NATIONAL BASKET CASE

BELL wants to be a good citizen.

It supports February 9th as some kind of national mental health day.

The full page ad in the Globe today tells me so.

Unfortunately, it also tells me that "One in five Canadians suffers from mental illness."

This is not true.

There is no scientific or even pseudo-scientific evidence to support this absurd claim.

Think of all the people you know, the people you've met, the folks with whom you interact on a daily basis.

No doubt there are some among them who struggles with a mental illness.

But 1 in 5?

I don't think so.

Why are the so-called social sciences so slip-shod?

If you want me to support a worthy cause, try at least to give me some real and supportable documentation.

At the very least, give me a number that my good instincts can accept as reasonable.

GROUP GROPE

There are so many reasons that I have declined, over the years, to run for public office.

Privacy. Boring company. Tedious meetings, hearings.

But way up there at the top of the list is this reason:

Ethnic Voting.

I am interested in public policy, in what useful and helpful roles governments might have in the lives of the common weal.

The color of your skin, your choice of worship, your sexuality are completely none of my business and I don't want to hear about it, thanks.

If I were to run for office, I would not suddenly court "the Jewish vote." Or any other group that wants to claim special status to the exclusion of any other group that claims special status.

Of course, this naive and unrealistic position would guarantee that I would never be elected.

Today's headline is a disgusting case in point:

South Asian votes key to leadership races

Liberal and NDP candidates are aggressively pursuing support from a community that will play a major role in many of the province's ridings, with varying degrees of success

I know. You don't have to yell at me.

Fighting this insidious nonsense is about as productive as complaining about cell phones and texting.

It is simply not in my range of acceptability that you or I should vote for Avtar or Bennie or Bruce because he or she is Sikh or Jewish or gay or purple or green.

But I am not very bright and that is why it's a good thing that I don't run alongside all the honorable candidates.

SHAW TV SHOW EPISODE #3

The two videos below comprise our third show on SHAW COMMUNITY TV.

Retired Justice Wallace Gilby Craig shares with us his unique assessment on how we are managing law and order these days.

This is not for the faint of heart or the nodding traditionalist.