee and the leftover pumpkin pie. Let’s talk, next week. I’ll know better, on October 20, if I could stand to live on The Isle of Man—away from it all.

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca