As Ian Sees It

    Upsetting.  That's life here in this corner of my home and native land.  Tell you what.  My province is not just beautiful in the three months of spring and summer we receive.  It is full of good and decent people.  Neighbours who help you when you need it.  People who smile and greet you.   Educated people who work hard.  Kind people who give their time to help those who need help.  Volunteers who work thousands of hours a year simply to make their community a better place.  Conservative people who are all those things I just described.  But recently we have busted our butts convincing the rest of this wonderful beautiful country that the opposite is true.      Albertan's are not dumb.  But I think it has been proven repeatedly that even smart people can be more than a little naive when it comes to having  A) Their ego stroked,  or B) Being convinced that they are being used.   ...

   It's our day.  Father's day.  For fathers like me, that is pretty well everyday.  I realize not all fathers have had the experience I have had.   I know choices come with consequences.  I was in a job for a very long time that had me doing some things to which others shy away.  But the job gave me some things that are really worth having.  There is no such thing as a life without pressure, or challenges, or worries.  But I had a good paying secure job that afforded me a decent retirement at a fairly early age.  And all I had to do was get to that age.     A cops life isn't constant danger.  It isn't overly exciting and it isn't glamorous or romantic.  It is often staying up long long hours.  Spending endless nights driving around alone.  (Singing at the top of your lungs to the radio, or doing interviews with the press about the game winning drive you have day dreamed.)  The routine is often int...

   I was raised by a practical religious man in a kinda normal house.  My dad was a veteran of the second world war.  He fought in France, Belgium, and Holland and was wounded twice.  Sometime during those days of constant fear and action, he promised God that if he was spared he would be a good Christian and raise a good christian family.  My Dad was a promise keeper.  While I am proud of his involvement with our church,  I have come to realize I am more proud of the life he led outside the church.  He put every effort into walking the walk.   And in reality,  that is what Christianity should be all about.      I was a pretty steady church goer while raising my children.  There was shift work and what not that made for easy excuses not to attend Mass on Sundays.   My better half, however,  was much much better at regular attendance.  Our children all attended Catholic school until it wasn't offere...

    Being Canadian has been very important to this family.  We have served.  My grandfather Lemual McLean was old for a soldier when he went to France.  He was in the big ones.  Passchendaele,  Vimy Ridge.  He was wounded.  He was gassed.  My dad Jack McLean was first wave on D Day, on Juno Beach.  Wounded there he escaped the capture and murder of those with whom he went into action.  But he was back....in Belgium and the Netherlands.  My service pales in comparison.  Won't say I wasn't left with some mental scars.  Some entry level joint issues that have lead to arthritis.  But in reality it was a cake walk to what members of my family have seen.  My son in Law serves as did I.  Different times have made his service a little tougher than my own.    The Canadian Armed forces have been there for the world.  I've used this quote before but a perfect description of our brave men and wo...

      It hasn't been easy being a patriot here in this corner of my home and native land for the last few years.  But that started changing last spring.  The upheaval came some time ago really.       The natural shelf life for a Canadian government is about 10 years.  So,  just about 10 years ago the Canadian voter decided it was time to move from our decade old Conservative Government to the Liberals.  We are a several party system however there are only two parties that ever formed a government.      After a decade, governments just get stale.  Every government has a plan.  And in truth most of them are good plans with the very best of intentions to serve the public.  Now they say every battle plan is thrown out the window when the first bullet is fired, but I don't believe that statement is all encompassing. Running a country is hard.  You can't control the weather.  You don't get to dictat...

     If you were to ask my grade four teacher she would tell you I was a day dreamer.  She was an honest sort and she wouldn't be telling a falsehood.  What ever the reason,  imagination,  Z.O.S.  ( Zone out syndrome), A.D.H.D.  or as Mrs. Ibbotson maintained to the day I met her some forty years later just plain lazy,  I confess my entire life I have been a dreamer.  In full disclosure this may not be a blog for everyone.        Daytime dreams take you away to somewhere freer, safer, prettier, and sometimes much much braver.  Night time dreams,  well  they aren't always as welcome as the day dream.  I have had as many dreams as times I have been asleep.  Some of them were wonderful.  Some of them were terrifying,  some of them were just plain stupid.  Stupid to the point that in the middle of my dream, my dreaming self has actual said something like "Aw that's just nuts." ...

       I know what today is:  It is the eleventh day of Christmas.  Tomorrow is the Epiphany.  Or the 12th day of Christmas and The end of the season in our house as well as many.  Our interior was dismantled and stored on January 2nd, but I do leave the exterior of the house decorated and lit up until January 7th.  I am first to admit I have trouble letting go of Christmas.  But life goes on and this Christmas was so good.  So wonderful.  It is time to move on.  And with that,  new developments internationally have garnered a good deal of my focus.         My politics are no secret.  And lord knows I have no head for business.  I do have some concerns about what we see happening in the world,  and perhaps equally disturbing,  at home: It's been better than a couple of days since America saved Venezuela and countless Americans from the horrific drug trade.  So why is it alm...

    It is just two weeks to the day and we are at Christmas Eve.  Tell you what,  I have always liked Christmas eve better than Christmas Day.  I think the peek of the anticipation comes then.  Christmas Eve?  You have arrived.  When she was five, my granddaughter told me I was nuts, Christmas day was way better cause Santa came and you could open presents.    A goodly number of Christmas traditions are practiced on Christmas Eve.  While I don't know about the European French culture,  I know in the French Canadian culture Christmas eve is the big celebration.   Tourtiere, meat pies and wine,  breads and cheese.  An evening of games and family that culminates in midnight Mass.   Growing up in my house,  there were treats and baking and shrimp rings and egg nog.  We would watch the 1951 movie SCROOGE which has been on t.v. Christmas eve as long as I can remember.     It was crazy in our ho...

 We got past Grey Cup and American Thanksgiving.  And far be it from me to pass over a chance to bring up that the Saskatchewan Roughriders are the Grey Cup Champions...... but I digress..... Tomorrow is December first.  There are no more hurdles or barriers between my favourite time of the year and me.   We are small town folk.  I grew up in Drayton Valley, Alberta. Population 4000 for almost the whole  time I was a resident.  My first posting was Pelly, Saskatchewan population 300.  There isn't even a detachment there anymore.  My better half was a city girl until we tied the knot.  Since then the largest place we lived was about 20,000.   When you're a kid in a small town, there is nothing better,  and I do mean nothing better than the big city department store toy department at Christmas.  The Bay, Simpson's Sears, Eatons.  All were huge four story department stores in downtown Edmonton.  The decorations were...

 Well it's been a while.  Almost half a year and for that I am truly sorry.  Truth is my blog seemed to go the way of the Bay.   There is a bevy of reasons that I haven't been keeping up on the blog front.  Well, excuses really.   But instead of giving a long long list, why don't I just try to do the honest thing and tell the truth.   When I started writing a blog, I basically did it pour moi.  I just liked to sit down and rant a little about the things in the world I loved, and didn't love so much.  To recognize some of the people in my life who have done great things large and small, famous and ignored.  To vent a little about the loneliness of being a liberal thinker in a solidly conservative environment.   It was therapy.   I discovered I loved writing and it gave me a safe place to do it.   What happened way back when was I somehow developed a following.   People actually read my stuff and I shamelessly began to ...

   Since I lost my original blog According to Ian a couple years back, (We all know that story) I have tried very hard to stay away from my unpopular political opinions.  Well.... unpopular in this neck of the woods for certain.  I tried to make As Ian sees It more family friendly.    It doesn't really matter cause I lost pretty much all my followers when I moved to Blogger.  As hard as that is on one's ego, I always did say that the blog was therapy I needed.    And I need this.  It is time to get a little political.  So here goes:     I think we all have seen what political interference exists in this era of the world wide web.  And I don't believe for one minute that the interference exists only on the one side of this polarized paranoid rabbit hole we Canucks have followed the Americans down.  I hate political interference be it from Russia, China, USA, or Conservatives.    But I especially hate it ...

   I married into an Irish Catholic family which means I will never be short of family almost no matter where I go.  It is pretty cool actually.   On my inlaw side,  when you include the people my wife's siblings have married, it goes something like this:  I have 10 brothers in law, 10 sisters in law, and I think 31 nieces and nephews.  We are going to Halifax this year to a wedding that will welcome number 32.   And in spite of the fact I can't remember what I had for breakfast, I know all their names.  And through the years, I have managed a little alone time or couple time with almost all of them.  Those are the best times.  You get to have conversations and explore the interests and humour of each of them.  Those personal moments leave you feeling like you have made the family connection.  Having a huge family is pretty freaking cool.  Tell you what,  most of those nieces and nephews have families of their ow...

 I guess I should almost start with a big "Hello"!  It has been a while.  The weather got better.  There was lots stuff going on in the world and at home.    And those of the golden years know that we are as distracted as we are busy.  And then there is the whole "Who's reading this anyway?" vanity thing I am kinda ashamed of.   The ego thing.  How much better would the world be without it?   But it's been two months and some stuff has gone on that I would like to touch on.  Some of it is old news now, but hey!  So am I.    We are home from Paris for almost a week now.  I have to say that I don't know if there is anything better than travel.  But such a statement calls for specifics.  While I love a road trip.  Well, a road trip in good or decent weather in a comfortable well maintained vehicle,  I have to say that the whole flying thing is not a pleasant experience.   I truly did miss ou...

   Today the Prime Minister asked the Governor General to dissolve parliament and call an election for April 28th 2025.  On April 28th I will spend most of the day on a jet with Carol and our oldest Granddaughter.  We will be on our way to Paris.  The city of lights.  Our granddaughter  is finished University this year and being a few years older than the other 10 people who call us Granny and  Grandpa we have the means and the health to do this for her now.   I have never been to Paris.  I am so excited I can hardly contain the inside squirm.   And being the lonely Liberal here in this corner of my home and native land,  I shouldn't really have to worry about an election the day we go to Europe.  But if you think Carol and I are going to forego our vote because it doesn't matter anyway,  well I can only assure you you are wrong.   Voting in a Canadian general election has never been more important.  Mostly ...