Easter Is For Everyone - It Doesn't Have To Be Religious

Spring snuck up on me this year for some reason, I poked my head up from the daily grind to find the baseball season had started, and The Masters golf tournament on TV. Of course spring is about more than baseball and golf, its all about resurrection and renewal. The grass and the trees, seemingly dead for so long...springing back to life.

Growing up in New Jersey this was always my favourite holiday season, even more than Christmas. Sure I loved the presents under the Christmas tree, but late December is the most depressing period of the calendar year. Actually that's where the celebration of the Yule season started, marking the time when the days are shortest and the hours of sunlight the fewest. After Christmas though the days get longer, with light winning the battle against darkness, until finally spring arrives and the hours of sunshine overcome the hours of shadow.

In the little town of Glen Rock back in the 1970s all the kids would gather near the county pool, where there was big open field separated by a ditch. We'd all line up on one side of the ditch, and with the blowing of a whistle plunge into the ditch and climb up into the open field for the annual Easter egg hunt. There was a special egg hidden, with a particular identifying mark...the kid who found 'that' egg would get a really special chocolate bunny...solid chocolate all the way through and weighing something like ten pounds. In the four and a half years we lived there it was never me though...I had to content myself with the lightweight hollowed out version the Easter Bunny left in my basket Sunday morning.

Eggs and bunnies, age old symbols of fertility....of life. That's what makes this time of year special. As I've grown older I've come to have serious doubts about the whole Jesus story. The Good Friday tale about Jesus having the last supper, then being betrayed and brought before Pilate. The crowd being given the opportunity to pardon one prisoner, not once but twice...and then Jesus being crucified and dying on the cross. Getting all that accomplished in just the evening hours of one single day....everyone must have been running faster than Ben Johnson on steroids.

That doesn't mean the story doesn't have significance, things don't have to be literally true for there to be some moralistic merit to the narrative. The lesson I've learned is that life never ends. Science has taught us a lot over the centuries, one of those lessons is that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, that it merely changes form. Life in my view is energy, when something springs to life it is the result of energy after all.

So I'll be enjoying this holiday time with my kids. We're going to see the new Hanna Montana movie today...and we'll be taking a hike hopefully through a nearby ravine.

Happy Easter everyone, enjoy this season of renewal.

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My Blog Has More FaceBook Followers Than...Rick Mercer's???

As many bloggers know Facebook has an application called NetworkedBlogs. For those who weren't aware it shouldn't come across as a big surprise, after all FaceBook has an application for EVERYTHING!!! I bet there's even one for 'Proper Toe Nail Clipping Techniques'....okay, maybe not. But there is one to help you determine which Tellitubbie you are...no I haven't added it, I just checked for the dumbest one I could find and there it was.

Okay, after typing that last line I went and did the test...you know, morbid curiosity. Turns out I'm 'Dipsy'....okay, the name seems about right. Which one is that anyway? Tell me its not the gay one...not that I have a problem with homosexual children's TV characters.

Now what was I writing about originally? Oh yeah...my blog, Canadian Soapbox. I have more FaceBook followers than Rick Mercer's blog, and no I'm not making this up either. I have 24 followers on Facebook, while Rick Mercer only has 18!!!

Here...check for yourself: Canadian Soapbox Link, Rick Mercer's Blog Link

Of course keep in mind that those were the numbers, (24 vs 18) when I entered this post at about 5:30 PM on Thursday April 9th. I can just see it now, my followers are going to stop following me and start following Mr. 'I get to interview Michael Ignatieff and go skinny dipping with Bob Rae'. On top of that I'm one of the 18 following Rick Mercer's blog, but Mr Bigtime Canadian Showbiz hasn't bothered to follow mine!!!

And while I'm shamelessly plugging other blogs....I should mention Random Thoughts of a Fat Guy. That blog has 53 FaceBook followers. Hrrmmmmmm, obviously the number of followers doesn't tell you very much. That or maybe Rick Mercer and I need to put on some weight.

I'm still tweeting away on Twitter as CanukGord for those who wish to follow me there...21 and counting. I'm going to have a shower now, I feel so dirty.

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How's the Recession Affecting Your Workplace?

One of the things about blogging is that it affords me the opportunity to tell my story. There are tons of bloggers (and newspaper columnists for that matter) who love to rant on about whatever issue is currently hot...with me being no exception. But it occurred to me that the bloggers and columnists I most enjoy reading are those who offer up a little glimpse into their own personal worlds. In that vein here's a small glimpse into the life of Gordie Canuk.

Right now I'm working for a pharmaceutical company in Toronto, however I'm employed through a temp agency. Last year that same temp agency had me placed at the LCBO warehouse in Whitby and I worked there for over a year. I've spent the majority of my working life in sales and sales management, and just prior to getting divorced I'd embarked on a career as a financial planner. Situation and circumstance however made that a difficult career to get off the ground while going through a marital breakup.

I get to see my kids regularly during the week by picking them up from school and giving them dinner two times a week...on top of having them every other weekend. To me that's part and parcel of being a Dad, I couldn't come to terms with the thought of seeing them just once every two weeks as happens to so many divorced men. But to accommodate that meant some difficult choices, I decided it would be best to work midnights...but there aren't a lot of sales type jobs looking for midnight employees.

I'm fortunate for the moment in that I'm working from 4 or 5 in the morning, til 1 in the afternoon...which allows me to pick up the kids and attend my son's basketball games. Unfortunately the company I'm working at is shutting down its Toronto operations sometime in June. There is another location in Whitby and some employees are transitioning to that site, but many are in limbo, waiting to hear if they'll be retained or not. The head of my department has made it known that he's trying to get everyone placed there, but of course there are no assurances...and with me being on a temp contract I'm not overly optimistic.

It occurred to me that there are likely a lot of employees who are going to be out of work. But nonetheless they're hanging in and working hard...hopeful that they will be offered the opportunity to work at the Whitby location. From a corporate perspective I can understand there being some reticence in telling people, "sorry guys...but come June 1 you're out of work". That would hardly be a moral booster, and would likely kill productivity. All the better to have people frustrated and on edge, working hard and hoping to be one of the lucky ones.

The LCBO is even worse....their facility in Whitby employs temp agency workers by the busload. No benefits, no job security...and shitty wages to boot. Dalton McGuinty can say all he wants about Ontario needing to attract decent paying, long term jobs to this province. But when an Ontario crown corporation exploits the labour market it rings awfully hollow.

For a lot of years the labour market in Ontario (and Canada as a whole) was pretty tight. Employers had to compete to attract and retain employees, and depending on the skill sets involved the competition could be fierce. Now I suspect many employers are loving the current climate, at least in terms of dealing with HR issues. HR...human resources, isn't that a lovely term. I'm just old enough to remember when it was "Personnel", in other words employees were persons....now we're resources. Human Resources, Natural Resources...you know, basic commodities that are meant to be exploited for maximum profit.

Anyone else have a story to tell? Or any suggestions for this blogger who may very well be looking for work come June? Post a comment or if you like tweet CanukGord on Twitter.

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A Great Idea For Stimulating The Economy - Ban Smoking

In my never ending quest to make Canada a better place I offer up yet another suggestion, proposing that we ban cigarettes. Now before all you puffers start screaming, with thoughts of turning me into your own personal ashtrays, let me say this...I'm one of you. That's right, I'm a smoker, in fact I'm a pack a day man. So pull out a dart, light up and draw...and listen to what I have to say before you dash the cancer stick out on my keyboard.

According to Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada, our nation has over 5 million smokers, about 21% of the total population. That's the only statistic I'm going to quote here, I'm not going to go on about cancer rates, cardiovascular diseases, or even the dangers of second hand smoke. We smokers know about all the stats, but that's not why we light up. The bottom line is we smoke because we enjoy it, and besides...so what if smoking cuts ten years off my life. From what I understand, its the last ten. So I miss out on dementia and incontinence? Big deal!

As far as I'm concerned the single biggest threat to a person's health is stress. Let's face it, just breathing these days is said to cause cancer. Stress diminishes the body's ability to fight off disease, and cigarettes are just one of the many things in our modern world with the potential to kill us.

But I'm still going to advocate banning cigarettes, not for the health benefits....but rather for the economy. Here in the GTA a package of cigarettes ranges in price from around $6 for a small pack of 20, up to near $10 depending on the brand. Let's assume that in Canada 4 million packages of cigarettes are consumed each and every day. If the average price for a package is at the low end and just $6, that means the buying and selling of ciggies results in economic activity of $24,000,000 each and every day.

And because smokers rarely take a day off....except when we're REALLY sick, that comes to a total of over $8.7 billion per year. Talk about stimulus!!! Imagine $24 million being injected into local economies each day. Its not like we're going to save that extra six or so bucks...we former smokers would be spending it on other things, probably gum.

Okay, I hear some saying our governments can't afford to do without the tax revenue that cigarettes generate. Well not any more, not when Ottawa and the provinces are busy cutting taxes and increasing spending to stimulate us out of this recession. Besides the obvious benefit of more jack in our pockets and purses, the health care system would be able to redirect spending into other underfunded areas.

Yeah yeah, I know some would ignore the law and drag away in basements or other out of the way places...no law is ever perfect. Marijuana is illegal, but plenty of people still toke. And yet we don't hear a ground swell of public support for legalizing the selling of doobs do we? Sure smoking is an addiction, but if packages weren't available from every corner store and Indian reservation the vast majority of people would learn to get by without it.

If Ottawa isn't willing to take the lead maybe there's a progressively minded province that would take charge. Once initiatives like this take hold it isn't long before other jurisdictions follow suit.

I'm CanukGord on Twitter if you wish to follow me and this blog. I'll probably be losing some smoking followers after this post.

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