Apparently I wasn’t the only one who got inspired by Dwain Lingenfelter talking about his father at the recent NDP convention. The NDP candidate in my area, Jaime Garcia, writes about the inspiration his own father has been to him.
Since the federal election’s been called, there have been lots of people grumbling that it’s a waste of money, that nothing will change, that we’ve had too many elections in the past few years. Well, read Jaime’s article and remember that there are people who’ve given hugely for their beliefs and for things that many of us in Canada take for granted.
(And one commentator made a good point – even if, after the election, we saw the exact same seat breakout as we have now, we might actually end up with the most change of all! Stephen Harper might move on/be pushed out since he couldn’t bring the PC’s a majority. Michael Ignantieff would have demonstrated he can’t reverse the Liberal party’s fortunes and his party may push him out as well. And depending on the toll the campaign takes on him with his various health issues, Jack Layton could decide to step aside too. Of course, Gilles Duceppe is like a bad fungus and will be around forever! Just kidding – part of me loves what he brings – since he isn’t trying to impress anyone outside of Quebec, he frequently gives the most honest assessments of the issues.)
And since we’re talking about paternal inspirations, here’s my own sappy take on it.