Strawberry Fields

What does a riding association do when its chosen member lost in a recent election? Historically there have been numerous answers - hold fundraisers, find a leader to follow, begin organizing immediately for the next campaign. This list is correct, as far as it goes. Perhaps Liberals, and others, are discovering that times have changed and we'll never get the votes we need in the next campaign if we can't prove to our respective communities that we're worth their trust. There are still many in the party who feel that we just need to choose a new leader, develop some policy, do some fundraising, and, bingo, we're back in the game. One such individual tried to prove this point with me by holding up the NDP as an example. "Look, through a kind of political wave they got over one hundred seats and are now the official opposition, just because they were in the right place at the right time." There's an element of truth to this and you can't malign the NDP for their good fortune, but, really, is this how you want to build a political future - by chance?Here's a different example. Some folks from my own riding association attended a picnic in our back yard last weekend. A few of them started ruminating about how, with government cutbacks coming, there's going to be some pain emerging in the next few years. Then they started listing where some of that pain might materialize, especially among the levels of the poor and unemployed. In previous times they would have laid full blame on the present government and contented themselves with believing that all the collective pain about to ensue will simply make it easier for us to win the crown in four years. But that's not what happened. These folks were thinking like liberals and not so much as Liberals. If you're progressive, compassionate and patriotic, the place that is more important is the life of service rather than the halls of power. The latter will come from the former in a good society. These folks in my back yard are getting it.Mark Twain brought on many a fit of laughter when he used to say, "Always remember the poor; it costs nothing." These folks chose to put remembering aside and attempted to alleviate some pain. They placed themselves in a position to affect those on the margins of society in a most practical way: picking strawberries. It might seem inconsequential, but to those attending the London Food Bank the chance of getting wholesome strawberries selected off the fields the night before is something special. People arrived at 5 and worked until dark selecting the best berries, placed them in the waiting food bank van, and as some of you read this post the baskets will be going out to needy families.I'm so proud of these folks. By seeking to be of benefit to those they have never known, they have shown that liberalism is still alive and well. Sure, they'll get around to the other political stuff later because they know that food banks are no solution to poverty. But for now they are leading with their love for this country and its people. They are a riding with a commitment to service, as this brief video shows, and for Liberals there is no better place to begin.http://youtu.be/_50F1pX3_5k