It’s time to change our clocks! In the right direction this time too. This ranks right up there with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny in my book. I get an extra hour of sleep on Saturday night.
And extra hour of shut-eye is what I will be doing anyway. When I was younger I might have used the time change as an excuse to stay up later, but those days are gone.
You know how the water spirals around clockwise on one side of the equator and counterclockwise on the other side of the equator? Apparently this is called the Coriolis effect. This is why the wind in tropical storms spins in different directions too.
I don’t think that’s why they have opposite weather to us, though. Like how the people who live Down Under lay on the beach and fight forest fires in December and January while we are shovelling snow and counting our air miles plan to see if we qualify for a flight out of town.
But what I wonder—with all the opposites vis-à-vis north and south is if people south of the equator turn their clocks forward in November and backwards in March or April?
Anyhow make sure you change your clocks this weekend so you get some benefit. If perhaps you do forget and wind up at church an hour early—all is not lost—you can spend the extra time praying for me. You probably need the practice and I definitely need the prayer.
A really good read relative to the upcoming municipal election was posted to Facebook last week.
It was written by Danielle Klooster and originally published in the Red Deer Advocate in Sept. 2013. At the time Klooster was a town councillor in Penhold, Alberta; and, notably, she had already announced her decision not to seek re-election.
Her article was titled: “Five terrible reasons to run for municipal office.”
She suggests that voters be wary of candidates who make any of the following statements or promises :
“People are ready for change!”
“I’m going to clean house!”
“I’m going to fix the [insert pet peeve] situation!”
“We have to get rid of the current corrupt/secretive/selfserving/ incompetent bunch!”
“I’m going to make fiscal responsibility my No. 1 priority!”
She gives good reasons to back her list up too. Look for it online at http://tinyurl.com/ols7y36.
Election time is a period of uncertainty for both candidates and the voting public.
One big disadvantage of running for a seat as a rural director or mayor is that only one person is going to be chosen.
Under the current first-past-the-post election system, if there are four seats for councillor and one for mayor it’s a lot easier to win or hold onto your position as a councillor than as the mayor.
But for all of the incumbents there is always the danger they might find themselves out of a job.
Fortunately there are plenty of opportunities to serve your community outside of the council chamber.
There is one common practice in union politics that would serve us well if it were adopted in the local government arena as well. After an election is held the candidate who was defeated will often rise to put forward a motion that the election be declared unanimous.
It might go a long way toward healing the wounds that are so easily opened during an election campaign. After all, everyone is still going to be living in the same town or electoral area and we all ought to have the best interests of the community top of mind.