Listen for What’s Not Being Said

A school bus driver stopped to drop off a kindergarten student. The little boy saw his grandmother waiting for him, but the bus driver wanted to make sure the woman was a family member.

“Is that really your grandmother?” he asked. “Yes, she visits every Christmas.” the boy replied.

“Very good,” said the bus driver.” And where does she stay the rest of the year?” he asked.

“At the airport,” the youngster said. “We just pick her up there whenever we feel like it.”

Obviously this boy didn’t have all the information he needed, but we Cana- dians often find ourselves in a similar situation. While we’re immersed in all the media coverage about the United States election, our focus shifts off of what’s happening right here in Canada.

Though the loudest noise usually ends up getting the most attention, we should be looking for what’s being said on Canada’s news front. Or, in some cases, what’s not being said.

Just because something’s not being talked about by the media, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s disappeared. For instance, there’s not much being said about unilateral changes being made to our voting system. A wide margin of Canadians believe politicians shouldn’t be able to change the voting system without consulting the people via a referendum. It makes one wonder if coverage of this issue is deliberately being kept silent.

Another important upcoming decision for our country is the Trans Mountain pipeline project, which will create thousands of jobs for decades to come and generate billions of dollars in revenue, improving market access.

And we can’t forget about the carbon tax issue. We do hear about its neces- sity, but nonetheless it will hurt cost competitiveness with the U.S. and be- yond, increase operating costs for farmers, and living costs for all Canadians.

For example, an Ontario home owner received his monthly electricity bill of $560, half of which was for delivery costs and taxes. The plan is to make electricity expensive so people will use less of it.

The carbon tax issue is a top priority right now because of the upcoming climate change conference. After last year’s climate conference, extravagant expenses were revealed after the fact, but we haven’t heard about this year’s guest expense account.

You may not hear much being said about Ontario’s proposed new Bill 28, which will remove the words “mother” and “father” from Ontario law and replace them with “birth parent” and “parent”. Why is a proposed law that endorses inclusion, excluding mothers and fathers?

These are only a few important issues happening right here and now in Canada. While the media is feeding us more details than we ever wanted about the U.S. election, let’s make an effort to find out what’s happening in our own country.

In the joke I told earlier, the child believing his grandmother lived at the airport was funny. But it’s not a laughing matter when important decisions are being made while the media says very little about it and decision makers exert little or no effort for Canadian citizens to be involved in the decision- making process.