Last week’s miniature cabinet shuffle might not seem to be making momentous waves in the canals of power in Ottawa--but perhaps it should.
This move, along with the vaulting of backbencher B.C. MP John Duncan into the role of Minister of Indian Affairs, has secured five top-level federal cabinet positions for B.C. This makes for some pretty heavy representation in cabinet for a province that only makes up some 13.3 per cent of the nation’s population, a distant third in terms of the most populous provinces behind Ontario and Quebec.
One might have thought that the bouncing boy from Calgary, that indomitable doughboy Stephen Harper, might have chosen to stack the cabinet ranks with like-minded denizens of Wild Rose Country. But that would be too obvious for Harper--he’s no fool when it comes to negotiating the minefield of Canadian minority government politics. In fact he’s proven himself to be quite the Slippery Pete when it comes to dodging opposition salvos, adept at slipping into Rideau Hall for high tea with the governor-general (with a side of prorogue), and acting ruthlessly with party dissension and private faux-pas. And all the while still managing to find time to enrage the Opposition into paroxysms of ineffectual bluster, sparking a barrage of fetid wind to buffet the government side of the House with more hot air than a chili cook-off.
Still, Alberta isn’t really getting the short end of the political stick. At roughly 10.9 per cent of the national population, four cabinet ministers--one of which is the prime minister--isn’t half bad. Just look at Saskatchewan, who only rings the cabinet bell with the Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz. And Manitoba isn’t about to start being accused of hogging up cabinet either, with one minister. And forget about the Yukon and the Northwest Territories, although Nunavut has managed to slip one past. As for the rest, well-- they’re in what we collectively refer to out here as “the East” as though it conjures up images of some mysterious Marco Polo-like fantasy land where silks and spices abound. All the same, it has long been the complaint of “the West” that “the East” tends to understand us about as well as a dog would understand Latin.
Which goes a long way towards explaining why the current incarnation of the Conservative Party has had such trouble winning the hearts of the people of “the East”. The Conservative Party has morphed into the western party, and traditionally that is something that “the East” has always been uneasy about, as though giving them free reign might usher in an era of unsophisticated hillbilly-ism, pick-up trucks, rifle ranges and tractor-pulls, as well as a passion for foam-fronted, mesh-backed caps and overalls. It is a sentiment that has seen many of the western protest parties fail to soften the steely posterior of eastern political domination.
Trying to straddle the cabinet gap in this country is a lot like trying to walk a tight-rope across Niagara Falls--fraught with dangerous pitfalls  and crowds of oohing and aahhing provincials making noise at every misstep.
We’re a lot like Hugh Maclennan’s classic Canadian novel Two Solitudes--only today the solitudes are the West and the East, not Quebec and Ontario. It has much to do with what the Australians used to call the “tyranny of distance”. We are a vast country, with widely different backgrounds, and often only limited cultural contact between respective geographical areas. It is something that can often breed prejudice and elitism,  The contrasts are sometimes exaggerated, and sometimes they are not. The truth is, in many fundamental ways, we are not very much different from each other. It is how we view each other, with all of the stereotypes and the false assumptions, that exists to bar the way towards progress, even reconciliation. Especially political progress.
Which brings us back to our five cabinet ministers in British Columbia--one newly minted. A word of warning to Stephen Harper: Although not padding the pockets of his cabinet with another Albertan might have him coming out in hives at his own cleverness, just handing it off to another Westerner doesn’t really obscure this touchy bid of ballyhoo from the average gerrymandering-conscious Easterner. For them, it’s just another western riding, just like to us their isn’t much difference in our mind politically from the Gaspe Peninsula or Gander, Newfoundland. And lets not forget that many of the high-profile cabinet positions are in the hands of western MPs, with the exceptions of Jim Prentice, Peter Mackay and a handful of others.
If a quiet move towards a more West-centred cabinet is on the prime minister’s mind, he needs to rethink his strategy. And he needs to do it now. Recent polls have dropped the Conservatives to an on par defensive with the floundering Liberals, and this in the lead up to a possible rumoured/conjectured fall election. Harper hitting the so-called summer “bbq circuit” in B.C. this past week might be an early indication that the Conservatives are quietly gearing up for an election campaign--as Ignatieff and the Liberals clearly are. Better try and reach more than the party faithful this time, Stephen-- and adding more western cabinet ministers isn’t going to be the answer to that equation.

Well, my first year of playing organized slo-pitch in a league has come and gone and I’m already looking to next year to recruit sponsorship and players.
Southland Funeral Chapel and Cremation Services was kind enough to be the major sponsor for us this year along with a handful of other businesses who pulled their purse strings for our team, and they must have had a lot of faith knowing a player like myself was competing on it.
I have some natural athletic ability, having played baseball until I was 18 years old and not being the ninth player in the batting order that you hoped to God the other team did not hit the ball to when I was in the field. I’m semi-coherent at the game, but found slo-pitch to be a whole other entity.
I found myself continually anxious to swing at a ball that was coming at a much higher and slower trajectory than I was used to playing baseball. Despite an ample six-foot-two, 210-pound frame, I was constantly pounding the ball into the ground swinging too early. At that point in my swing, my hips are already over extended and I was just using my arms. It was very frustrating at times  knowing I could rip my share of doubles into the gap in my baseball days.
Patrolling the outfield, I sometimes went against the very thing I’ve taught local ball players in the past, of your first one or two steps being back when tracking a ball. My logic is it’s much easier to run in on a ball than it is to run back and the worst thing you get for being over cautious is a single instead of a triple or in-the-park home run if the ball goes over your head. The flight of a softball is indeed very much different than the flight of a baseball in the outfield.
Factor in letting myself go from my youth in that I now have the speed on the basepaths of Roseanne Barr with a pulled hamstring, and let’s just say if they made a Taber Mixed Slo-Pitch League all-star roster, my name likely would not be on it, except for maybe comedy relief. And in a way, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Don’t get me wrong, I marvel at the guys and gals that are fantastic at slo-pitch. Most have the all-star disposition for fun as well, I just don’t like the players that have the attitude to go with it.
Before signing up for the team, I made it clear I was doing it for fun. It was a chance to drink a few wobbly pops, share a few laughs and get some resemblance of fresh air and exercise.
I’ve shot enough slo-pitch over the years to know that a few take it far too seriously. If you play at the level of say Jeff Zanolli for Team Canada in his recent Border Battle televised game then fine take it seriously, that’s the highest level of slo-pitch you can compete at and you better be taking it seriously.
But playing in a league where many times players’ slugging percentage with their consumed beers is triple the amount they have with their bat, some need to lighten up. Screaming at a BS  close safe call for the grandfather with two arthritic hips legging out an outfield single does not add to the enjoyment of the game. Neither does siting Rule 48, subsection Z-4 on the field when your team is up 31 runs.
I want my mixed slo-pitch to be mixed with equal parts booze, witty small talk at any base with the opposition batting or in the field, and athletic exploits of a guy far past his prime.
So if you like your slo-pitch like I do, the Southlanders are currently hitting the recruiting trail for players and extra sponsors.
Lucky candidates will get to see me blind the opposition with my milky-white legs as I run the basepaths with the speed of your garden-variety sloth, flash the occasional strong play with the glove and perhaps with the help of a masher like Jeff Zanolli, turn my hitting from mediocre to simply average.....and I’ll still have a big smile on my face.
Having played numerous sports in my youth and having coached youth sports here, I am not going to deny hoping the Southlanders had finished a little higher in the standings besides second-last in the “C” division. But with how friendly and fun the participants were in the “C” division, I wouldn’t have traded that for everything.
In the playoffs we had to have an automatic out because we did not have enough women show up. But as some surplus guys sat the bench, there was members of the “A” Team telling us to get on out there and play the vacated outfield position playing with only nine players. That was Grade “A” sportsmanship. Against the rules yes in which we politely refused, but really, it was the third-place game for the “C” division......and we were all too busy smiling to care.