Want to Provide Security for a World Leader – No Experience Required

In Canada’s largest city, a security firm handling part of the protection services for the world’s most powerful leaders is hiring – no experience required!

After a background check by Canada’s federal police service – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and a mere ten days of training – you too can be wearing the dark sun glasses, while protecting the likes of American President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and 18 other world leaders, during the G8 and G20 Summits in late June.

WOW – sign me up for that job!

It even pays more than a typical security gig. Most security companies in the city pay on average from $10 to $15 per hour, and you’re lucky if you get full-time hours if you’re a rookie. Providing security to the G8 and G20, even the new kids on the block will earn $20 to $24 per hour, plus overtime for two-weeks.

And you may even get to take a bullet for someone!

Even the local Toronto Police Service is only getting a condensed special training session of ten days for the event. Many are used to catching speeders, investigating lost wallets, and handling the occasional domestic dispute – the additional training is to bring them up to speed on how to keep the world leaders from harm’s way.

Perhaps it is security by numbers instead of experience – over 2,000 police are expected to be on hand to protect 20 people for a two-day affair.

Granted, the RCMP – which are in charge for the most part – protect Canada’s Prime Minister all the time, and when was the last time we heard of anything going wrong?

Well, there was that time when the wife of a then-current Canadian Prime Minister was confronted by a home invader, at the Prime Minister’s official residence. Back in 1985, Aline Chretien came face-to-face with the intruder, who was armed with a knife. Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his wife locked themselves in their bedroom, until the RCMP came to take the man away – though if they were doing their job in the first place he should never have got that close to the Canadian leader in the first place.

Even with 2,000 law enforcement types in the area, with that kind of track record, I’d be skeptical whether or not I was safe if I were a world leader.

Though the areas where the world leaders will be – essentially most of the downtown core – will be shut down for the duration of the summits.

Still, a mere ten days of training, and no experience required?

So how come it is costing over a billion Canadian dollars to secure this thing anyway?

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Does Canada Need a Royal?

There has been plenty of pomp over Canada’s official royal representative – the Governor General – of late
.
Michaelle Jean’s five-year term is coming to a close, and the Prime Minister has already said he’s considering people to replace her, which has raised questions about the working relationship between the two, as many Governor Generals terms have been extended by their boss – the Prime Minister.

Even the opposing Liberal Party leader, Michael Ignatieff is urging the Conservative Prime Minister to extend Jean’s term – which is rare, because usually the Governor General is hand chosen by the ruling party to rubber stamp anything the Prime Minister wants.

Which is why we really need to take a look at whether or not the whole role of Governor General should even be.

Although Michael Jean has done a remarkable role representing Canada internationally, most of her job is – well – just a lot of pomp and ceremony.
Technically the governor general is the Queen’s representative in Canada, she’s our official head of state.

As such, she has the power to disband the current government, name a new one in its place, or even prorogue Parliament – which she did at Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s request.

That further begs the question about the existence of the role of the governor general, because she has the power to end, delay or replace our federal government – yet she answers to the person who appointed her into her job – her boss, the Prime Minister.

Though the Governor General’s website claims the role is non-partisan, how could anyone say no to a request from their boss?

And if the role of governor general really is non-political, how come the person in that role has such broad sweeping powers over a political entity?

Though here’s where the non-political involvement becomes political – Jean was appointed by former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2005. Because her five-year term is ending, the now Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to appoint someone new, who will answer to him.

Several names have been floated as potential successors, including disabled-rights campaigner Rick Hansen; former defence chief John de Chastelain; Inuit leader Mary Simon and Reform party founder Preston Manning.

But for this Trekkie, I’ve got to put my support behind Montreal-born actor William Shatner, most known for his recurring role as Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise.

A Facebook site was put up for Shatner by a Canadian technology reporter, and it has grown into quite a large campaign, with thousands of people joining in.
That is of course if we still have a governor general.

For all intents and purposes, the role places too much political power into the hands of one person, who is largely more of a figure head.

What this country needs is real leaders, with real political power.

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Canadians Were Played by their Prime Minister

Isn’t it ironic that during Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harpers thrown speech, sparking another session of Parliament, that he chose that moment to re-ignite an on-going debate to change the lyrics to the Canadian national anthem Oh Canada?

It is ironic if you take note that his thrown speech was delivered amidst all the hoopla surrounding International Women’s Day – which is today.

Last week, many private and government organizations made announcements about events and programs to coincide with the annual day promoting the economic, political and social achievements of the women’s movement.

Canada’s Governor-General, Michaelle Jean, said herself that she’s timed her visit to her homeland of Haiti to coincide with International Women’s Day, because wants to send a positive message to the women of her earthquake battered land, to empower them on their rebuilding efforts.

Many workplaces are also having special seminars, cultural, and social events, as part of International Women’s Day.

So why were we Canadians so blind-sided by the prime minister’s announcement last week by his government’s intent to investigate whether or not parts of the national anthem are sexist?

Maybe we were still in awe from the just concluded Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games which rapped up a mere days before the prime minister’s controversial announcement.

Or maybe that was the whole point?

Perhaps the media-savvy public relations handlers for Prime Minister Stephen Harper saw no harm in tossing a proverbial bone to the Women’s Movement, as they could bury it within the Thrown Speech, at a time when most of us were still being blinded by the numerous gold, silver and bronze medals our Canadian Team took in this year?

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has never really been very progressive when it comes to catering to special interest groups. He’s talked the good talk about reducing carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases, even setting realistically achievable targets and deadlines – but so far they are nothing more than words on a page, as his government has failed to implement these policies into action.

It appears the Canadian Prime Minister is acting much like an American president known as “the Great Communicator” for his ability to spin messages.

During the 1980’s American President Ronald Reagan – AKA “the Great Communicator” – spun his way through his administration’s major changes to American economic spending, militarization (the Cold War was still going strong), foreign policy, and education. Had he not been so slick and media savvy, instead of being one of the most respected American leaders of all time, he may have gone down in history as being one of the most controversial.

His economic policies were so radical at the time, opponents to his policies nicknamed them “Reaganomics” which the Reagan administration then turned on its head, spinning the negative out of the term so that “Reaganomics” actually made the American leader’s economic policies more palatable to those against it.

Just as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has used the cloak of a thrown speech, on the heels of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, President Reagan used distractionary tactics to diffuse attention away from the real agenda of his government.

The image of American President Ronald Reagan standing along the Berlin Wall, in his silky smooth broadcast-movie-announcer-type voice saying: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” was one of the most memorable moments of his administration. Yet, around the same time as President Reagan was asking the then Soviet President Mikael Gorbachev to end the Cold War, the American leader was working on his “Star Wars” plan, which was an automated system of satellites and nuclear weapons which would be used to protect America from a nuclear attack by Russia.

Oh Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is nowhere near as slick as the former actor, turned American President. But make no mistake about it; Prime Minister Harper knows how to play us.

He certainly played us for a fool last week when he announced his intentions to investigate sexist lyrics in Oh Canada – just in time for International Women’s Day.

Prime Minister Harper has a habit of making such broad sweeping announcements around very public events, only to have done something completely different later on. He’s using the women’s movement to distract us from his real intents and purposes.

So the natural question to ask now is: so what is Canada’s Prime Minister going to do this session of Parliament?

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What Canada’s Prime Minister Has In Common with Rosanne Barr

Many years ago, comedian Rosanne Barr offended many with her rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. She sang the American national anthem to kick-off a San Diego Padres baseball game in 1990, in her typically loud and obnoxious character. Her performance was intentionally meant to be a humorous take on the song, but it turned out to be more a serious lapse in judgment.

There are some things in life you should never play around with – and a country’s national anthem is one of those things.

So why is the Canadian government looking into changing that country’s national anthem?

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged in his speech from the thrown – the traditional way a new session of the Canadian Parliament begins – that he would “examine the original gender-neutral English wording of the national anthem.”

Of all the words which express the patriotism and sense of national pride for a country, are the words within that country’s national anthem.

The Canadian anthem – Oh Canada – is based on a 1908 poem, so it is dated.
But so too are most national anthems – countries aren’t created in a single event. The root histories of a nation’s early beginnings are the basis for most national anthems around the world.

Canada’s Prime Minister is desecrating one of our national symbols – our national anthem – by even suggesting it needs to be made more politically correct – which is the underlying cause of his concern.

The third line of Oh Canada is: True patriot love in all thy sons command. Prime Minister Harper claims his office has received many complaints from women’s groups about the sexist nature of this line.

Most though – including some women rights advocacy groups – believe the national anthem is fine as is. They assert that the Conservative federal government led by Prime Minister Harper should be focusing on the issues which have a greater impact on both sexes in the county.

"REAL Women requests the Liberal government in Ottawa to address the real problems Canadians face, especially economic ones, instead of dancing to the tune of a handful of chronically dissatisfied feminists," the right-wing women's organization said in a 2003 news release. The debate whether or not to modernize Oh Canada has been one of those on again, off again debates since 1990.

However, given the prime minister’s recent actions, he may be re-starting the debate about the country’s national anthem for less noble reasons. Last year, Prime Minister Harper stalled Parliament until it re-started just this week, claiming this delay would give the government the time it needed to determine the direction to take the country.

The Conservative government has been – well conservative – in their approach to governing, not really tackling any of the major issues facing the country. They do enact policies and programs to assist with the economy, the jobless, education, healthcare, national security and other issues, but they really haven’t taken any dramatic steps to resolve anything directly. Most of the Harper regime’s rule has been nothing more than band-aid type solutions, which cover the cut, but fail to repair the wound.

It has been suggested that the Prime Minister mentioned revising the national anthem as a diversionary tactic, to take public attention off of the real issues which the government is failing to address.

Whatever Prime Minister Harper’s intent, amending our national anthem for political correctness is no different than asking Rosanne Barr to sing it at a baseball game – a poor lapse in judgment, and the desecration of an internationally recognized national symbol of Canada.

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So Much for Our Polite National Pride

Tomorrow, Canada’s ruling Conservative government launches a new session of Parliament, with a throne speech, and then the day after they release their new budget outlining how the federal government will spend Canadians hard earned dollars.

A mere days after the amazingly warm – and sadly rare – outpouring of Canadian pride thanks to our country’s hosting of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, our politicians are going back to their old tricks, which may be the reason we generally only see Canadian red and white spirit on Canada’s Birthday July 1.

American news anchor Brian Williams, of NBC fame, was so touched by our honest to goodness polite national nature, he wrote a thank-you note upon wrapping up his broadcasting of the Olympic Winter Games.

“Thank you, Canada: For being such good hosts,” he wrote. “For your unfailing courtesy.”

NBC’s Williams saw our Canadian pride, and was touched, he continued: “For your unique TV commercials -- for companies like Tim Hortons -- which made us laugh and cry. For securing this massive event without choking security, and without publicly displaying a single automatic weapon. For having the best garment design and logo-wear of the games -- you've made wearing your name a cool thing to do.”

For the 17-day run of the winter games in Vancouver, BC, Canada, we Canadians witnessed something we just don’t see enough of in this country – national pride.

Every day and night in the stands Canadian flags flickered from the waving hands of proud Canadians wearing our national colors of red and white. The streets of Vancouver were completely covered with many more fans in red and white, sporting jerseys with “CANADA” on them.

Even during the games, bars, restaurants, clubs and streets in cities and towns from coast-to-coast-coast were plastered in red and white. A portion of Yonge Street in Toronto, Canada had to be shut down when the Canadian Men’s Hockey team won the Gold against a game with the rival American team. While our Canadian Women’s Hockey team drew public scrutiny for being typically Canadian in celebrating their Gold medal victory – they were apparently being very loud, drinking beers and smoking cigars in a pub shortly after their win. Also in typically Canadian fashion, we apologized for their behavior – Hockey Canada issued a public apology on their behalf.

Both the opening and closing ceremonies were wonderful examples of pure Canadianna, filled with national symbols and treasures, and many moments when many Canadians – including this one in particular – were so filled with Canadian pride, tears welled up in our eyes.

But that Canadian pride, as amazingly wonderful a thing it is to publicly display and to share, disappeared just as quick as the last flame was extinguished in the Olympic Cauldron.

Instead of carrying the energy, drive and determination which a strong sense in one’s country fuels, our federal politicians have chosen the easier, and less Canadian route.

The opposition parties are already plotting how they can “de-throne” the throne speech, by re-igniting the burning tensions which caused Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to delay Parliament in the first place. Some will use his delay as fuel to their flames no doubt, as that decision in of itself placed the Prime Minister and his party on lose footing with the public.

In business, a sense of pride in one’s professional accomplishments often comes from the leaders at the top. Companies which have open, honest and publicly proud leaders, have open, honest and publicly proud employees.

Just as in business, countries leaders often set the tone for their citizens. So when a country sees its leaders display dishonestly, and bicker and fight with each other instead of doing things which demonstrate pride and the typical politeness of Canadian values, is it any wonder why we Canucks suffer from a lost sense of national pride?

Even during the enormous emotional Canadian pride sweeping throughout the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, our nation’s top dog continued his usual lackluster ways.

There were times when the camera focused on our Prime Minister during the closing ceremonies, where our nation’s leader actually appeared bored. There is still the question as to whether or not he was actually singing our national anthem during the closing ceremonies – from the images captured of him during the event, he may not have even been doing this simple gesture – which any nation’s leader should be more than willing to do.

There is more to building a strong and progressive nation than creating public policies. Leading by example is the most important thing – and in terms of leading a nation, that means oozing national pride to the point of excess. That excessive sense of pride filters down, and fosters that one thing we lack most in one of the richest countries on the planet – national pride.

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Canadian Politics – Follow the Leader at Their Own Peril

Despite the negative public reaction to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to Prorogue Parliament, the country’s largest province is following his lead.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced his intentions to Prorogue the Ontario Legislature after the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC, prior to his speech from the throne.

By law, there has to be a break prior to a new throne speech – however this break usually only last a day or two.

Political pundits say Premier McGuinty is taking the unusual step of Proroguing the Legislature to buy time for two new additions to his cabinet, due to recent by-elections. This extra time will allow the two new members of his political circle to catch up on the latest issues affecting their ministries.

The Ontario Premier wasn’t blind to the very public backlash against Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his government, for their Proroguing of Parliament. He says he took that into account when making his decision, and as such, he won’t delay the legislature as long as the federal government delayed Parliament.

The news media was quick to jump all over the federal government’s Proroguing decision, and there have been numerous large public protests across the country.
Social networking sites on the Internet have also had quite the following, with thousands joining a Facebook site against the Prime Minister’s decision.

Regardless of the reasoning behind the Ontario Premier’s decision to halt the business of governing, the public perception of governance in this country continues to go south.

There have always been jokes about politicians and their credibility.

However, as politicians constantly find the quickest and easiest routes to achieve their agendas – some of which have more to do with staying ahead of the opposition parties instead of actually managing the affairs of the governing bodies which they run – the public support not just of the ruling party, but of politicians in general continues to fall.

How can you place your faith and trust in the hands of people you don’t respect?
Even at the municipal level politicians are doing things which clearly cost them and their profession much needed support.

Here in Canada’s largest city – Toronto – a local mayoral candidate has been caught in an affair similar to former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s “Monicagate.”

Toronto City Councilor Adam Giambrone admitted that he has had intimate relationships with women other than his long-time live-in partner over the course of his political career – there are even reports that he may have engaged in sexual activities on his couch in his office at Toronto City Hall.

Although the thought of a public official’s office being used in a sexual affair is gross at best, an individual’s personal affairs are just that – personal and not really a matter of public concern.

What is of public concern in “Giambronegate” is the honesty of Giambrone. When one of his former mistresses first made the sexual allegations, the mayoral candidate for Canada’s largest city intentionally mislead the public by denying the allegations. Giambrone has since withdrawn from the mayoral race.

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” are famous falsities from former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Although President Clinton’s well documented affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky actually helped propel his popularity, as it increased his image as a John F. Kennedy-like womanizer and sex symbol.

Unfortunately for Giambrone, Canadian politicians rarely make the leap to celebrity sex symbol. The only Canadian politician who was able to really successfully pull that off was former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau during what became known as Trudeaumania back in the late 1960’s with numerous relationships with celebrities and starlets. Trudeaumania actually started its decline shortly after Prime Minister Trudeau got married in 1971, clearly showing the link between the famed Prime Minister’s single-status sex appeal, which ended when he was no longer “on the market.”

If Giambrone’s self-confessed “lapse in judgment” does anything, is further degrade the public’s trust in our public officials. How can you respect someone who publicly denies something which they were clearly did? How can you respect someone who backtracks on their public statements – essentially admitting their initial deception – once the facts begin to surface.

I ask again, how can you place your faith and trust in the hands of people you don’t respect?

Following the leader is no way to lead, yet that is what these politicians are doing in a manner of speaking.

Real leadership is just that – leadership. You can’t be a follower and a leader at the same time.

Until we have real leadership in this country – at all levels of government – the public’s perception of politicians will be nothing more, than follow the leader.

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Wasn’t There Any Real News?

Image via Wikipedia

Today, the Canadian media declared Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper as the newsmaker of the year. This isn’t the first time for the Canadian leader, as he was awarded the journalistic title last year.

Granted, Harper managed to quash many political fires, saving citizens from yet another federal election – it seems we have two seasons in Canada – winter and election season. However, Harper really didn’t excel as a Canadian leader, so why did a group of journalists take the easy way out and just hand it to the same guy from last year?

Maybe that’s exactly what they did: “who should be our newsmaker of the year? Duh, I dunno, let’s just give it to the dude who won it last year, what was his name again?”

Being granted newsmaker of the year should come with some hefty reasons – I mean we’re talking newsmaker for the majority of 365-days, not just for a month, a week or a day – it’s the whole year.

Prime Minister Harper didn’t solve the hole in the ozone layer, bring about world peace, or cure cancer – but then who has? But he didn’t do what many other potential newsmakers have done, and really stand out from the crowd.

Sure he met U.S. President Barack Obama, but so did Governor General Michaelle Jean – and she actually received a personal invitation from the American president to come to his house in an unofficial capacity. Though she did alienate many when she ate a seal’s heart during a visit up in our Arctic.

What about Canadian Defence Minister Peter Mackay? Many can’t get the image of the buff politician in a skin-tight wet suit doing donuts on his ski boat out of their minds – the image is both entertaining and disturbing. He’s responsible for finally ending our part in the American invasion of Afghanistan, as he declared this year that all Canadian troops would be out of the war-torn region by 2011.


Though if we’re going to name Canada’s newsmaker based on entertainment value alone, then this year it would have to be Garth Drabinski. He’s the former Canadian theatre mogul who was fined and sentenced to prison time, for ripping us off through his Live Entertainment Corp. – also called Livent. He even received the Order of Canada back in 1995 for producing Canadian-made movies, television and theatre events. But he’s currently a jailbird after being convicted on fraud and forgery charges. Maybe in seven-years when he’s out of the slammer?

I can see just how hard it must have been for Canada’s media to find an honest, hard-working Canadian to be the newsmaker of the year.

Not many choices so far – a blood soaked Governor General with seal guts oozing from her smiling face, a Defence Minister that looks more like a surfer dude, and a convicted criminal.

Surely there must be someone deserving of the title Canadian Newsmaker of the Year?

I know!

Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) funny man Rick Mercer. Rick Mercer probably won’t cure cancer, and he’s not a likely candidate to solve global warming, or bring about world peace.

But he brings out the best in Canadians by showing us who we really are in his silly skits and television comedy shows. Even better, he gets our neighbours to the south in the States to think about us every so often – which is something they rarely do.

Mercer was the first Canadian television personality to venture to the States, and ask Americans what they knew about Canada. The piece was hilarious, showing us how little they really do know, but also in a way, educating Americans a bit about us Canucks.

Comic relief may be the best way to solve many world problems. If we could all laugh at ourselves a little more, than perhaps we’d have fewer wars, and a more efficient and effective society?

Rick Mercer makes us see just how silly and trivial many things we take far too seriously are – mainly how too seriously we take ourselves.

And for those reasons, Rick Mercer should be Canada’s Newsmaker of 2009.

When Politicos Run and Hide

One of the benefits – supposedly – of living in a democracy is the freedom to discuss and debate the issues.

That’s part of the reason we have a Parliament, and why it is so un-Canadian for Canada’s top politician to scamper away from the debates.

Today, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave what has been billed as an “economic update,” talking about Canada’s economy in general, and taxes and infrastructure more specifically.

It isn’t all that uncommon for a Canadian prime minister to prov

Image by Grant Neufeld via Flickr

ide such an update – it gives citizens an idea as where the country is heading, and the opposing politicians a chance to discuss and debate these issues in the House of Commons up on Parliament Hill.

And that’s where the real power in our democratically elected leaders stems – in the House of Commons. Although to many outside the debate – and even some within it – it all appears to be a lot of political babbling, name calling, and other non-productive forms of communications.

The House of Commons provide a forum where the issues can be openly discussed and debated. It is through this discussion process, that our laws, rules, regulations and other policies which make us all the more Canadian are improved before becoming official.

Image via Wikipedia

However, the children currently occupying the House of Commons – including all opposition leaders and our very own Prime Minister – have lost that notion, and instead focus on name calling and political back-stabbing.

That’s why although most economic report cards are issued by the Prime Minister or the Finance Minister in the House of Commons, today’s announcement was made on the other side of the country near St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador. That’s as far from the opposition parties – and the debates – as possible.

Our fearless leader, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, ran away l

Image by bgilliard via Flickr

ike a dog with his tail between his legs, and hid in another province, rather than face his opponents and allow for the open discussions which usually leads to better public policy.

Though the opposition parties also have a stake in some of the blame as well. It is because of their childish antics, threats to dissolve the house and call an election, and poor choice of strategies overall which have led our Prime Minister out of the house, to make important announcements about the country.

The real victims in all of this are not the politicians but the very citizens of Canada. Without these debates, public policies in the country will be passed when they should have been reviewed and revised. This means the rules and regulations which govern much of what we do could be flawed, or worse – fail to accomplish the very essence of what they were intended to do in the first place.

Although most Canadians don’t want another election so soon after the last one, maybe it is time to get rid of the children playing in the House of Commons, and replace them with adults who understand the whole reason they are there.

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Happy Birthday Canada – Who Are You?

Another year has come and gone, and Canadians everywhere celebrated our nation’s birth yesterday. But just how Canadian are you?

Not that you have to prove your love of the Great White North by feasting on greasy back bacon, watching your favourite ice hockey team whip an American franchise, nor have made love in a canoe – as ex-Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau may have done according to some Canadian urban legends.

Pierre who?

That’s the real test of loyalty to one’s country these days, according to many media outlets – knowing the proverbial who’s who of your country’s famous faces. Every Canada Day, newspapers, and radio and television statio

Image via Wikipedia

ns across the country report our failings in identifying famous citizens.

Although everyone should know who their country’s current leader is – because the things he or she says or does can impact your life – it is questionable whether or not this sort of knowledge really makes you any more or less a good citizen.

However, when school kids can’t identify Canada’s first Prime Minister (Sir John A. MacDonald), don’t know what our country’s capital city is (Ottawa), and don’t know why our official languages are English and French (in large part due to the War of 1812), then the alarm bells should ring.

Although histories of countries around the world show us frail human beings making the same mistakes throughout time – such as America creating another Viet Nam when they invaded Iraq – we need historical knowledge to move onwards.

Having a sense of where we came from is important in figuring out where we are going -- it provides us with a sense of place, a sort of home-base from which to look out on and make the countless choices we are faced with in our daily lives.

Today’s children are tomorrow’s business, economic, social and political leaders.
But how can these kids lead, without knowing where we’ve been before? How can today’s children be prepared to make the everyday decisions affecting our nation, without that sense of place?

When I was a kid, growing up in suburban Toronto’s high school system, I didn’t really think history was all that important. How could something that happened in the past really affect me today?

But then I got smitten by the history bug, thanks to my first-year Canadian history professor in university Irving Abella. I remember getting to class early, so that I could get a front row seat, as “grandfather Abella” told us a story about something that happened a very long time ago.

That was how I saw him and that class, just like a grandfather telling his grandchildren a story around the wooden stove about their great relatives. Professor Abella was an elderly man, had a long grey beard, salt and pepper hair, and strode into that university lecture hall with all the energy of a young man – only to curl up towards his podium, and tell us eager students all about our past. Professor Abella told us what happened way back when, and most importantly, he related it to the world today.

We need more grandfather (or grandmother) types teaching history in today’s schools. I’m not saying only seniors need apply, anyone of any age can tell us where we’ve come from. But what we do need are people who can see the value of historical knowledge in today’s world. We need historians that can put the past into a modern day context for our kids, so that our kids come to appreciate that knowledge and embrace it.

And for that to happen, today’s history teachers must have that sense of place, the home-base from which to look out on and take historical events and make them real to today’s kids.

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