Nomination Election Thoughts

Wrong Side of the looking Glass

Through the looking glass, the concept of seeing your reality from an alternate perspective.

As a kid, the adventure of Alice was neat.  The play on words, the alternate meanings, and strange characters that she met as she went on her journey and the adventure to make it home.

As a teenager, I never thought about it at all.

As a young man, much the same.  Reality was, real.  It was a struggle and a race to the next stage, the next goal to get to a better place.

As a new husband, new father, and as a middle manager, the concepts of perspective and perception begin to creep back.  The strange paradox of having enough education and gaining enough experience to know that you don’t know enough.  Quite humbling knowing that so many others are depending on your decisions.

As a…nearing middle aged man (I’m planning on living a long time) the looking glass concept again has come to the fore front.  I was advised by a mentor at one time that turning 40, was a surreal experience for him, because, at that stage “Things were as they appear” He reached his clarity point where the cartoon characters and the real people on whom they are based turned into the blended image of the same.

I am now 45.  Things are as they appear, and that concerns me.

I took some down time after a headlong race for several years, at the advice of my best friend, my wife.  I was away from home far too often for work, and when I was home, my mind was still there on the job.  I had better take a break to determine who I was outside of my position, and that my family, our kids needed to be able to know who I was, rather than where I was going to next.  So, as I sat in the quiet of a spring morning, I received a call from my wife.  I just passed through the looking glass, there was a spring snow storm, and the NDP would form the government in my beloved province.  I wishes she was joking, I had to ask twice.

9 months pass, and then the new government starts their first day on the job, apparently taking a while to find and chase the white rabbit to the legislature.

Not soon after, the Liberals win the Federal Election.  The children’s music, to match the colorful drawings has begun, and I’m apparently in the theater, watching an animated film, the country I love, has taken a strange turn, Roger Rabbit is getting ready to do his big dance scene, and the best Prime Minister we have ever had is taking his leave.

I rationalize to myself that there really is not too much of a difference in whom is in control, the rhetoric is just that, white noise.  The new folks will not go in and start throwing switches, that would be fool hardy.  Just get used to the system, a couple of minor tweaks here and there and we all march on, we stay busy, and reap the rewards of a hard-working resource rich, safe, civil, unified nation. 

That is not what transpired, the grownups left, and the kids were driving the car, and every switch had to be touched, and knobs turned, and especially if the grownups did it one way, the kids and adolescents were going to rebel, and show that the grownups were wrong, and go the opposite way.  The cartoon turned into Mr. toads wild ride, or a scary sci fi flick, something out of the twilight zone.

It was only a matter of time that the number of major capital projects were delayed or cancelled.  A matter if time before the items that we were used to being normal were turned upside down, and confidence in investing changed.  A time when for the betterment of all, and without consultation that farming was too being interfered with. 

Animal Farm by George Orwell comes to mind, Alice is there, but the socialist theme is now taking the forefront, and the rewards to hard working people are being eroded, classes and professional boundaries are being blurred and turned on one another.  Working hard, taking risks, are now being penalized, and we are all headed a direction that like it or not, will take us into dark waters.

For one of the first times as long as I can remember, I was not head down on a project, I was in my own home and community, and seeing the impacts first hand how they effected others, and our own family.  I needed to do something, but was frustrated beyond belief, and helpless to do anything.  As a type A personality, this was grueling and hard on the soul and mind.  I had to do something, so the project took form.  I was invited to attend a Constituency association meeting to meet with like minded people and discuss and make change.  It was enlightening.

Our system of democracy is one of the best in the world.  Both of my grandfathers volunteered to join the war to fight to save the ideals of what it was and what it represented.  It still is worth fighting for and is very fragile and must be kept safe. 

 I thought that I could do my part by participating on a CA board, as a director, and my being a VP for a few positions that needed attention.  It felt good to be helping for a cause, to get the right people in the right seats to get us back on the right side of the looking glass.  I could go back to a major project, lead another team, have all the challenges, and reap the rewards.  Project were starting to emerge that were going to be interesting, I was going to be able to work with some strong competent people, and we would all reap the rewards of building something that was in the publics best interest.

Things changed, our project was delayed due to regulatory issues, and the contestant that was elected was “Not Sanctioned” by the party that we were part of.  Apparently, being on the bench or steering from the sidelines was not enough. The people in the CA were starting to fracture, and they too needed something or someone that they all could support.  A few folks around the CA asked if I would consider stepping up.

I was speaking to a mentor of mine, concerned about the project delay, and stating I was upset because I could have had a couple hundred people working this fall on the project, and more as workloads increased the following season.  His reply was that I was short sighted, and that if I applied the same effort that it took to run a project to the political arena, entering the emerging nomination race, winning that, running as a candidate and becoming an MLA I could put thousands back to work.

With his advice, and others, I realized that I did need to do more.  I had reaped the rewards from others hard work in the past to have the ability to prosper, to take the chances, and to gain from them.  I owed it to them, and the men and women that I have worked with over the years, and the next generation coming up to help shape a province that would reward their hard work.

It is with that in mind that I’m in this race.  To apply the skill sets that I have managed to learn over the years to making an impact where I can for as long as I am able to help get our province back to where we need and want it to be. 

I grew up on a mixed farm west of Chip Lake, went to school in a kinder garden to grade 12 facility.  I played sports, was the captain of several teams and Students union president.  I worked construction jobs in the summer, and went logging in the winter to pay for my college at NAIT.  I worked my way up through an industrial construction company working in several provinces and territories.  I then went and worked for owning companies on midstream and tankage projects in Canada and the USA managing a portfolio of projects, and project teams.

I managed to meet an amazing lady whom I convinced to marry me, and we have 4 amazing children, and have been married for over 16 years. She has had her dental practice in Onoway now for over 10 years.

I am a farm kid who dreamed of travel and flying.  Through the ability of had work, I was able to travel to numerous locations in Canada, the USA and Germany through work, I was able to realize a childhood dream and obtain my pilots licence and purchase my own aircraft.

I credit these things to our amazing province, and country.  The ability for the next generation of kids is going to be hampered because of the numerous levers that were pulled or broken by the last group of rulers in the NDP and Liberal parties.  The next several years are not going to be glorious, I will be away from my family, I will be working for the folks in my area, and I will miss out on most of my personal time.  My family has accepted this, and I know fully what I will be signing up for, I know what a project is, and the huge effort it will take to make a small impact.  It is worth it.

The people who are currently in control are not bad people.  I truly believe that they are good people, I believe that they thought they were making the right changes, that what they were doing would be better for the rest of us, even if we were saying otherwise.  I do not think badly of them as people, I take exception to their ideology, and am extremely concerned about their experience.

I want to make sure that even if we pick the person with the right ideology, and the right intentions that we don’t make the same mistakes because we don’t pick the right person for the task at hand because they are not qualified to take on this project, of fixing, constructing, and commissioning.  We should not pick the person because of their face book feed, or who they know, or what songs they like, or how many memberships that they can sell door to door.  We must make the responsible choice and pick the right person, who is most qualified for the task at hand.

We all have seen the pitfalls of the selection process the last election, when we had a spring snowfall, and all woke up, on the wrong side of the looking glass.

Vote SHANE GETSON UCP LAC STE. ANNE - PARKLAND

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