What will we leave our grandkids?

Written by Jack MacDougall Wednesday, 25 August 2010 23:35

What will we leave to our grandkids?

By Jack MacDougall

Last summer, my daughter Kathleen brought into our family our first grandchild, Oscar. I think I was even more amazed than I was with our own first child, Margaret. I simply could not stop staring at him and begging my turn to hold him. He was beautiful. Last week, we celebrated his first birthday and he has turned into a real person. He is starting to walk, jabber and laugh. It may well have been one of the happiest years of my life thus far.

This has also been the single most challenging year of my life. As the leader of a new provincial party, the Green Party, I have never worked so hard in my life at anything. Of course the party has not been built by me, but by others, yet every detail occupies my mind in an obsessive way.

Finding candidates for the Green party has been a little like asking someone to marry you on the first date. First you must create policy to give meaning to your message. Everything must be in both English and French, as it should be in New Brunswick. However, getting people to stand with you as a candidate is difficult. This is not a complaint, because all new ideas must survive significant struggle in the beginning.

The real question that comes to mind, is the struggle worth it? For some the answer is no. At some point volunteers must get on with their lives and leave the struggle behind or find another way. It is understandable. I have left good organizations that I firmly believed in because I could only do so much. Like everyone, I have other priorities. For some, however, they understand the message and realize personal struggle is the price we must pay to advance our will on society. While citizens may be angry at politicians, democracy is still beautiful. We have the power to change.

When I am daydreaming, which I was often accused of as a child and yet now embrace as my most favourite pastime, I often think what would Oscar like the world to look like when he is my age now, 57. I ask, what is it you would want me to leave you, that is in my power to leave you? Because he cannot talk, I must imagine his answers; I figure he would tell me to leave an extremely healthy, biodiverse forest, clean water, healthy rivers, clean air, good food, no nuclear waste, no debt or debt which is backed up by a more valuable asset and a good economy based on skills, talents and meeting local needs. I would love to think that when he reaches my age he has no fear of the future for his grandchild, possibly named Jack.

I detest having to be critical of the government or the opposition. I have met Mr. Alward on several occasions, and I believe him to a decent man. I think the same of Premier Shawn Graham or Chris Austin and Roger Duguay. Everyone is capable of mistakes or missteps, as I have probably made a few myself. Fortunately when you are very, very small, we are not held to the same intense scrutiny as government or elected officials.

Their mistakes are absolutely no reason to vote Green. For us, it is not about them but about us. What is our message? What do we stand for? What drives us to exhaustion, with nearly impossible odds of winning as we gear up to enter our first provincial election?

Many, if not most, think of us as having no chance. Those of you who know me know I hold no such thought.

The real question is not about winning an election but about delivering a message of hope - that all of the things I dream for Oscar can come true. We can stop clear-cutting forests now and re-evaluate our forestry practises; we can begin to clean our air; we can begin to start paying our bills; we can begin to build clean public transit infrastructure; we can begin a 25-year debt elimination plan; we can liberate our youth by making education affordable and meaningful; we can grow the arts in every small community in New Brunswick; we can save family farms, grow healthy food, make things again, readjust our society as to set an example to the world of what can be achieved with a green vision.

Oscar will have a great life as I rest in peace.

Jack MacDougall is leader of the New Brunswick Green Party.