I ran into my old friend Simon Brascoupe today at a meeting I was facilitating here in Vancouver. Simon is a man of many hats: he has taught at Trent University, University of Manitoba and Carleton in contemporay Aboriginal economic development; he has worked in Chiapas and on international indigenous rights; he is a sometime federal government public servant, currently with the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada; and he is a well known artist in Canada, working with print and paint and anything else he can get his hands on. Over Thai food at lunch today …
Last night, on the eve of George Bush’s visit to Canada, 1.2 million canadians voted in a contest to select the greatest Canadian of all time. The winner was Tommy Douglas, the father of medicare and one of the furthest left politicians ever elected in Canada. He was certainly the most dyed-in-the-wool socialist who ever led a party (the Commonwealth Cooperative Federation). He formed the first socialist government in North America in 1944 when he became premier of Saskatchewan. He quoted as saying “My friends, watch out for the little fellow with an idea.” I am thinking to myself today …
Winnipeg, Manitoba I’m here in Winnipeg this week running a series of Open Space workshops at a national Aboriginal Head Start and early childhood education conference. There are something like 1000 people here from all over the country, all of them involved in caring and teaching the youngest children in Aboriginal communities in Canada. We’ve been running short Open Space events to allow people to dialogue with each other in a peer-to-peer learning environment. We’re so hip we even have a wiki! Among the many stories and best practices I’m hearing about here, one has stood out for me. I’ve …