Help Wanted - Revolutionaries!

I was looking for a pic on Google of a Help Wanted sign and found this one. Today's blog was going to be about my educational experience from taking Operation Sharings - Mayorial 5 Day Food Bank Challenge as part of their "Do the Math" promotion. I think I'll do that and a bit more.

I got a headline in the local paper "Lobzun didn't find the diet a challenge" . http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2797927
I can't say I was misquoted - Here is my press release.

 

5 days on a Food Bank Diet.

 

Other than no longer liking Tuna Casserole, the diet itself was not that much of a challenge for me. I will follow through and request to our MPP that the monthly Ontario Works benefit be increased. I still believe that it is more important for the public to know what Mayorial candidates platform on the poor and working poor is. To me this is more than a public relation exercise, rather a public education opportunity.

 

Due to page space the following was not in the paper. I understand. 

 

What I've learned. Ontario Works is a misnomer. Many of the draconian measures brought in by Mike Harris are still in the system. There are more good examples of folks that have used the system than bad examples of system abuse.  It is more important what or how you donate rather than, how much. Clawbacks to benefits for folks that work to supplement their income should be looked at. Subsidized housing favours builders and contractors. Front line workers in the system need more help in making the system work, not more administrative tasks to prove that it does. We can afford to do more at the County Level if we look for savings rather than more taxes. Poor Folks don't need pity - They need a hand up not a hand out. Folks want to help more but don't know how. The working poor have no support system. There are no advantages to being on Ontario Works other than a temporary thing. Being poor in a rural area is expensive. Oxford County council needs to add this as an agenda item.

 

According to my last phone call my quote might have been misinterpreted.

 

It's not easy living on less. In the last 18 months we as a family have done that. When my last employer saw a 90% drop in sales almost overnight they did what I would have did and laid me off. It's just business. I went to College on the Second Career program and got my first formal College Education. Finding similar work to what I had done proved to be a challenge and then I decided that if I really wanted to change things, I should either run for Public Office or start a revolution. So I have put my career on hold for now, finding work in places where many folks in my age group now go. Temporary agencies are both a blessing and a curse at times. I understand the need for them and it seems to me that governments have created an environment where full time employees are an expense or at least a risk rather than an asset to a business. But that is a blog for another day.

 

Our family of 5 likely lives on less than $25/wk each for food. We shop carefully, have a farmer friend for local beef and with 3 picky daughters, I get lots of leftovers. I like to cook and bake so we don't eat a lot of packaged meals. But I really don't help out the local economy as much as I use to. We rarely eat out and shopping is for a purpose not an event like it use to be. We are not alone and it shows up in the reduced receipts in cash registers and tip jars.

 

Me, I consider myself successful in non-monetary terms anyways. I have family and friends that are worth more to me than any physical reward I could imagine. Even met some great folks on FaceBook from across the planet that I will probably never meet in person but they are in my cache of friends as much as the ones I can hug. I get 24 hours each day the same as Warren Buffet does. I don't want one minute more. Perhaps I have an odd outlook on life. Maybe that's why I am an Odd Fellow. 

 

Me, I'd like to turn the clock back to the 70's, which coincidentally were very prosperous for us Baby Boomers. Governments were more a way to help out collectively, rather than punish individually. We had fewer regulations and rules but kept enough of our paycheques to be able to enjoy things more. We had high interest rates but housing costs were lower. Even when oil went up, we found ways to use less. Most of our utility bills were for what we actually used, not for the privilege of being served by a public/private Mega-Corp. The middle class volunteered a lot more, working parents had the neighbour down the street look after their kids or a single earner could support a family. Grandma likely had a boarder to help make ends meet and the boarder was a companion and appreciated the help to save for their own new life.

 

I think we need a revolution. We need to tell the government to get out of our lives. We need to have more in our wallets so we can choose where to spend it rather than a multi-layered administrative bureaucracy. We need housing that is affordable - not builder subsidized affordable housing. We need rules that favour landlords more than deadbeat tenants. We need a quick and fair justice system rather than longer sentences and more prisons. We need government to quit buying our votes and start serving us. We need folks in the political system that do not like the political system and will work to dismantle it from with in. We need folks to exercise their democratic rights at the ballot box and use their freedom of speech to rail against big government. We need a revolution. The alternatives are Apathy or Anarchy. I need your help. Vote for Tim Lobzun as Your Mayor of Ingersoll. We have to start somewhere.

 

Cheers

Tim Lobzun