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Always a needle in hand.
She loved visiting the cottage. |
My Nanny
Our foremothers and forefathers worked hard to establish themselves in this country. My great-grandmother had a rooming house in
Port Hope. Sweeping carpets with tea leaves to clean them.
My Nanny, which is how we used to refer to my grandmother (Anne Butt, 1888 - 1978,
née Mallette), was the
matriarch of the family. She and my grandfather were butchers in downtown Toronto. She would carry huge sides of beef upstairs. They raised three children. My mother was the youngest, Joan Jilks, born April 4, 1925, died May 12, 2006.
Nanny was strong, had a firm faith and foundations and principles that stood us all in good stead. Suffering the loss of her husband, when her children were young, she ended up taking in 200 teen-aged foster girls before retiring. She understood about rules, setting limits, consequences, and she had a firm hand.
A hero and an amazing woman. Her stitches were perfect and consistent, as straight and strong as her character. I still have the quilt she made me. She believed in working hard.
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While race riots went on in the US,
Nanny taught me to love |
Family dinners she made from scratch, with the entire extended family, turkey at New Year's Day was always perfect.
Her gifts to me were always wrapped perfectly. Every seam was taped, to prevent peeking? And her gifts were precious and many, both tangible and the gifts of spirit.
A modern woman, for her time, streetcars and cars were new to her. She lived through two world wars. Buried a husband in 1940.
She gave me a doll. She looked deeper than the colour of our skin. She knew that all of us were important, despite our similarities or difference. She is my hero and my guiding light.
Her teachings continue to hold me in good stead. All my life my mother would quote Nanny, e.g., '
Never a door closes, but a window opens.' That was her fabric of faith, her philosophy of living a life: loving and being well-loved. Embracing humanity of all colours, faiths, sexual orientation.
The Nanny State
I have been reading some political post by our local Conservative MPP, Randy Hillier. He's the former libertarian leader of the infamous
Ontario Landowners Association (OLA). Their rise to power has been illuminating. In Muskoka their antics have been scary, too, with advocates closing snowmobile trails,
Muskoka Landowners Association are heavily into politics. (
Chop, chop, timber!) An unregistered lobby group, standing by their rights to private ownership of Crown Land. As this is one of the regions in Ontario where residents, especially aboriginal peoples have been most affected by clear cut logging, and over fishing, you'd think they'd watch for laws to govern such.
"The Nanny State and You" - Randy Hillier speaks
The phrase itself grates on my nerves. The 'Nanny State', as all his posts proclaim, infers we don't need anyone to watch over us, do we?
Trudeau (love him or leave him!) said something about the state having no business in the bedrooms of the nation. But there are places where the state ought to be, and that is standing up for the rights of all of us to enjoy the beauty and wonder of nature. Watching over its citizen to ensure that those who would exploit the land are mindful of the need to have hunting laws, land use laws, thoughtful land development, laws about pollution, hunting regulations.
It is in the right of all of us to avail ourselves of the Human Rights of this society.
'
Dangerous Precedent Set with Same-Sex Marriage Ruling'
Those who oppose same-sex marriage, for example, may do so on their own terms, but if they earn a living off of the taxpayer's dollar, then they must abide by the laws of the land, elected by taxpayers who have supported the principles that guide us. This is the separation of Church and State, crucial in a democracy.
And speaking of land, those who earn a living off of the land, need to assure the rest of us that they are following the best practices, and being good stewards of the land. We saw what happened in place like
Georgian Bay, where the soil erosion and the pollution from the mills, decimated the fishing AND logging industries.
At the peak of the White Pine harvest they were taking 400,000 trees a year. Trees that were 20' around the base.
In this, an Ontario Provincial election year, as well as Federal Election 2011, opposition politicians are traveling around giving speeches, manufacturing photo ops, shouting loud and clear about the devastation wrought by the current government. Now, it need not matter which government, for this is the way we do politics in this country. Whatever they are for, we are against!
My sweet, kind, wonderful Nanny, would be shocked and outraged. She never had a bad word to say about anyone, but I'm sure she would be furious with the confrontational ways of the politicians seeking sound bytes. The Tea Party wannabees are touting policies that set us back to the dark ages. Mike Harris, who began this slide into the state of white, middle-aged male politician, like Sarah Palin's, '
Don't retreat, reload' philosophy, negates any progress we have made with provincial land use laws, species-at-risk, mineral deposits, wetland protection, and animal protection laws.
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| Brockville caboose (1954) |
In 2009, Hillier and Scott Reid, a
bromance created through politics, co-founded the
Lanark Society for the Advancement of Democracy, Property and the Common Law, which is intended "
to help elected officials of a libertarian or classical liberal bent to take 'projects to expand the cause of freedom
' beyond the conceptual stage."
Under Hillier's leadership, the landowners groups initially engaged in acts of civil disobedience: blocking highways, barricading government offices, staging illegal deer hunts, and publicly breaking laws that the Landowners regarded as unjust.
[6]
After 2006 the OLA's acts of civil disobedience were replaced by attempts to influence the political system by more traditional means. Hillier has explained the illegal actions of the landowners...it was their human right to exploit the land as they wished. Landowner-endorsed rural candidates ran for municipal office in the 2006 Ontario municipal elections. Poor old Tim Hudak, provinical party leader, is reeling.
Nanny understood how difficult it was for some of us to protect the people and the land we love. She understood that laws have to be made, in order for the rights of society to be protected. I bitterly resent this reference to Ontario laws as a 'Nanny State.'
From Wiki:
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An 'uneasy alliance'
MPP Randy Hillier (suspenders), Michael Schmidt's (vest)
at the Newmarket courthouse in February of 2009
to show their support for Michael Schmidt
in his court battle for legal raw milk.
Jack MacLaren 'This land is our land' |
*"Mike" Harris (born January 23, 1945) was the 22nd Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. He is most noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his Progressive Conservative government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and cuts to government programs.
Randy Hillier (born 1958) is a rural activist and politician in Ontario, Canada. He was elected as a Progressive Conservative MPP forLanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington during the 2007 Ontario general election. Hillier serves as the party's critic for both Labour and Northern Development, Mines and Forestry in the provincial legislature. In 2009, Hillier was a candidate in the provincial PCleadership election.[1] Although eliminated on the first ballot, he played the role of king-maker in the leadership race, successfully delivering most of his delegates to support eventual winner Tim Hudak.
Tim Hudak wants to scrap the LHIN system, whereby regional boards of directors control universal healthcare in Ontario regions. Hudak promised to dissolve the LHINs if he were to win the Ontario general election in 2011.
The Tea Party is an American populist[1][2][3] political movement, which is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian,[4][5] and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009.[6][7][8] It endorses reduced government spending,[9][10] opposition to taxation in varying degrees,[10] reduction of the national debt and federal budget deficit,[9] and adherence to an originalist interpretation of the United States Constitution.[11]
