Nice Work if You Can Get It

That Santa Claus Parade sure was, er... was... short. That's really the best descriptor I could use. It was short. I'll be going over the highlights once I have the chance to transfer the pictures off my camera and extract the few that didn't emerge as blurred, bizarre blotches.

But that'll be for later, when I have more time available. Right now, there are other matters to deal with -- like the surprise news out of our city council today!

No, not the water and sewer hike; that one was going through no matter what anybody had to say about it.

What I'm particularly interested by is the defeat of the proposal for city councillor term limits. And even then, not because of the actual result; what I was intrigued by in this story is that anyone might even have the gall to act like it could have happened.

Did any among us genuinely expect this idea to become a reality? Not a chance, my friends! Not in Winnipeg!

I was born in 1984, and only twice across my lifetime has the provincial government changed hands from one party to another. Winnipeg, as a city, has not voted out a Mayor in the last fifty years; some retired, some stepped down to run provincially or federally, and one died (yes, really), but the last Mayor of Winnipeg to run as an incumbent and lose was George Sharpe. (If that name doesn't sound familiar to you, you must not have been around to watch him lose in 1956.) And since there are city councillors who have been on the council my entire lifetime, I have no reason to believe that voters are clamoring for change there either.

I offer this up not as a good thing or a bad thing, but just as the way things are around here. If you can grab that brass ring, chances are high that it's yours to hold for decades to come -- and all that will stand in your way are your own boredom or advanced age.

And you mean to tell me there are people amongst us who would change that? Not on your life! Hell, as far as I'm concerned, it sounds like a pretty sweet deal! If my longterm life goal of being appointed to the Canadian Senate (or, as it is known colliquially, slacker heaven) falls through, it's comforting to know that there will still be other options for well-paid lifetime employment consisting of sitting in comfortable chairs and disagreeing with people all day. Gives a man something to shoot for!

Term limits, pfft. Right. Term limits, my ass.

Better luck passing that one next time, dreamers; you and I both know the same people will still be there to vote against it!