Back for now, with apologies for the long break!

On June 30 of this year I wrote that I was taking a break from writing this column, thinking I would return in about six weeks time!

The six weeks came and went and I found, for the first time in years, that I had no desire to return to writing.

But, once upon a time, I thought the day would never come that I would quit dancing either. I grew up dancing and in my teen years, I walked for miles to attend a dance. I would be the last one on the dance floor and usually got swept out of the hall, literally, when the evening was over and that continued all through the years until I reached year 75!

Now in the last couple of years, you can hardly tempt me into going to a dance much less taking part. The music is too loud and I don’t often have a good dancing partner – nothing worse than trying to dance with someone who only knows how to shake and wiggle on the dance floor!

So it is for writing, especially when you find yourself writing to what you begin to feel is an invisible and unresponsive audience. You begin to feel nobody really cares so it’s a waste of (newspaper) space and a waste of (my) time.

I certainly found out how nice it was not to be thinking “what to write about” all the time.

I will give it another try but if there is any one out there interested in taking over the job of writing a weekly column, please let the editor, Wendy Coomber, know and I will gladly step aside.

A Summer Spent with Family and Close Friends

I’ve had a wonderful summer, a summer that started off with a family reunion at Twin Acres which was attended by every one of my grandchildren and great grandchildren. Only my two sons were missing, but their families were there.

I then went to Ontario to visit my brother Jim and his families, came back home and went off to Vancouver Island to look up good friends that I had not seen in years. In between all this, I spent time with good friends at Pavilion Lake and enjoyed visits with friends in Merritt and Kamloops.

And even at that, I spent a good deal of time at home, hiding in the day time from the extreme heat but enjoying the wonderful morning and evening hours of a splendid summer. I actually read some good (fiction) books!

Mayors and Councils at UBCM

Members of all of our councils have just returned from the Union of BC Municipalities convention in Vancouver where we spent time meeting with Cabinet Ministers, voting on resolutions, listening to speakers, attending sessions, participating in the Market Place where we discovered new and innovative ways of doing things.

From our arrival on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 27, through to the end of the convention on Friday, Oct. 2, it was a non-stop, early morning to late evening experience, not only for the old timers like Mayor Ranta, Mayor Anderson, Coun. Wyatt McMurray and yours truly but for new comers, councillors Jerry Fiddick, Jim Loucks and Darrell Rawcliffe, all of whom said it was a most valuable experience. Also in attendance were our CAO’s Michelle Allen from Ashcroft and Tom Kadla from Cache Creek, a first time experience or both of them.

Historic Occasion – First Native Chief elected president

In the annual elections, we witnessed an historic occasion with the election of Harry Nyce as the new president, the first Aboriginal Chief to achieve this honour.

Personally, I am very proud to have known Harry Nyce, a Nisga’a Hereditary Chief for many years. I worked with him and for him when I was the Ministerial Assistant to the Minister of Forests and later when I was working for the Mining Association of BC. The Provincial Government of the day (1980s) had the highest respect for this wise and gentle-natured man.

From the sidelines, I watched his political progress with great interest. It was a proud moment that brought tears to my eyes when he stepped out on the stage to accept his president’s gavel, dressed in his impressive ceremonial clothing and proudly holding his carved staff.

Educated in a one room school, rose to the top

Chief Harry was never adversarial in his association with the “White Man” as he worked with them to solve like-minded issues. He earned so much respect from the community in which he lived that, in 1987, he was elected as their Director to the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine, and is currently serving as chair of the board.

He has served several terms on the Board of Directors for the UBCM, working his way through the executive positions to his one year term as president which he is now serving.

The interesting part about Harry Nyce’s background is that he was educated in a one room Indian Day School operated by the Salvation Army in a small community of a few hundred people, Gitwinksihlkw, BC, a Nishga’a community. From there he went on to University and majored in Political Science in the early 1980s.

His biography contains several prestigious and influential appointments to various boards, including being appointed by the Nisga’a Tribal Council board as Resources Negotiator for the settlement of the Nisga’a Land Question in 1989.

What a fine example he is to all leaders, Native and White, right down to the local level. Together we can!

How often should we elect councils?

An interesting announcement was made during Premier Gordon Campbell’s speech at the conclusion of the busy UBCM week. He announced he will be appointing a task force composed of MLAs and local government politicians to look at the times and terms for civic elections.

The Task Force will also be charged with searching out ways of interesting the electorate to get out to the polls at election time, with many communities presently far below a 50 per cent turnout.

The Task Force will be expected to bring back its findings by May 30, 2010 and I am sure we will be hearing much discussion about it in the meantime.

What do you think? Should local elections be held every year as they once were, when we voted for a mayor and two councillors in one year and two councillors the next year, with each given a two year term to serve? The alternating two year terms gave an opportunity for constant change if the electorate wished it.

Or is a three-year term good enough or should it be a four-year term, running in line with provincial elections?

Personally at this stage, I am supporting the present system of three-year terms; two years is too short and four years is too long, and I think it’s up to the candidates to instill voter interest and turnout at the polls. I don’t know how turnout can be legislated.

Breast Cancer Symposium info for everyone

If you haven’t already noticed, there are a few posters around town announcing a valuable Clinical Symposium on Breast Cancer Prevention and Treatment to which all adults are encouraged to attend, young and old, male or female as there will be beneficial information for everyone, patient, caring for a patient or being armed with preventative information.

Sponsored by the Ashcroft and District Health Care Auxiliary, we are being given the opportunity to hearing from two eminent guest speakers, Dr. Leia Stephen, MD, FRCS (C) and Janice MacDonald, RN, Patient Care Coordinator from the BC Cancer Agency, Royal Inland Hospital.

The symposium is being held on Saturday, October 24 from 1:30-4:30 in the Cache Creek Community Hall, plan on being there.

Well done, Fall Fair Committee, you made us all proud

Since I wasn’t writing my column at the time, I have to backtrack and comment on the highly successful Ashcroft & District Fall Fair which attracted great participation both in submissions and by attendance on a beautiful sunny day.

I know that Gloria Duncan, who was serving as the hard working chair at the time of her untimely death, must have been smiling down on it all with great pride.

To all those who served with Gloria, you deserve a special mention for picking it all up in your time of shock in the loss of your leader, and carrying it on to a very successful conclusion. I don’t know who you all are, but you know and I have wanted to say your work was impressive.