I need to process my feelings through daily posts before casting my vote for Mark Carney on April 28.

Let’s clarify that I’m not someone I’d qualify as a steadfast Liberal. I’m a proud party-hopper. For a time, right here in Beautiful British Columbia, I worked for one of the “big three” political parties. I won’t say which one, but it wasn’t the Libs or the Cons.

And I was fired. I think (I think) because I wanted to work on policy and that wasn’t my role. At least that’s what they told me in the meeting a few minutes before they escorted me out of the building.

But that was 15 years ago or so. And it’s been about that long since I’ve had any kind of urge towards political action or activity.

You know why. If you’re reading this, you know why. You’re likely my age, or close to it, and have seen politics devolve into a toxic cesspoll of misinformation masquerading as debate. You’ve observed the public square you used to love turn into the back alley where, if you’re not watching your back, you’ll be stabbed or shot (metaphorically of course).

So politics for me has meant casting my vote municipally, provincially, and federally at the specified times. I do my duty. Tick a box. And move on.

Then a couple of nights ago I was home, battlng that low-level, on-edge feeling that seems to creep up regularly these days. It can’t be abated through deep (or passive) meditation, unhealthy food, or rambling podcasts.

I don’t really sense the stress until it starts to go down, and what makes it go down is Mark Carney making a long speech about our economy. I’ve landed upon it on YouTube, where the algorithm already knows I’m on the Mark Carney train (I’ve been been sunk deep in my seat on that train for awhile already) and so serves up every scrap of Carney goodness I could ever want.

Let’s be clear again, I’m not a steadfast Liberal, nor do I think Carney is perfect. (I don’t know much about him and have never met him.) Hence this blog and the process of sorting through feelings. It’s also about sorting through my history, my memories, as a 50-year-old not-rich Canadian.

Because this is an important time, right now. There is a fundamental crux in a lot of things that are happening, right now, so we should all (or those of us with the luxury of time to be excessively contemplative) take a moment to really reflect on what’s going on.

Whenever I want to sort through stuff, I tend to start a blog. And I plan to keep it up at least until April 28, 2025.

Now about the name.

Way back when, about the time I was fired by the political party that wasn’t the Libs or the Cons, a mysterious website popped up that made waves in the circles of B.C. politics.

“Made waves” is a polite way of saying it made people laugh. The site was called “Barry Penner is awesome,” and featured photos of the then-Minister of the Environment doing such extraordinary things as gazing out at mountains and lakes.

Whoever made the site is, I believe, still unknown, but in 2009 it warranted this brief note in the Vancouver Sun seeking the person behind it.

And I should say, although the understood purpose at the time was to poke fun at Penner, it really was more a commentary on the empty gesture that is the political photo up.

So as I rattled my brain for what to call this blog, this silly site name just came to me and stuck.

In the coming weeks, Mark Carney might very well stand proudly and gaze at some mountains and lakes. Let’s hope the photo ops aren’t empty gestures. Let’s hope he really is awesome. Because we need him to be.

March 29, 2025