Archives for 5.1.09

proximity of political paralysis

I ran into a friend of mine the other day. He was outside one of our grocery stores, campaigning for his seat in our legislature. He is the incumbent MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) for the riding next door to the one I live in. [For our American friends, an MLA is like a State Representative, except we have a unicameral legislature, so an MLA has much more influence than a State Rep would. There are other differences as well, but that will have to suffice as an explanation.]

I first met my friend when I was selling real estate to support our work here in Victoria. Another friend referred him to me. One day I picked up my phone at the office and this voice said, “Is this Don the Baptist?” And when I answered “Yes”, the voice went on, “Well I am John the Socialist.” And indeed he is. We get along rather well, in spite of political differences. The story of that house sale is one of my best from real estate days, but we’ll let that go by the wayside, too. John told me the other day they are still in that house, happy with it, and planning to renovate the kitchen soon.

As I said, I ran into John while he was campaigning. We talked about a few things and noted our differences. I was talking to my daughter about it afterwards. I told her that if we lived just a few blocks further west, I’d have a real problem deciding who to vote for. That might come as a shock to those who know my political views – my friend is a member of a party that I think I could almost never vote for. They are through and through socialists, so wrong headed [Read more…]