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Politicians have given out hundreds of medals and pins this fall in honour of Canada’s 150th birthday, even though there’s no national program to do it.
So many, in fact, that it’s hard to escape the worry that the politicians are up to something.
The Department of Canadian Heritage gave each member of Parliament 20 pins, made from reclaimed copper from the parliamentary roof, to distribute largely as they see fit. It’s not quite an official honour, but that’s the idea.
In Ottawa South, Liberal MP David McGuinty is waiting until the new year to present his. He and his staff have just finished choosing 20 groups, from food banks to immigration-settlement organizations, that’ll be asked to name the person who’s been most valuable in 2017, for a presentation McGuinty will make early in the new year.
“In our case here, we won’t be involved in the choice of the recipient of the 20 pins. Each group will have their opportunity to choose someone,” McGuinty said.
In Leeds-Grenville, MP Gord Brown and MPP Steve Clark, two Tories, teamed up to give 150 awards together. Canada’s 150th, after all.
In Ottawa Centre, MP Catherine McKenna gave out 30 pins. But MPP Yasir Naqvi gave out 150 awards, to 50 men, 50 women and 50 youths. (A handful of people got both, though most of the people on McKenna’s list of 30 great Ottawa Centrers didn’t make Naqvi’s list of 150.) Their separate lists include community-association types, religious leaders and young politicos.
Declining to be restricted to pins, in Nepean, Liberal MP Chandra Arya gave out a military-style medal with a red-striped ribbon and everything. It has one of the stylized multi-coloured maple-leaf logos on it, surrounded by the words “PROSPERATUS, LIBERALIS, SUPERBUS” and “USQUE LITTORA A LITTORA AD LITTORAL,” a bastardized version of Canada’s “A mari usque ad mare” motto that roughly translates to “from coast to coast to coast.”
Proud to be recipient of a Canada 150 medal for community service. Thank you to Chandra Arya, MP for Nepean. @ChandraNepean. pic.twitter.com/tvLE1wJl52
— Dick de Jong (@deJong_dick) December 19, 2017
By coincidence, LIBERALIS is right at the top, the only word other than CANADA that’s easy to read. Arya’s name is on the back.
Recipients had to be nominated by somebody else, with at least two reference letters included in the package. Arya’s process barred elected officials from getting one of his medals.
Arya’s provincial counterpart, Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod, did something similar with awards she gave out last Sunday, though she went the other way on the politicians.
“I awarded the Liberal party president in my riding, the Green party candidate, and two former NDP candidates, one of whom ran against me,” MacLeod said. “We had an application process. We went to legions, to volunteer groups, to fair boards and community associations and asked them to recommend an unsung hero in their community. … They were all really credible. I didn’t pick them. I agreed with every one of them, but I didn’t pick them.”
Councillors George Darouze, Rick Chiarelli and Michael Qaqish, Jan Harder and Keith Egli, and former councillors Doug Thompson and Steve Desroches all got them. So did former Nepean mayor Mary Pitt. Former senator Marjory LeBreton, a staunch friend of MacLeod’s, topped the list.
Along with other residents, I was honoured to receive the Ontario-Canada 150 Inspiration Award from @MacLeodLisa this afternoon @ScottMoffatt21 @qaqishmichael @KeithEgli pic.twitter.com/wCQutaRHrM
— Rick Chiarelli (@RickChiarelli) December 17, 2017
Her medallions have blue accents, which she said was common in the design she picked from a catalogue of options, more to do with a royal theme than Tory colours.
Award ceremonies give communities a chance to come together and learn about great people, MacLeod said. She represents a lot of fast-growing suburbs, where people have moved in but might not know their neighbours all that well. One recipient, for instance, was John Bell, a cancer researcher who’s teaching viruses to kill tumours; others were people who’ve raised money for cancer research, who’ve helped fund Bell’s work, but have never met him.
“The feedback I’ve gotten is people found it very inspirational,” MacLeod said.
She’s angry that the federal government didn’t fund a mass national award, like the diamond-jubilee medals that marked Queen Elizabeth’s 60 years on the throne in 2012. It’s a missed opportunity, she believes.
“Once in 150 years, I thought this was worth doing, bringing people together. They get a hug from me and a medallion and a scroll and a thank you,” MacLeod said.
Spurred by the same impulse, the Senate had the Royal Canadian Mint strike 1,500 medals commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Senate’s first sitting. Each senator got to give out a dozen, nominally for unsung community heroism, though 47 of them ended up in the hands of senators themselves.
Mayor Jim Watson has given out seven keys to the city this year, a record number for any mayor in Ottawa’s history, including to all of Algonquin College and Carleton University. This isn’t strictly a Canada 150 thing but it’s part of the picture.
We have unsung community volunteers and people who do more than they’re paid for, and part of a public leader’s job is to deliver recognition to people who deserve it. But being the person who gives out awards also reflects upon the giver. Associating yourself with good feelings, rewarding people who are already influential, and buoying the careers of people who already support you are all good politics. The balance is difficult.
But we could observe a couple of rules.
One might be that having public honours distributed wholly at the discretion of an elected politician is a bad practice. A degree of separation — McGuinty seems to have found one — is desirable.
This happened with the diamond jubilee medals a few years ago, when genuinely worthy recipients got mixed into a sour brew of politicos, big donors and industrial lobbyists, all thanked equally for their services to Canada.
Another is that it’s unseemly to present people with a medal that has your own name on it unless you’ve paid for it your personal self, or you’re a senior royal. The latter only because of the tradition that the Crown is the font from which all legitimate public power flows in our constitutional monarchy.
The point should be to strive mightily to keep the focus on the honorees and avoid any hint of political vampirism. Not everyone’s pulled that off in Canada’s Big Year.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
So many, in fact, that it’s hard to escape the worry that the politicians are up to something.
The Department of Canadian Heritage gave each member of Parliament 20 pins, made from reclaimed copper from the parliamentary roof, to distribute largely as they see fit. It’s not quite an official honour, but that’s the idea.
In Ottawa South, Liberal MP David McGuinty is waiting until the new year to present his. He and his staff have just finished choosing 20 groups, from food banks to immigration-settlement organizations, that’ll be asked to name the person who’s been most valuable in 2017, for a presentation McGuinty will make early in the new year.
“In our case here, we won’t be involved in the choice of the recipient of the 20 pins. Each group will have their opportunity to choose someone,” McGuinty said.
In Leeds-Grenville, MP Gord Brown and MPP Steve Clark, two Tories, teamed up to give 150 awards together. Canada’s 150th, after all.
In Ottawa Centre, MP Catherine McKenna gave out 30 pins. But MPP Yasir Naqvi gave out 150 awards, to 50 men, 50 women and 50 youths. (A handful of people got both, though most of the people on McKenna’s list of 30 great Ottawa Centrers didn’t make Naqvi’s list of 150.) Their separate lists include community-association types, religious leaders and young politicos.
Declining to be restricted to pins, in Nepean, Liberal MP Chandra Arya gave out a military-style medal with a red-striped ribbon and everything. It has one of the stylized multi-coloured maple-leaf logos on it, surrounded by the words “PROSPERATUS, LIBERALIS, SUPERBUS” and “USQUE LITTORA A LITTORA AD LITTORAL,” a bastardized version of Canada’s “A mari usque ad mare” motto that roughly translates to “from coast to coast to coast.”
Proud to be recipient of a Canada 150 medal for community service. Thank you to Chandra Arya, MP for Nepean. @ChandraNepean. pic.twitter.com/tvLE1wJl52
— Dick de Jong (@deJong_dick) December 19, 2017
By coincidence, LIBERALIS is right at the top, the only word other than CANADA that’s easy to read. Arya’s name is on the back.
Recipients had to be nominated by somebody else, with at least two reference letters included in the package. Arya’s process barred elected officials from getting one of his medals.
Arya’s provincial counterpart, Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod, did something similar with awards she gave out last Sunday, though she went the other way on the politicians.
“I awarded the Liberal party president in my riding, the Green party candidate, and two former NDP candidates, one of whom ran against me,” MacLeod said. “We had an application process. We went to legions, to volunteer groups, to fair boards and community associations and asked them to recommend an unsung hero in their community. … They were all really credible. I didn’t pick them. I agreed with every one of them, but I didn’t pick them.”
Councillors George Darouze, Rick Chiarelli and Michael Qaqish, Jan Harder and Keith Egli, and former councillors Doug Thompson and Steve Desroches all got them. So did former Nepean mayor Mary Pitt. Former senator Marjory LeBreton, a staunch friend of MacLeod’s, topped the list.
Along with other residents, I was honoured to receive the Ontario-Canada 150 Inspiration Award from @MacLeodLisa this afternoon @ScottMoffatt21 @qaqishmichael @KeithEgli pic.twitter.com/wCQutaRHrM
— Rick Chiarelli (@RickChiarelli) December 17, 2017
Her medallions have blue accents, which she said was common in the design she picked from a catalogue of options, more to do with a royal theme than Tory colours.
Award ceremonies give communities a chance to come together and learn about great people, MacLeod said. She represents a lot of fast-growing suburbs, where people have moved in but might not know their neighbours all that well. One recipient, for instance, was John Bell, a cancer researcher who’s teaching viruses to kill tumours; others were people who’ve raised money for cancer research, who’ve helped fund Bell’s work, but have never met him.
“The feedback I’ve gotten is people found it very inspirational,” MacLeod said.
She’s angry that the federal government didn’t fund a mass national award, like the diamond-jubilee medals that marked Queen Elizabeth’s 60 years on the throne in 2012. It’s a missed opportunity, she believes.
“Once in 150 years, I thought this was worth doing, bringing people together. They get a hug from me and a medallion and a scroll and a thank you,” MacLeod said.
Spurred by the same impulse, the Senate had the Royal Canadian Mint strike 1,500 medals commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Senate’s first sitting. Each senator got to give out a dozen, nominally for unsung community heroism, though 47 of them ended up in the hands of senators themselves.
Mayor Jim Watson has given out seven keys to the city this year, a record number for any mayor in Ottawa’s history, including to all of Algonquin College and Carleton University. This isn’t strictly a Canada 150 thing but it’s part of the picture.
We have unsung community volunteers and people who do more than they’re paid for, and part of a public leader’s job is to deliver recognition to people who deserve it. But being the person who gives out awards also reflects upon the giver. Associating yourself with good feelings, rewarding people who are already influential, and buoying the careers of people who already support you are all good politics. The balance is difficult.
But we could observe a couple of rules.
One might be that having public honours distributed wholly at the discretion of an elected politician is a bad practice. A degree of separation — McGuinty seems to have found one — is desirable.
This happened with the diamond jubilee medals a few years ago, when genuinely worthy recipients got mixed into a sour brew of politicos, big donors and industrial lobbyists, all thanked equally for their services to Canada.
Another is that it’s unseemly to present people with a medal that has your own name on it unless you’ve paid for it your personal self, or you’re a senior royal. The latter only because of the tradition that the Crown is the font from which all legitimate public power flows in our constitutional monarchy.
The point should be to strive mightily to keep the focus on the honorees and avoid any hint of political vampirism. Not everyone’s pulled that off in Canada’s Big Year.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
