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The Citizen, 2019-08-22, Page 5Other Views Proving it’s a small world after all Is the glass half-full or half-empty? Shawn Loughlin Shawn’s Sense Earlier this month, my wife, daughter, father and I took a three-hour road trip to Bracebridge for a four-day family vacation at Santa’s Village and the nearby Whispering Pines Campground. Despite some wet weather, the trip was fantastic and Mary Jane loved the chance to take in the rides, make a gingerbread cookie, visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus, run through a recently-installed splash pad and go for a swim in the nearby river. From Mary Jane driving a (guided) tractor while belting out “Old McDonald Had a Farm” at the top of her lungs to her whispering “amazing” when the Christmas-decoration- themed ferris wheel reached its apex, there will be a lot of things that stick with me for a very long time. We found so much to do, with the on-site pool and playground, that I only remember Mary Jane asking once if she could watch Paw Patrol (and that was during some heavy rain). I also saw how Mary Jane interacts with other children she’s meeting for the first time. Between planned play dates and daycare, I don’t get many chances to see Mary Jane naturally interact with children, but, with two younger girls staying in the cottage next to ours, I had that chance. The three roasted marshmallows (under closer supervision), played with a hula hoop and played hide and seek like they were old friends, as opposed to the strangers they had been when we met. It’s safe to say that the family trip was a memorable one. However, some of the memories that will stick with me the longest revolve around just how small the world really is. I’m not one to name names, but a family with young children from Blyth was staying at Whispering Pines at the same time we were and we even ran into each other several times in the nearby amusement park. Sharing some beverages around the campfire and running into a friendly familiar face (because, between the elves and the Claus family, there were plenty of new friendly faces) was a memorable experience. Aside from the Blyth connection, there was another Huron County connection in the cottage we stayed in. Whispering Pines has several different levels of accommodations, from campsites for tents and trailers to cabins through to the full- serviced cottages. I know I talked about this before we went on vacation, but given that was a few weeks back, I’ll remind readers: we weren’t camping, we were glamping. The cottages include a full bathroom, a dedicated hot water heater, full-size fridge, dining area, microwave and ductless air conditioning. It has almost all the amenities of home, and, with a barbecue and fire pit outside, plenty of chances to make some great meals. So where did the local connection come in? Well I’ll tell you it wasn’t the wood. Outside wood isn’t allowed in Bracebridge by bylaw, undoubtedly due to the emerald ash borer (which was obviously a problem there, based on the campfire wood we had delivered to our site). No, the local connection was General Coach Canada in Hensall: the Huron County company built the cottage we were staying in, and, after visiting the company’s website, possibly many of the other structures that were there as well. We were staying in a General Coach Canada Columbia 19/KOA - 28S commercial cottage. I knew a little bit about General Coach Canada, like the company’s coaches, but I had no idea it made commercial rental units like ours. Now I do know about them and I’ve got to say, for 336 square feet, you can fit a lot of living in a well-made rental cottage over four days. While I wouldn’t want to live in a cottage like that forever, it did make me realize that tiny houses may not be as untenable as I originally anticipated. I hadn’t thought much about the cottage and its genesis until last Tuesday night, however, when I was sitting at Morris-Turnberry Council and listening to councillors debate garden suites (or granny flats, as some people call them). Council was debating granny suites and I couldn’t imagine someone building something with the intent of taking it down five, 10 or 20 years later, but then I remembered that, while looking up our cabin, there were slightly bigger cottages that could easily suit a retired person or a couple. It just goes to show you, you can travel hundreds of kilometres away and still be learning about things right around the corner. Denny Scott Denny’s Den THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2019. PAGE 5. Quiet! It’s election time After watching the Blyth Festival Young Company’s production of Eco Echo: A Play for Greta Thunberg, one has to wonder what the five young people behind the play would make of Elections Canada’s warning that climate change is now a partisan issue not to be discussed at election time – at least by those wishing to legally protest. The news broke just days after the show closed in the form of a warning from Elections Canada to environmental groups, suggesting they could face repercussions if they protest the “partisan” issue of climate change, all because People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier doubts climate change. Is that really all it takes to get an undeniable fact out of the public consciousness and off of protest signs? Perhaps it’s time for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to doubt the existence of SNC-Lavalin. If I were him, I’d question the existence of Federal Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion and his damning report. Federal Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer should consider doubting the existence of Ontario Premier Doug Ford – the man killing the Conservatives in Ontario with his cuts, endless cronyism and boorish behaviour. This is a clear-cut case of false equivalence if I’ve ever seen one. A media phenomenon that gives equal weight to a non-equal view of an issue, false equivalence has become all too present in the era of President Donald Trump. If Trump is presented an inconvenient fact, he simply doubts it. Like that, in an instant, the issue becomes partisan and is up for debate, no matter how factual or irrefutable it may be. Listening to a podcast recently about the origins of climate change denial, one scholar describes false equivalence this way. If the New York Yankees were to play the Boston Red Sox and lose by a score of 4-1, there will be no news stories suggesting otherwise. No reporter will suggest the score was different or that the Yankees, in fact, won the game. However, with politicized issues like climate change, the media is duped into granting false equivalence; ensuring that both “sides” have their say so the media outlet in question can’t be accused of bias. I’ve discussed this issue before regarding anti-vaccination junk science or the re-emergence of the flat-earth fallacy. In the 1960s, everyone, including the oil companies, were on the same page about climate change: it’s happening and we need to stop it. However, once the science pointed to a need to reduce the use of oil, among other things, the conversation shifted. Some companies pointed to other polluters to relieve the pressure on them, while others in the U.S. went to the time-honoured tradition of absurdly evoking God in the discussion (God put it in the ground for humans to use and enjoy) so some ultra religious and gullible American residents felt good about using oil. With any science that’s not on the take pointing to the very advanced crisis of climate change, this should not be up for debate. Or, rather, it should be up for debate as Canadians choose their next leader. Simply because Bernier has decided to deny the existence of this greatest threat to humanity doesn’t mean it should be shunted as we go to the polls. As false equivalence has crept into the mainstream, media literacy is more important than ever. Make your own minds up, but it’s distressing to see our own government distort the election process, giving credence to crackpot theories and the tin foil hat-wearers while the adults attempt to save the world. One man denying a scientific fact shouldn’t limit the right to protest ahead of an election. When Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson announced on the weekend that he is gay, he faced some of the expected vitriol on social media but for the most part, he said, he received support. What matters most, the majority support or the minority viciousness? Your answer to that question probably defines your “progressive” status. Real progressives likely worry because there are still people out there who would attack a prominent figure who announced he is gay. People who are progressive but don’t wear the label would probably reflect on how far we’ve come on the issue from the days when it was against the law to be homosexual. The whole subject of who’s sufficiently progressive is important enough that it may determine who becomes the next U.S. president. Real progressives, like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Marianne Williamson, think that even former President Barack Obama wasn’t progressive enough. They want to lead the Democratic Party toward a major change in policies – everything from free health care and free university education to the payment of reparations to the descendents of slaves for the injustices suffered by their ancestors. Right now, as they jostle for position before the Primary season begins leading to the 2020 presidential election, these progressives are battling for the soul of the Democratic Party with moderates like former Vice-President Joe Biden and former congressman Beto O’Rourke. The progressives are so sure that President Donald Trump is un-electable, they think people will vote for them, even if voters are dubious about their policies, rather than vote for Trump. More clear-headed observers think that if the Democrats choose a candidate too far outside the main stream, they may hand Trump a second term. The irony is that both wings of the Democratic Party probably share the same goals. Their argument is about how best to get there. If you’re leading a climbing party up a mountain, you’d better be prepared to take a break every now and then and enjoy the scenery while people catch their breath. As leader, you may be in great physical condition, but your followers may not have the stamina you have. You may be driven to reach the top, but they may not share your obsession. If you get too far ahead of your followers, they may turn around and go back down the mountain. We’ve climbed a huge mountain when it comes to how much more understanding our society has become. I’m old enough to remember when a marriage between a Catholic and a Protestant was frowned upon by relatives on both sides. My mother, who was progressive for her time, thought a mixed-race marriage was a mistake. By comparison, we recently marked the 16th anniversary of the legalization of same-sex marriages in Ontario. In the U.S., they went from slavery to desegregation to the election of a black president. In Canada, we have one of the most ethnically and racially diverse populations in the world, a relatively short time after we charged a tax on Chinese men immigrating to Canada and when a senior government official, said “none is too many” about the possibility of opening the door to European Jews fleeing Nazi extermination policies. It’s not that long ago that there were violent protests over the adoption of the flag that Canadians today love so much they use it to decorate everything from their gardens to their cheeks. Sometimes, it takes time to accept and adapt. Sometimes a lot of change leads to backlash. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been mocked for trying to be so progressive that it seems sometimes that he’s apologizing for everything that was done wrong, by today’s standards, in the country’s first 150 years. The contrarian-in-chief of The Globe and Mail, columnist Margaret Wente, recently took on universities for “twisting themselves into pretzels” in the lengths they’ve gone to create quotas for diversity. If there are 50.9 per cent women in the population, then universities reason that 50.9 per cent of the research chairs at a university should be women, even if only 25 per cent of the applicants are women. The same goes for visible minorities (22 per cent), people with disabilities (7.5 per cent) and Indigenous people (4.9 per cent). When enough of the population rebels against such political correctness, they may turn to politically-incorrect leaders like Donald Trump or Ontario Premier Doug Ford, accomplishing the opposite to what the in-a- hurry progressives desire. We’ve climbed so very high on the mountainside toward a compassionate and just society. We still have a ways to go, but sometimes it’s time to at least celebrate how far we’ve come before pushing on for the top. Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk Whatever you want in life, other people are going to want it too. Believe in yourself enough to accept the idea that you have an equal right to it. – Diane Sawyer Final Thought