To daydream believers, speeches are all good
THE HAPPY WANDERER — Surrey-White Rock MLA Gordon Hogg put a positive spin on the sometimes mind-numbing nature of speeches in the B.C. legislature: Turns out that monotonous rhetoric might actually be good for us.
“A recent Harvard study has found that our minds wander, even from the most demanding of tasks, at least 30 per cent of the time,” Hogg told the house.
“You may even be experiencing some of that mind-wandering right now. Fortuitously, we are not unique. Daydreaming applies to everyone — not just to members of this legislature.”
Studies also show that daydreaming allows people to explore creative solutions to problems, he said.
“This information gives me great solace. It means that those rare moments when we’re not totally fixated on every word of our colleagues might be those moments when we are actually designing solutions for a better world.
“So if you’re not paying attention now and if you’re bored, then I may be unwittingly motivating you to explore thoughtful solutions to your more pressing issues. I know many of you, with your speeches, have motivated me with the similar opportunity to contemplate pressing issues, and I am forever grateful.”
CLASS DIVIDE — The NDP’s Adrian Dix singled out Gladstone Secondary in his Vancouver-Kingsway riding for special praise — and managed to goad West Vancouver MLA Jordan Sturdy in the process.
“One of the many things that Gladstone is justly famous for is its world-champion robotics program,” he said.
“The Robosavages are the New England Patriots of B.C. robotics, except that they always, always follow the rules.”
Indeed, three of eight B.C. teams qualifying for the world championship in Louisville, Kentucky, hail from Gladstone.
Dix noted that Gladstone’s program has been so successful that it’s become a model for other schools — even those from tonier neighbourhoods.
“Last year, for example, the Robosavages brought three West Vancouver students to the world championship to show them how it’s done,” he said.
“This year, two teams from West Vancouver will join Gladstone’s three at the world championships. As my MLA colleagues from West Vancouver know, any time Vancouver-Kingsway can give a hand up to West Vancouver is a true win-win.” EDITH HITS 100 — NDP MLA Nick Simons covered off three special days with one introduction last week.
Noting Wednesday was International Women’s Day and B.C. Book Day, he paid tribute to one of his constituents, Dr. Edith Iglauer Daly White. She was a Second World War correspondent who covered U.S. first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and wrote for the New Yorker magazine, often covering Canada.
She later married a B.C. fisherman and wrote the best-seller Fishing with John, published in 1988. She still lives in her own home on the Sunshine Coast. Simons also wished her a happy 100th birthday, which fell on Friday.