Well, here goes. I’m planning to write a weekly blog that will mostly deal with politics and current affairs although may occasionally lapse into other pop issues and travel experiences.

First, a few things about me and politics. I turn 70 in a few months and have been retired for going on seven years now. Politically, I consider myself a “blue liberal” or “red tory” although I belong to no political party and am quite ecumenical in casting my votes. The only party I have ever belonged to is the NDP which I was an active member of in the 1960’s and early 70’s. For those of you who aren’t Canadian, the NDP is a bit like the British Labour Party, nominally social democratic and with strong ties to the labour movement in Canada.

During my NDP years I was provincial President of the youth wing of the party in B.C., a member of the Executive of the federal youth wing, a member of the Provincial Executive of the NDP itself, a member of the Provincial Council of the NDP for several years and the organizer and manager of many federal and provincial election campaigns. In 1974 I was defeated for the NDP federal nomination in Vancouver East by Margaret Mitchell even though I was then President of the riding association and she was a new convert to the NDP. It was a particularly nasty nomination battle where some folks thought it appropriate to discuss my sexual orientation as a factor….hopefully things have changed since then.

Professionally, I have worked as a Teaching Assistant at SFU when I was in graduate school there; a political organizer in B.C., Manitoba and Ontario; a staff member of the United Steel Workers of America in Trail B.C. and the United Auto Workers in Windsor/Detroit; a founder and then Executive Director of the B.C. union (PEA) that initially represented licensed professional employees in the B.C. Public Service and subsequently other professional employees throughout B.C.; a member of the Core Steering Committee of Operation Solidarity in B.C.; the lead negotiator for Residents and Internes after they unionized in B.C. in the early seventies; the lead negotiator for Capilano College and once each for Langara College andMalaspina Colleges in B.C.; seconded to the Korbin Commission, I was the principal writer on the report that reshaped public sector collective bargaining in B.C.; a member of the Labour Relations Committee of the Employers Council of B.C.; a member of the Board of the Post Secondary Employers Association of B.C. and, finally, for the last seventeen years of my career, the Chief Negotiator for the BCMA representing doctors in their negotiations with the provincial government and other agencies.

Most of these roles allowed me an inside view of governments, warts and all. Following Bernard Shaw’s dictum, I’ve become more conservative as I age although my views on most social issues are about as progressive as you can get without being dismissed as a crank.

Oh, also, I’m gay if you haven’t already figured that out.

So, enough about me, from now on I’m going to be writing about stuff that interests me and, hopefully, will engage you too. Fasten your seatbelts (with thanks to Betty Davis).

Geoff