Natural Selection

I have heard that there are some young people (mostly young men) who are trying to eat those laundry detergent pods while photographing themselves doing so!  There are plenty of warnings printed on the box telling us these things are very dangerous and poisonous!  Yet these folks are still trying to eat them!  They can cause serious injury and even death if ingested!  Why?

My only explanation comes from a book written by Charles Darwin called the On the Origin of Species.  It's colloquially called "natural selection"!  Read the book.  I think it fits that criteria perfectly!

It's The Little Grinches Who Try To Get You!

As we pass the Twelve Days of Christmas and this season comes to an end, I would like to wish all of our friends and family a Merry Christmas and all the best in this New Year.  We had a wonderful Christmas season with our children and our grandchildren!  I hope your Christmas was a good one, too!

We had some little Grinches who tried to spoil it for us but they have failed!

1. To those Grinches who vandalized my car; you didn't spoil our Christmas!
2. To Mother Nature who decided to give us some very cold winter weather; you didn't spoil our Christmas!
3. To those who vandalized some of the Christmas decorations around the Village; you didn't spoil our Christmas!
3. To our beloved NDP government who added another nickel per litre onto the price of gas as a Christmas Present; you didn't spoil our Christmas!
4. To the "Genius" in America's White House and his "Little Rocket Man" in North Korea; despite all your blustering back and forth and your comparing the size of each other's button; you didn't spoil our Christmas!
5. To the entertainment world where we learned there are some men in that realm who are or have been behaving very badly; we support those women who had to put up with that crap! And men: you didn't spoil our Christmas!

The Christmas Spirit prevailed!  For a few days, a few hours or a few minutes, we enjoyed the company of our families and friends and we dreamed about what Peace might feel like!  The Grinches have failed once again!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good:  Our provincial government set up a plan to design a standard hospital building which could be built in locations around the province thus saving huge design and architectural fees.  A city (like Airdrie) would get a standard generic hospital building which then could be modified as to the needs of that city!  In Airdire's case; a large, that would be a well equipped obstetrics and maternity ward!  Hope for the Airdrie Hospital!
The Bad:  Our provincial government has now cancelled the above mentioned project and appears to be adrift regarding any organized provincial hospital program.
The Ugly:  We still have Airdrie patients being driven or flown into Calgary for treatment which could be provided by these now ghost hospitals.  More babies are going to born on the QEII as Airdrie's young population continues to grow!  Is there still plans to build a hospital on the edge of Calgary at the corner of Stoney Trail and Centre Street?  Who knows! And why there?

The saga continues!

Disappointing Remembrance Day Turnout

I had the honor of once again attending the Remembrance Day Ceremonies at the Acme Hall this morning.

I was very disappointed at the attendance this year.  From where I was sitting, it looked like less than half the seats were occupied!  In many years past it was standing room only!

The members of the Royal Canadian Legion in Acme work very hard to present this ceremony every year.  I'm sure they were disappointed at the low turnout, too.  I don't know the reasons for the small crowd this year.  Perhaps folks were attending a larger event elsewhere.

I'm asking the Legion members not to be discouraged.  I'm sure this was just a glitch and attendance will be up again next year.

Lest We Forget.

Thanks and Congratulations

First; Congrats to Jason Kenney for winning the leadership of the United Conservative Party.  Now his work really begins!  First he has to win a seat in the Legislature.  We're all hoping that Premier Notley will announce a by-election very soon so that process can begin!  Next he'll have to rally his troops to come up with a plan other that just "Dump Notley's NDP"!  They'll have to outline a plan to get Alberta rolling again!

Second; And Congrats to Al Henuset who is Beiseker's new Mayor!  Having worked with Al for many years, I believe he will make a very good mayor for our little village.  I was pleased to hear that Warren Wise was chosen as Deputy Mayor, too.  Also a good choice!

Third;  I was most honoured to be presented with my Senators Contribution Award at a celebration at the Community Center a few weeks ago.  It was humbling to be included among such worthy recipients during the ceremony.  Member of Parliament Martin Shields made the presentations. A big thanks to Jeanette Richter and her volunteers for organizing the celebration!

Fourth;  Where's her spelling textbook?  I noted that one of my Junior High teachers passed away recently.  She was almost a hundred years old!  I remember her and her very strict rules on manners and politeness.  For example, at junior high dances she used to march around the Gym with a spelling textbook.  If she thought a young couple were getting too close during a slow dance, she would place the book, flat side between them.  That was the distance they had to be apart!  Oh have times changed!

Coals to Newcastle!

Back during the Industrial Revolution in the 19th Century, the British city of Newcastle was the coal supply and exporting hub of the country!  Thousands were employed loading coal bound for the hundreds of new factories around the country.   If you needed coal, go to Newcastle!  Thus any foolish idea which came up was compared to "sending coals to Newcastle."

Yet the same foolish idea occurs here in Canada!

Eastern Canadians vehemently oppose the import of Alberta oil into their provinces yet they happily buy oil from overseas markets! To me that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I don't think that it is environmentally safer to bring oil into the Maritimes with these huge oil tankers. A pipeline from Alberta could do the job more safely and more efficiently. Maybe Arab oil is easier to refine or maybe it's cheaper right now.

To me sending oil to a oil rich country like Canada is akin to "sending coal to Newcastle"!

Retirement from Municipal Politics

Yesterday was Nomination Day for municipal offices across the province.  I did not submit nomination papers which makes it official:  I am retiring from municipal politics.

This retirement comes without any malice!  It is simply time.  I have had the honor and pleasure of working with some great people over my almost thirty years as a village councilor in Beiseker.  We have accomplished some great things for this tiny village!

Beiseker is not out of the woods yet as far as our finances go, but we have survived one of the biggest economic down-turns this province has seen!  The provinces answer to our fiscal issues is simple; just raise property taxes!  Council has resisted that, and I hope they will continue to do so! 

Here's some things this Council can take credit for:

• We have been very successful at reducing the amount of back-taxes owing. This was  accomplished through many different programs, one of which is the monthly pay system.  Unfortunately, we still have a ways to go here!
• We have reduced the amount of "lost water" by the village so that Beiseker is selling most of the water it buys.
• This council has spearheaded a program to upgrade the streets.  So far, Fourth Ave., Seventh Street and First Avenue have benefited.  Our sidewalk replacement continues, too!
• We have created a program to replace faulty water valves around the village also saving lost water.
• We have our Public Works Department running extremely well.
• As a member of the Aqua-7 Regional Water Services Commission we have seen that organization become much more viable.  We survived the provincial government reneging on a deal to help us out, and we are now "in the black"!
• We started a "Building A Better Beiseker" project by upgrading the first block of our Main Street business district.  Hopefully as the economy picks up the project to revitalize the rest of Main Street will resume!
• We finally will see some action on dismantling and removing the now defunct railway museum.  We were unable to convince the federal government get a good accounting on where that half million dollars went! Hopefully that site will be cleaned up soon.
• I think we finally have our fire department woes solved.  The Beiseker Fire Department in the envy of many small municipalities and it continues to thrive. 
• We are in the process of subdividing and selling lots at the airport.  This will ultimately generate even more funds for our airport and village!

To mention a few!

To my fellow councilors and the village's Chief Administrative Officer with her staff;
thank you for your support, your advice and your candor.  All have been most valuable to me over the past years.

Sincerely,
Ray Courtman
Mayor; Village of Beiseker