I had an excellent evening out in Regina with my wife, family, and friends. I met some Ward 1 residents too along the way, including Joe and his wife. Joe’s writing a book about Regina, and it may be available by the end of this year. He also had very interesting comments about municipal politics here, including an idea (not acted on 30 years ago) to do away with the Ward numbers, and focus on geographical names with more meaning instead. Hillsdale, Douglas Park, and Whitmore Park would have meaning to more local people than “Ward 1”. I would have talked longer, but had other pavilions to get to, and the six year old we were babysitting didn’t want to wait to see more. I just realized, looking at Joe’s business card, that I saw his car on the way into the Irish pavilion, because I noticed the Rider plate with his name and mistakenly thought it was a phonetic attempt to match a radio station name.
At the Greek pavilion I also got to talk with education-Tweeter-extraordinaire Alec, who may be pitching an idea I gave him, on the radio next week.
So far I’ve been to Hellenic (Greece), Kyiv (Ukraine; try the borscht), Irish, Scottish, Korean (lit my mouth on fire with some kim-chi), Philippines, and Hungary. I’d like to catch them all, but won’t have time, so the short list for Saturday is Chile, Caribbean, Francophone, and First Nations. Hopefully I squeak in a few more than that.
I heard that people were evacuated from the German Club around 9:30pm due to some electrical problem that was soon resolved. The party ended up in the street, and in the tent instead.
At Hungary, I got to talk with Ralph Goodale a little bit as crowd control kicked in to hold up the line we were waiting in. He congratulated me on entering municipal politics, and gave me some pointers. Which reminds me, Joe spoke highly of Mayor Nenshi’s social media campaign, and recommended I follow it. I explained that as a blogger, I have years of “dirt” people can readily dig up and take out of context, at the push of a button, so not all of Nenshi’s methods of message control are open to me. Although, he’s certainly a legend in municipal politics and social media circles. I sure hope I have a shred of his social-savvy.
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff 
Dear SASKBOY : CONGRATS ON YOUR DECISION TO TAKE A PLUNGE … Smile; and I certainly hope & pray that this sidebar scenario does not in any way, shape or form … impair Or impede your always on point and prescient National commentaries
Thanks Dennis,
I’ll be trying to keep this blog true to my vision for the country, province, and city, since I want people to know what I stand for and I’m not backing down from it unless a much better way can convince me to change my mind.
That said, depending on how my campaign goes, I may have to be more harsh with moderating comments (I don’t much at all, except for very specific trolls, or obvious spam). I’ll consider it a sign of success if more people choose to troll my sites, when there are so many others they could spend time on.
I hope to show people that it’s possible to have a history online, and survive a political campaign. A naive hope maybe, but a trail worth blazing for all of the kids after me who’ve put every embarrassing thought and photo on Facebook and Twitter. They shouldn’t lose an opportunity to join public service for living a digitally inclusive life (so long as their heart is good and their head is on straight).
If there’s one thing Stephen Harper has done for Canadian politics, it’s shown a politician can have multiple dirty scandals, and still attain the top political office in the country. There should certainly be hope for a kind hearted blogger whose biggest possible scandal is humourously pointing out the deadly potential of coffee when everyone loves Tim Hortons.