I’ve just returned from southern Alberta, having done a signing of Tough Tiddlywinks at Chapters Bookstore in Lethbridge, an interview on Radio AM 1140, and a reading of Tough Tiddlywinks at Pages Bookstore in Calgary. On my flight from Vancouver to Calgary I could tell when my plane had crossed into Alberta airspace because the wild roses were in bloom everywhere, even after such a protracted winter. (This week’s attempt at political humour).
On my arrival in Vancouver today I learned from media sources that Rob Ford is taking 30 days off the job, to deal with what ails him. I hope to God this means that at least for 30 days I won’t have to hear Rob Ford remind journalists and detractors just how many pennies he has saved Torontonians. Last week we saw that Alison Redford was also away from her legislature, in Edmonton. Some complain that she should have been sitting, but in fact she was, on a bicycle in Palm Springs (a much more humble mode of transportation than first-class air travel). Ford, Redford and the Harper government share a categorical commitment to fiscal conservatism. With such troublesome developments in municipal and provincial politics of late, and the skewering of the federal Fair Elections Act proposal in recent weeks (see my last post), one can only wonder it will take for a prevailing electoral obsession with saving pennies to end and an electoral interest in anything else — physical and mental health, the state of public education, whatever — to take hold. I wonder if Torontonians, with those huge bags of pennies they have saved, can now afford more than a Ford?
Don’t ask me because I don’t live there…but to return to Tough Tiddlywinks, last Saturday the Calgary Herald published an interview with me (just click the link), as did the Lethbridge Herald, which can be read below:
CHRISTOPHER NOWLIN 