T have a question for you, requiring a simple yes or no answer. Get your dusty old think- ing cap on, because here it comes. Do you know who your MLA is? If you answered “no” to this question, thank you for your honesty. You can go back to your latte now and forget all about this column. However, if you answered © “yes” to this question, now "you've got to put your money . Where your mouth is and ~ actually name your MLA. OK, so'I don’t have any real way of knowing whether you got the follow up ques- tion right or wrong, but I'll tell you what. If you're any-_ - thing like the dozen people I chose to ask the same ques- tions of, more than half of you don’t know who your “MLA is. So what? _ Obviously some people are interested in politics and some ‘- aren’t. I’m one of the ones who aren't. I believe it’s genetic. Some people are born believers, while others are born skeptics. I fall into the latter category. The sad truth is, 1 trust politicians about as much as T trust commissioned salesmen. And that feeling has translated into a lack of inter- est in politics in general. I was reminded of this late last week when the RCMP announced that it was press- ing charges against our former NDP premier Glen Clark. Immediately our Internet radio/TV station went into a state of hyperactivity. Dozens of phone calls were made to locations all over the province to glean insights from all kinds of important political pundits. “Glen Clark ...” | mused out loud to no one in particu- altars lar, “Wasn't he the guv with the bloodshot eyes and the bad-ass group of friends?” “Very funny Shannon,” snapped our news director as he pounded out the story on his computer keyboard like a concert pianist. He was so fired up about the news of the scandal that he was practically panting. “This story is huge.” I shrugged, and launched my search into the affair, scan- ning my memory and the media archives for information on the players involved. When we interviewed the political science professor from UVIC on the Glen Clark scandal I was mildly interested, but what I really wanted to know was, had he seen my son, who's a first-year student at UVIC, and if not, would he mind checking in on him for me as he hasn’t TPR aE TUE tna ah called home in over a week. After an hour of hashing, and rehashing the political scandal, I understood the story. But when I met some friends for a drink after work and they asked me if there was anything interesting that happened that day, what stood out for me was the fact that we finally got a lire fridge for the office so now we can have real milk in our coffee instead of that horrible white powder they’ve been trying to force on us, Later that evening, after secing and hearing more news coverage on the Glen Clark scandal than I ever needed to, I began to wonder whether I’m unusual in my lack of interest in politics or not. And when Chrétien announced the federal elec- tion shortly thereafter and the Wednesday, October 25, 2000 —- North Shore News - 21 livinaroo iever in politi papers filled up with yet more political bunk, I got down- right depressed. The media obviously knows its audience, so if they’re bombarding us with all this political stuff, surely the majority of us like it. Am I some kind of oddball that I find most of it cither boring or annoying? Of a dozen intelligent peo- ple I asked, only nwo knew the name of their MLA. Three people volunteered right off the bat that they did- n’t know, and merrily went back to practising their golf swings, and the other seven who thought they did know, couldn’ actually name their MLA. Some confused their “Matisse GS MLA with their MP, but of those, three blamed the drink. Others simply turned away in disgust. When I asked my little sur- vey group how much time they spend reading about or listening to political news, almost all of them said “very little,” except around election time, when they feel they have- a responsibility to be informed. And even then it’s a chore. Which tells me this: I may be a lonely non-political sot at work, but at home, I fit right in. 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