Friday, December 28, 2001
Not a ‘Merry Christmas’ amongst the lot - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- Christmas cards, I send out a whole slew of them each year. I did 60 or so this year, which is impressive for a student, who’s single. To the famous and not-so famous, most of them went to old high school colleagues, other friends and some of the good folks who’ve been good to your humble correspondent. I always get wows at the amount of cards I sign and the amount of stamps I have to buy, but I always shrug them off saying: I thoroughly enjoy mailing them out and it gives me that early chance to get into that ‘Christmas spirit.’
I got 6 cards of note this year. (Note when I say “of note”, because I got more from others, but these 6 are from slightly more famous people, thus get the attention of this column.) All, you’ll be glad to know, came to the house via the purse of the good ol’ Canadian Taxpayer. This year, I didn’t get the infamous card of the Governor General and hubby posing with a bunch of Native kids. I guess they read this column. Nor did I get one from Prime Minister and Mrs. Chrétien, who I’ll assume read this column too. I haven’t been kind to their Excellencies or the PM, but they did get cards from yours truly this year.
I did however get a card from the Hon. Herb Grey, Deputy Prime Minister, making this the third year in a row, I’ve gotten a card from the Honourable Member of Parliament for Windsor West. MP cards are printed on the same white, shiny stock and of course paid for by a budget provided for by Parliament. Mr. Grey’s card depicts a long shot of the lights on Parliament Hill, the purple dark Ottawa sky in the back. Inside -- like all 6 of the cards I’ll talk about in this space -- is a pretty safe greeting of “Season’s Greetings/Meilleurs Voeux.” No mention of Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, Eid al-Fitr or Eid al-Adha. (The latter two, according to Mark Steyn, being Islamic festivals at this time of year.)
Being that I didn’t get a card from Rideau Hall (from the Governor General and her husband), I did get a card from the Governor General’s sister. A wintry snow scene on Quebec’s rolling hills is the picture at the front of the card from the Honourable Senator, Vivienne Poy. She wishes this scribbler a ‘Happy Holiday Season’ and a ‘prosperous New Year.’ Senator Poy, a fashion designer by trade, sends a pretty bland card compared to her sister, which as I said pictured Canada’s royal couple in a throng of Inuit kids.
The annual card I get from Vancouver East MP Libby Davies is always the most socially conscious of the lot. This year her card is a shot of Bruce Eriksen Place, a social housing project in the heart of Vancouver’s skid row. Davies’ late husband was Bruce Eriksen, an activist for Canada’s poorest postal code, this town’s skid row. One card a couple of years ago, was of a druggie that resides somewhere near the intersection of Main and Hastings.
According to press reports I’ve read, the Prime Minister sent a family shot of he and his wife; as did the Prince of Wales, which showed Prince Charles on horseback alongside his two sons, Wills and Harry. The family shot was utilised by former prime minister Joe Clark, as the card he sent my way shows a beaming Joe standing behind his wife Maureen McTeer and their television personality daughter, Catherine equally beaming in a blonde coif. The Clark’s card was bilingual, as was the one I got from Jean Charest, the Leader of the Quebec Liberals and possibly the next premier of Quebec. Charest’s card features his wife and their three kids.
The most recent card came late last week from the Hon. Christy Clark, British Columbia’s Deputy Premier. Clark’s card is a black and white shot of her and her husband Mark Marrissen looking at their new baby, Hamish. They’re standing across a railway track, which I’ll assume is in her riding of Port Moody-Westwood (whose Liberal association paid for these so-said cards). The card from the Clark-Marrisen’s is bilingual too, in this case English and Chinese.
As a Catholic, a lapsed one mind you, I am not that offended at not getting a straight-up ‘Merry Christmas’ card. These are politically correct times in which we live and I guess we all have to be wary that beliefs held by one are not held by others. Thus constipated cards are necessary lest offence is taken by anyone -- not to mention they’re probably cheaper.
But I do think it belies the intelligence of everyone, to get so politically correct when in reality we just have to put up with the Christian tradition of sort of celebrating Christ’s birth. The Jews, put up with Christmas, by throwing their own celebration, Chanukah. Truthfully, Chanukah isn’t as big a deal as it isn’t even mentioned in the Torah. But Chanukah is a big deal, because little Jewish boys and girls want presents too. And getting 8, doesn’t really demand a return to original practice.
I will admit to enjoying getting these cards. It’s nice to get cards from politicos that you agree and/or disagree with. It’s fun to have on the mantle, these cards which I said at the outset were paid for by the public purse. If party hacks and party loyalists get them, why the hell not me? I appreciate getting them, slightly wondering too, what I did to deserve them in the first place. What warms the heart most, this wintry season is the realisation that some of this country’s biggest, are able to put away petty political differences and mail a little season’s greeting to a bloke who sometimes is unforgiving in this space the rest of the year.
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