Opinion
Page A6 Friday, October 13, 2017
Salmon Arm Observer/Shuswap Market News
www.saobserver.net
Voters betrayed by politicians
Does it really matter what politicians say while campaigning for your vote? The latest insult to voters took place recently when Premier John Horgan proposed legislation that includes precisely what he vowed he would not do when campaigning in the spring. The B.C. NDP vowed to overhaul election financing laws by banning corporate, union and foreign donations, among other measures. But Horgan told the media before the May 9 election that taxpayers would not be funding political parties. The legislation will indeed suck money from taxpayers, to the tune of about $30 million over five years. It is something Horgan calls a “transition” fund, but it really is an about-face, a lie, a betrayal. How political parties are funded (or if they should be funded) is a debate unto itself, but to see legislation include something the NDP vowed would not be included is maddening. Look east to Ottawa, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s monumental 2015 campaign promise – making that year’s federal election the last to use the first-past-the-post system – was broken, with nary a scratch suffered by the Liberal machine. Maybe we’re all too busy trying to pay the bills and care for our families that we don’t have time to care. Maybe we are collectively too apathetic to care. But when a politician vows explicitly to do something (or not do something), then reverses the position shortly thereafter, there should be hell to pay. And we should care because such actions are, essentially, gouges in the rock of democracy that is looking more and more weathered. -Kamloops This Week
Publisher: Rick Proznick Editor: Publisher Tracy Hughes
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Fishing more about moments the great outdoors James Murray The following is reprinted from the Aug. 14, 2015 Shuswap Market News. A very wise man once told me it’s not the number or even size of fish you catch, but being out on the water that matters. My father was right. Fishing is a lot more than the simple catching of fish. It is being able to get away from everything, sitting on a lake somewhere in your boat, breathing in the cool, crisp morning air and sensing all the sights and sounds that surround you. It’s listening to nature as it whispers in your ear and being right there to witness the metamorphoses of an insect – being there as it emerges from its
watery depth to experience flight for the first time. It’s hearing the sound of an osprey as it shrieks high above, or seeing a flock of geese winging their way south and sensing the changes that are about to come with a wind that’s blowing in from the north. It’s watching the sun set at the far end of a lake and hearing the call of a loon as it cries out across the water. It’s the rustle of leaves in the fall and the sound of water lapping against the hull of your boat. It’s the warmth of the sun on your face as you watch and wait for the mist to rise from the surface of the water like time lost in a shroud of its
own making. It’s the sense of peace and tranquility that wraps itself around you like a familiar old, red Hudson Bay blanket. Yes, fishing is more than catching fish – it is each and every moment between fish. Last week, I found myself standing on the banks of the St. Mary River (here in the East Kootenay), casting my line to fish that may or may not even be there – hoping to catch but a glimpse, that momentary glint of silver moving through the runs and riffles of a holding pool that stops the breath and stirs the heart. How many times that day did I tell myself ‘this is what fishing is all about,’ just being there, casting my line on the waters? All I know for sure is that when I was standing there, knee-deep in the fast-flowing waters of that river, I
felt happy and content and, when I did finally get a fish on, the whole world stopped for a few brief, wonderfully exciting moments. I never have to remind myself of how many hours I have spent casting to little more than shadows, with little more than a glimmer of hope. But when I set my hook into the power and fury of what felt like a runaway locomotive, I was truly lost in the moment. Granted, I have probably lost as many battles as I have won over the years, but, win or lose, won or lost, I have to say I have enjoyed each and every moment spent just being out there on the water. I remember the last time I went fishing with my father. Looking back, I think he knew it would be our last fishing trip together. He wasn’t much older than I am
now, but he was tired from having worked hard all his life. I was probably responsible for aging him more than I should have, but he was happy that day, just casting his line on the water. He still had a good strong cast, far better than mine, then and now. I think he was just happy being out there. He was content. Many times I have longed to find that kind of contentedness in my life. Maybe it comes with age. I don’t know. But I do remember watching him cast his line upstream from me, and realizing just how much I owed that man. So it was last week, as I stood casting my line on the St. Mary, that I wished I could be just a little more like that man who cast his line upstream from me so long ago.