Not meant to be

JOHN AMAGOALIK

There are certain things in life which are just not meant to be. The Titanic was called “unsinkable.” It didn’t survive its maiden voyage. Back in the 1970s, a member of Greenpeace actually suggested that Inuit should give up hunting and grow vegetables in greenhouses. Preston Manning thinks he should be prime minister of Canada.

But sometimes first impressions turn out to be quite accurate. My first impression of Preston Manning was that he was a whiny little right-winger who didn’t know his own shortcomings and thought he had a dIvine mission to become Canada’s prime minister.

Many years later we now know that Preston Manning is a whiny little right-winger who thinks he can fool most of the people most of the time. He condemned MP pensions and vowed not to accept them. He had to reverse himself because many of his Reform MPs badly wanted the pension. He vowed not to live in the official residence of the leader of the opposition. Months later, he is entertaining his cronies and members of the media at Stornaway. He vowed that his political party was a grassroots movement. He does not tolerate dissent from his MPs or the grassroots of his party.

Worst of all, he vowed that he would “do politics differently.” He has done it differently all right. He is even worse. Just one example was his desparate attempt to appeal to people’s intolerance concerning leaders from Quebec in the last election. It proved that he was prepared to compromise any principle for the sake of gaining power.

Jacques “The Joker” Parizeau is the buffoon from the separatist side. Manning is the buffoon opposite him. He wants to be the leader of this nation. Some things are just not meant to be.

Outsiders?

Recently, I was dealing with a federal public servant and we were involved in a discussion of public concern. At one point, the public servant started to say “Being an outsider…” If public servants in the federal, territorial, or local levels are not committing themselves fully to their work because they feel they are “outsiders,” then we are going to have problems.

All public servants, wherever they are from, should feel that they are part of Nunavut’s society when they are living and working here, even if it is just for a while.

Nunavut is part of the Canadian family and people who come here to work should feel a part of it. People are more committed to their work if they don’t have an attitude of an outsider.