Election Fatigue

This election cycle I have become increasingly frustrated with posts encouraging people to vote. They seem to start from a point that people are too lazy, too busy, or too apathetic to care about who governs them. I especially dislike the shame posts that say that there are people dying for their right to vote and that we owe it to them to vote. There's a huge part of this conversation about voter turnout and voting rights that is consistently left out, and the shame isn't helping.
 
I want to preface what I write next with the following:

• My family has had passionate political conversations for as long as I can remember.
• I have been surrounded by supporters of each political party, and people that reject the electoral process as being fair, just or truly democratic for most of my life.
• I became actively interested in electoral politics when I was 11.
• I have put a ballot in a box in every federal election since I turned 18.
• I have never voted for a candidate that truly represented my values. 
• I have scratched my ballot on more than one occasion.

Elections are often painted in pictures of liberal vs. conservative, social good vs. social harm, one candidate's stance on a wedge issue vs. their opponent's stance. True, there are real ideological differences between parties and their candidates. There are certainly policies that will be put into effect by one party or another that will do harm or good, and in some cases drastically so. But, what goes unchallenged on all sides during every election cycle is what would really make a difference: the macro economics. It is pervasive, unquestioned, and is never an election issue. Call it neoliberalism, unfettered capitalism, economic imperialism or free market ideology, it's all the same.

People not voting isn't an expression of disinterest in the world around them, or a lack of respect for people who fought for the right to vote. Sure, sometimes it is. More often, it's a statement that even if you pick the best of the worst, you still end up voting for someone who believes that this economic system is the only way, that it's good. There are reasons that voter turnout has declined while social movements such as Idle No More and Occupy have increased. People who don't vote, in my experience, believe there is a better way and are, on a day-to-day basis, fighting for that better world. For them, voting changes nothing; not voting is an expression of non-consent for a system of governance they don't believe in. We need to respect this decision, talk about it, and stop coercing and shaming people to participate in something that feels wrong to them.

A few thoughts to leave you with:

• A ruling power that asks for consent and yet cannot give voice to the aspirations of those in whose name it rules will not survive indefinitely.
• A society based in flawed universal values has achievements that only survive one generation and often leaves succeeding generations to cope with unintended consequences of its implementation. 
• We may still fight wars on the premise of settling ideological conflicts, but at the apex of the emerging global class structure is a transnational managerial class, having its own ideology, strategy and institutions of action. It is both a class in itself and for itself. It doesn't include most of us.
• The myth of nationhood, masked by ideology, perpetuates nationalism, where specific identifiers are used to create exclusive and homogeneous conceptions of national traditions. Constructions of the nation are potent sites of control and domination within modern society. 
• We need to go beyond determining that power exits and where, and encourage thought that extends beyond short-term and immediate realities to tackle long-term dreams and goals to ensure that society develops in a way that is advantageous for all following generations.

Roadtrips and Porcupines

Salmon Glacier from Above

A little over two weeks ago, my partner and I had a couple weeks free (we're lucky!) and decided to go to go check out Salmon Glacier. It's technically in Alaska, and is likely the easiest border crossing I have ever encountered. You drive over the border, really unaware anything has changed except the speed limit signs go from kilometers to miles. On the way back into Canada, though, CBSA takes your passport and asks the routine questions. Who would have figured getting into Canada was harder than into the States?!

Dragon Lake on Nisga'a land north of Gitlaxt'aamiks

In what has become our style of roadtrip, it took us three days to make the five hour drive. We take the long way, taking my fancy truck into places that it seems very few people get to see...even though you occasionally come across a dock, but rarely any people or cell phone reception. This province is really quite incredible.


Each evening that we sleep outside, I'm grateful for our dogs - they provide an extra layer of security when it comes to being in bear country. One night, just after climbing into the tent, we saw the dogs take off and heard them make noises we hadn't heard from them before. So, we got in the truck and I prepared for the worst. 

The dogs being adorable pre-porcupine

It wasn't a bear, but a porcupine that the dogs almost certainly killed. Whiskey had maybe 30 quills in one of her paws and her face; Rascal, well, he's won the award at the vet's for most quills ever pulled...too many to count! They both looked terrifying, cried out in pain and struggled every time we tried to pull the quills ourselves. So, we embarked on a very long, early morning car ride to the closest emergency vet (fortunately in Kitimat, where we live) to have them dequilled. I sat in the back of the truck with Rascal, and my partner drove with Whiskey on his lap, both being bear-hugged to immobilize and calm them down. The vet was expensive, but worth it...a much more humane experience than them not having any pain killers.

If you've never experienced dogs and porcupines, take a look here.

Catch Up

Earlier today, my phone made noise indicating that a blog of a friend I follow had a new post. It had been awhile since I'd received a notification for this particular friend, and it got me thinking that I had also stopped writing publicly. The date of my last post was January 2014. I'm not sure why the gap; perhaps it's happiness, a life sprinkled with more adventure, or simply it is due to busyness. Maybe it is all three.

My last post spoke about embarking on a new chapter of my life: a move to British Columbia, a side-step from pursuing employment in the non-profit sector, and a dream of paying off my student debt. At that time, I was rather terrified of my life ahead and the ramifications of my decisions. Yet, I was excited to be doing something new, of returning to mountains. Now that I've taken those steps, I can say with absolute certainty that, like most big decisions in my life, it was one of the best things that I have ever done.

To catch all of you up:

I worked on an industrial construction project (the modernization of an aluminum smelter) in three different positions. First as an electrical clerk, then as a travel coordinator and, for the majority of my time, as a contracts administrator. I learned a lot, made a lot of really great connections, was exposed to an environment (construction camp work) that I never would have understood if it wasn't for doing something so far outside my comfort zone that it almost felt wrong, and was paid obscenely well for my work. Because of my wage, I was able to pay off my student loans (which still seems surreal), socked away a substantial amount of money for emergency or retirement (which ever comes first - also surreal that I could do this), purchased a fancy vehicle perfect for this terrain (that I hope to have for the next 15 years or so - also crazy), moved my pup Whiskey to BC with me on an epic 5 day cross-country drive with my brother (a drive I have always wanted to make), and have had the opportunity to go on adventures that have allowed me to see a good portion of BC.

Despite all of those personal opportunities and advantages, industrial construction is not rewarding for me. It is a stressful, often morally ambiguous, corrupt and dirty game, where half truths and ignoring the impacts on individuals are your tickets to success. To me, it lacks a certain respect for workers (even in a union environment), is unnecessarily competitive and coercive, and fails to consider environmental impacts in any sort of intelligible way (it placates to them, sometimes).

So, when I found out that my company would be leaving the project here, I had to make a decision to either follow that company to Alberta and directly participate in the tar sands economy while maintaining my very good wage, or return to the path I started to carve out for myself a decade ago and cut my income by more than 60%. I should probably also note that I have been in a very rewarding, loving, supportive and healthy relationship with my best friend (a friend from university) for over a year now,  and together we decided to try and stay in this town for as long as possible. So, I began my search for work here.

In December 2014, I began reaching out to locals I had met. A particularly kind, generous, and genuine lady that I worked with put me in touch with the executive director of a women's organization here. There were no current opportunities, but if I've learned anything in the last 5 years it is that life is about who you know, so I asked if we could meet up for lunch in the new year. I left that lunch feeling pretty good about the impression I had made (even though I was wearing ridiculously over-sized rubber boots and a bright orange, high-vis rain jacket, and was trembling from my caffeine intake earlier in the day). Then, in early February I was offered a position in their transition house (an all women's emergency shelter) and began training mid-February. For 6 weeks, I juggled two jobs which operate in extremely different worlds. It was a strange dichotomy to exist in, but, I think, a healthy transition in the end.

I can't explain how refreshing it is to be back in nonprofits, where it is part of your job description to care about people and actively find ways to make a positive difference in someone's life, rather than worry about a company's bottom line. It is probably the most stressful job that I have ever had. I am dealing with traumatized individuals every day that I work, but it feels so incredibly good to help, to give back to this community that has given me so much, and to be part of a community rather than just existing in one. I feel like I've gotten a bit of my soul back. They are also training me in a new position starting this week - nothing like saying 'welcome back to nonprofits' than wearing all kinds of hats.

My life has changed profoundly, and I am extremely fortunate and grateful because of it.