It is that time of year when the turkey soup and turkey hash, and any one or more of the 101 ways to dispose of the Christmas turkey have been employed, when, in the recollections of Dylan Thomas, the uncles have snoozed the afternoon away and a new year is about to begin, at once full with promise and apprehension in about the same measure.
And so we look back and say farewell, even as we try to peer through the veils of the future in usually vain attempts to discern what’s ahead.
But anyhow here’s the Old Curmudgeon Awards for the heroes and the putzes of the year just past with a peek at what’s to come.
The Silly Statement of the Year Award: There were many contenders, but the prize goes to Artistic Director Anne Allan at the Charlottetown Festival for her rationale in choosing the music of Johnny Cash as the new show at the Charlottetown Festival. As Ms Allan told it in her soft Scottish brogue, “Our research department discovered that many Island people love country music, so I thought it would be nice to do something for them.”
Apart from Ms Allan’s ludicrous stereotyping of Islanders’ musical taste, the show “Ring Of Fire “ opened on Broadway March 12 , 2006, and closed April 30, 2006.
Six weeks. That is something short of the run of a hit show.
As the creator of the show, Richard Maltby Jr put it “... you won’t find a plot, or dramatized scenes in this entertainment.” What you get is 39 Johnny Cash tunes sung by a cast of six actors in various combinations.
In other words, a Johnny Cash tribute concert.
Apparently there weren’t that many Johnny Cash fans in the city of New York who wanted to pay big bucks to sit through 39 Johnny Cash songs.
My guess is that there won’t be that many Islanders or visitors either.
Ms Allan’s words serve as an appropriate epitaph to the once vibrant, exciting and purposeful Charlottetown Festival.
The Political Comeback Award (National Division) goes to Bob Rae, twice passed over by Liberals as the national leader of the Liberal Party, but still soldiering on as the interim leader, and doing very well at it, by any measurement. This, it seems, is an evocation of the old maxim about the times making the man.
Politics abhors a vacuum, and the death of Jack Layton created such a space in opposition to the right wing wiles of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Clearly the inadequacies of Ms Nycole Turmel, the surrogate chosen by Mr Layton at his impending death, were quickly apparent.
Enter Mr Rae solid, substantial, media savvy, and full of fire, infused with the piss and vinegar of political combat, and every bit the equal of Mr Harper, but with an obvious caring and compassion for people that the prime minister clearly lacks.
Mr Rae one perceives, would not send an accountant to Attiwaspikatt to keep people from freezing to death.
If the Liberal hierarchy has any sense at all (and it has displayed little for the past decade as the party has withered at the polls), it will do whatever it must do to retain Mr Rae to see us through this dark age in our political history.
Dumbest Idea Of The Year Award goes to all the politicians and promoters - municipal, provincial and federal - who have participated in the decision to spend $20 million or so to build a so-called Convention Centre on the Charlottetown waterfront - at sea level.
It seems these people have never heard of climate change, Kyoto, Durban, the acidification of the oceans - and the inexorable rise of sea levels as the glaciers melt and weather patterns become more and more severe and unstable.
Simply put - the Convention Centre will be underwater by mid-century, just as the Hotel Delta next door even now has flooding problems every time there is a tidal surge. Conventioneers will be required to don wetsuits and oxygen tanks so they can meet in plenary session. Or perhaps Cliffie Lee, Bobbie Ghiz and Stevie Harper will all join hands at the site with their sand pails and mutter incantations in a Canute-like effort to hold back the seas.
Second Dumbest Idea of the Year Award goes to the brainless twit who dreamed up the idea of what have become known as Ronnie’s Hills, and those who approved the money - those enigmatic piles of red dirt that have been flung together at the gateway to the province for some obscure reason, at a cost of several millions of dollars.
This, at a time when those millions could have been spent in a variety of ways productive to the taxpayers whose money it is. The government rationale apparently is that federal money was available, and had to be spent, no matter how foolishly. That is a current emanation of the old saw about the cart and the horse.
The Sanity in Highway Construction Award goes to all those people who lobbied, emailed, telephoned, signed petitions , attended public meetings, and otherwise raised almighty hell about the government’s plans to bisect Strathgartney Park.
This land was bequeathed as a sacred trust by Bobby Cotton, to be held in perpetuity by government on behalf of the people of Prince Edward Island. The people protests brought government plans to a halt. A new routing is now being planned that will spare the parkland, but will provide safer and faster access of large trucks to Charlottetown and the eastern parts of the realm.
The 16 million dollar job (half provincial, half federal money) will save truckers about 10 minutes of time in getting to Charlottetown. The road will be less curvy, with fewer grades, so they can drive faster than on the present route through the Bonshaw Hills. I’m not sure how faster equates with safety, but never no mind - the money was available from Ottawa, so we might as well spend it. That’s the rationale from the deep thinkers in government.
The Political Rookie of the Year Award goes hands down to Elizabeth May, leader and first member of the Green party to be elected to Canada’s Parliament, and recently a member of the delegation from Papua/New Guinea at COP 17, the conference on climate change taking place in Durban, South Africa.
Ms May is a lone voice, but a strong voice, for any of us who care a lot about what happens to the land and sea and sky as a result of human induced changes in the global climate through the sending of nasty gases into the atmosphere. She is also a very good person and a clear thinker about every other aspect of global social and economic policy. She transcends narrow political partisanship in favour of common sense in resolving the environmental and economic challenges facing humanity, with a clear understanding that it is not enough to play partisan and parochial political games with the future of the planet. Which is why she was not invited by Environment Minister Peter Kent to be a member of the Canadian delegation at the Durban conference, he who was there to play those parochial games by obstructing any move towards meaningful debate and resolution aimed at reducing the amount of pollution we send skyward. And that is why she paid her own way there, and hooked up with island nations in the South Pacific which are sure to be submerged in the rising of the seas. The Canadians there with the official delegation from this country had only one message for those human beings certain to become the dispossessed - tough titty!
The Double Ugly Political Twins Award goes to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Republican Presidential Contender Newt Gingrinch for their determination to sabotage and undermine the rule of law in their respective countries - substituting personal ideological belief for rational thinking in creating the laws of their respective lands. Thy are joined at the head in their desire to undermine the very essence of democracy in their respective countries
In Canada, the prime minister has announced his determination to ignore and break the law any time it conflicts with his personal political ideology . Such an attitude of contempt would explain his denial of the court decision that his war against the Wheat Board, is unconstitutional. Indeed, the governing party already has showed its contempt for the Supreme Court and its decisions by breaking Canada’s election financing laws, was forced to plead guilty, was fined $52,000, and then declared a victory over the judicial system of the country. Now that’s chutzpah!
In the United States, Mr Gingrich, presidential wannabe Newt Gingrich has uttered the same intent should he be selected the Republican candidate and then defeat Barack Obama in the election of 2012. He is on record as expressing his opinion that should he become president of the USA he would abolish any court that issued decisions he did not agree with.
“Judicial supremacy is factually wrong, and it is an affront to the American system of self government,” he proclaimed to an audience in October. He too, will ignore any judicial rulings he does not agree with, whatever the evidence proves.
And lastly ... the Be Careful What You Ask From The Gods Award goes to Premier Robert Ghiz. He will kick sand in the faces of the Tories for another four years according to the people who extended his rule last fall in an election that indicated there was not much enthusiasm for his brand of politics, but the conservatives had even less appeal.
People, we’re getting close to single digits here.
Mr Ghiz whupped the Tories 27 to 5. Considering the strength of the opposition, that was something like beating up on a litter of puppies for peeing of the floor.
Now he faces a future with fewer bucks coming from Ottawa, the lobster fishery and tourism in decline, the health system in trouble, a 20 million dollar counter-suit filed by Ocean Choice International and an accounting of what happened to the 30 million dollars his government loaned to the companies headed by Richard Homburg. He and conservative leader Olive Crane do agree on one thing - the women of PEI are not entitled to equality before the law in their quest for abortion rights.
All of these items and more will cloud the provincial political horizon in 2012.
God bless and preserve us all!