Last week I found myself engaging an old acquaintance of mine on Facebook who had an enormous positive influence on my daughter Darlana during those often-turbulent teen years.
Ed Cole, a former RCMP officer in Red Deer, was then the commanding officer of the Red Deer Sea Cadets, where my daughter excelled for more than five years. His skilled direction and guidance on my kid's young life is an important reason why she is the amazing young adult she is today.
Ed and I have not always seen eye to eye. He is staunch law and order sort of guy and a proud right-wing conservative. I, on the other hand, am loyally liberal, one who considers Pierre Elliott Trudeau the greatest prime minister Canada has ever had, an opinion that elevates Ed's fiery passion to unprecedented levels.
But Ed and I have grown to accept each other's perceived foibles, and there is a measure of respect between us. We may have our political differences, but that is just stuff, not at all important when the time comes to properly acknowledge the characters of good decent men.
For much of this mostly sunny summer, Innisfail and its citizens have been fixated on the controversy over the town's plan to relocate the community dump beside the Westwood Court Mobile Home Park. (There has also been much discourse over the town's new Taxi Bylaw, which the scribbler finds surprising as it's an excellent sensible initiative but that is for another column.)
While a clear majority of citizens in town, both inside and outside the park, are vehemently against the proposal, council members have not noticeably wavered from their original position that the plan is the best option for the long-term needs of the community.
As I wrote in an editorial last month, the dump relocation plan is just simply the wrong move for the town, done with inadequate research, and worst of all, made with the blunder of not properly consulting the 230 residents of the mobile home park before moving forward.
Mayor Brian Spiller had been the lightning rod for much of the public anger on the issue, which is scheduled to go to an open house in late September when its expected the town will unveil its findings into a proposed alternate location for the new dump.
What must be said is that Spiller has, under difficult and trying circumstances, handled the controversy with remarkable poise and maturity, especially when considering he has only been mayor for less than a year.
With this scribbler, he has not ducked a single question fired at him. He has returned every phone call. And when we chat, there is even room in the conversation for a joke or two. Certainly, Spiller has not been perfect throughout this story but his efforts to engage the community through its newspaper must be acknowledged.
What is more important is that two people can agree to disagree, take care of business and move on. Today, I have Ed to thank for my own awakening on this issue.
I won't be signing any Conservative Party memberships soon, but today I can still smile when I think of Ed. He is a constant reminder the hearts and souls of good men always come through when it counts most.
