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Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Reunion at the Beach, why I'm a lousy businessman, and welcome back to Jeff Wesley

Tuesday, October 7, 2003

Well, as those of who heard me on the radio this past weekend already know, I was up in Sauble Beach over the weekend for an annual reunion of some old high school buddies. It's something we've been doing for about the last ten years, since we were 40, and it's really been a huge amount of fun. Usually, we golf a few holes, which is the only time I ever hit the links, but this year the weather was horrid, so we had to pass on that and ended up having a bridge marathon, playing the king of card games for about nine hours straight. I was pleased because I managed a small slam, and bid it correctly, which is far from easy when you play about once every five years. We also visited Pumpkinfest where we saw some very big vegetables, but also ran into a lot of very inclement weather. This event is huge in Port Elgin – likely as big as WAMBO in Wallaceburg or the Cherry Festival in Blenheim, but they sure hold it at a risky time of year for that far north. Anyway, the point of all this rambling is that I'd have had a good time doing almost anything. I mean, I grew up with these guys and there's almost nobody I'd rather spend time with. And every year, as I drive toward the beach, I wonder what we'll talk about and how we'll spend the time, and every year is different but lots of fun. It seems I only have to be in the company of these old friends for a few minutes and it feels like we've never been apart – which leads me to believe something I've known for a while – when you're young you make friends like never again in life. There's something about the type of time you spend together and the type of experiences you have that make friends from your teen years the best friends of your life. Thanks to Murray, Al and Stan for putting up with me for all these years. I really do appreciate you guys as friends!

Big change on the political landscape since last week, although not too many of you took my advice and got out and voted. Wow, what a low voter turnout, which must mean that we don't really feel wanted or needed in the democratic process. Anyway, I'm in favour of the change in government, thinking that we need someone else to take a crack at bringing the province to its knees. As I was up at the beach this past weekend, we were remembering back when we were kids and Ontario had the best health care and the best education systems in the world – and we were wondering what went wrong. It's certainly time for someone else to try to get us back on track. The Tories have had their chance and I'm not sure they've carried out too much that was positive. I keep hearing all these business people talking about what a good job Harris did, but I just can't buy into it. What the heck did he do that was so great? I mean, I see a lot of chaos out there on the social landscape, but not too much of a positive nature. I guess a positive business climate, but everything else be-damned is the way business people think. Maybe that's why I'm such a lousy businessman – I have a social conscience, which means I can't support a politician of any stripe if all he or she can claim is that they've improved the business climate. I'm sorry, but I had it in the for the Harris government from their first act in 1995 – which, I believe, was to cut welfare rates. That was a big part of the Common Sense Revolution – attacking the poor and defenceless and that ain't going to get my vote any time soon. I was, in fact, disappointed that one of the Liberal Party planks didn't include giving our poor people a small raise so they could live a bit better. I'd go for that. The minimum wage hike will be good and long overdue, but welfare rates are pathetic. Anyway, I'll give the Grits a little while in office to see how they're going to do – the so-called benefit of doubt, I guess. Good luck to the lot of them – try not to let the system corrupt you.

Municipal election on the horizon now that the province is squared away for a while. Don't know what to tell you on this one, folks. I do know that the ROCK Committee will be very active during the rest of the campaigning season – they really want to give us a chance to "de-merge" our area. (I took "de-merge" from the LFP – honest!) I really do think this is an important issue and one the outgoing Chatham-Kent Council should have taken more seriously when it ended up on their doorstep. Just brushing it aside has only made the ROCK Committee even more determined to be heard. For one thing, they're running several candidates in the south end of Chatham-Kent, and they're also busy organizing some Meet the Candidate Nights for just about everywhere in the municipality. I don't care to speculate on any de-amalgamation of our area, but I do think the ROCK should be heard and maybe they will be in the end. Things like this don't just go away – you've got to deal with them.

Welcome back to Jeff Wesley, who after a short retirement from journalism, has returned to the pages of cktimes and will be taking a look at the upcoming municipal election in C-K Politics 101. I welcome Jeff back and know he'll offer insightful comment on the election as it approaches. He's never been known to pull his punches and I like that about him. Sock it to 'em, Jeff.

Anyway, pretty well out of time for another week. I hope you enjoy my "Notes" – just a few thoughts that come to me every week as I sit in front of the keyboard. I'll try to get out another Classic Vinyl next week. Take care and enjoy Thanksgiving...and remember..."Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may."




John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.