Today is Remembrance Day. I consider myself a pacifist, and some of the friends I`ve met in the peace movement said things that gave me some ambivalent feelings about this day for a while. I`ve since reconciled those feelings. Regardless of how I feel about specific world conflicts, the sacrifices of those who fought are real. Their intentions were honourable and they deserve to be respected for those sacrifices.
Today, as I think back on the campaign, I am reminded how important it is to vote. It saddens me that our voter turnout for municipal government – arguably the one level of government that has the most obvious impact on our day to day lives – is so low. So while I hope people will vote for me, what matters the most is simply that people VOTE!
I have noticed that there does seem to be a higher level of citizen engagement this time. The turnout at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre event was fantastic! I believe they had something like 700 people. I swear I spoke in depth to at least 100 of them, and a bunch more either just took my literature or mentioned that they`d already decided they would be voting for me, so they had to go to talk to others & fill out the rest of their list.
The All Candidates Meeting at John Barsby Community School didn`t happen, as their was a wind storm that knocked out power. That is all the more reason that I hope people come out to the events this week. We are at VIU tomorrow, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and then there is a two day event at Barsby on Thursday and Friday night. To allow candidates to answer more questions, we are split into to groups, half Thursday and half Friday.
City Hall, October 28, 2014
As I`ve talked to people on the campaign trail, I`ve had questions about school closures, government funding, advocacy, services for gifted students, environmental concerns… a whole range of really important issues. I learned so much at the Early Years event, and then followed up by having a great phone meeting with Amber Brunner (Co-ordinator, GNEYP) and an enlightening face-to-face with Chris Beaton & Joy Bremner (Executive Director at Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre and President of Mid Island Métis Mid–Island Metis Nation, respectively)
For me, it all comes down to the same thing: We have to direct the resources we do have to classrooms, learning conditions and student support! We MUST work together and fight to preserve public education. We are reaching a critical point.
