21inc. - Day 4

The day started off early in Moncton with breakfast with Shawn Graham, the Premier. I enjoyed the fact that there was no speech, he just invited a Q&A right away and we bombarded him with a variety of questions.

... almost midnight... really tired... going to make this quick today.

We were off to the Atlantic Institute of Cancer Research later on and got a tour and presentation from the CEO... then off to the Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada to discuss arts and the world of business. Yes, art is a business and was I ever happy to here this CEO in the industry say so!!!!! The we went to Dieppe to discuss the impressive growth and plans of this community. It was all impressive... but my attention span at this point was getting low. And then even worse when we went into the next session of immigration for the larger Moncton area. And plus the discussion got a bit fluffy... so I disconnected quite a bit there. When it gets into personal experiences and sharing of what we love about multiculturalism, I just loose all interest in the discussion. And for some reason, each time a conversations revolve around multiculturalism, people talk about the great food you can take advantage of when you have multiculturalism. What??!! Can we talk about what the actual strategies should be and what is not working? What are the missing links? What policies should be changed, what should be encouraged, discouraged... arg, I was a little frustrated. But it was nice to see a few of my co-leaders speak passionatly on this topic which was dear to them. But don't get me wrong, I'm a proponent of immigration and the added values it brings to our communities.

We travelled to Elsipogtog First Nations reserve where we spent some time with Josie, a well respected elder in that community. Although we did not do the sweat lodge as we were hoping (which was fine with me since I was nto abel to participate in it anyways given the pregers situation!), we still sat in one, many of us together with Josie, huddled on the floor and bombarded her with question, while she just answered all of them patiently and passed on her knowledge and values of her culture. She had us all hooked! I'm sure some of our questions must have been so naive, but she was so open and patient and had a great sense of humor. She explained a lot of the symbolisms, the values and beliefs tied in with their respect of mother nature, her community, her work, her medicines. That was the highlight of my day and I wanted to stay longer to keep picking her brain and better understand her world. Thank you Josie!!

Now we are in sweet little cottages in Richibucto... I headed to bed a bit early as usual to try to rest this belly. My muscles are a bit sore and I'm still sick from 2 weeks ago, but I'm not complaining, its a great week so far...

Tomorrow we only start at 8am... so we get to sleep in a bit. We'll be visiting local companies, the francophone newspaper, banks, Caraquet ...but the only thing that I seem to really remember from the schedule is only arriving at our hotel at 10pm! Another long day...

cdg