What do you Actually Do, Ralph?
We are into a new political season, and potential candidates seek me out to gain perspective and insight into this job.

“What do you actually DO, Ralph?” is a common question. Well, a lot of my time is taken up with personal issues concerning constituents – increasingly so, in fact.

But at the policy level, it occurred to me just now that a pretty good snapshot of the stuff I am thinking about, and collecting information about, lies in that scattered pile of folders spread across the floor of my study at home, each with a pink or orange sticky note identifying the contents.

Here’s the inventory of the current stuff on my floor, as reflected in felt penned sticky labels, in case your are curious about the narrow life of an MLA:
  • Coast forest
  • Sail around the world
  • GVTA
  • BC Bearings anniversary
  • 911 emerg Columbine
  • HOG: Home Owners Grant
  • Streamside protection
  • British Pacific Properties
  • BCMA dear Jack
  • LDB margins study
  • Blood
  • Seniors
  • Mammograms
  • Olympics
  • Meth
  • Med schools docs
  • Kiwanis Court
  • Infection control
  • Village Park Royal
  • Rev. Gouws caring ministry
  • RCMP ball
  • Mountain biking
  • Chartwell seniors centre
  • Welfare by the numbers
  • Sea to sky highway
  • Children and familes
  • Safe streets
  • Tourism
  • Passenger rail terminal
  • Cap College
  • Ferries
  • Merchant Navy
  • Health – Marty
  • Biotech
  • Pharma
  • Merck
  • Pfizer
  • Grouse Mountain
  • IFC
  • BC Securities Commission
  • West Van Foundation
  • Capilano Sky Walk
  • Housing
  • Hydrogen
  • Coal
  • Schools
  • Economy
All this stuff buzzing around in my head may explain why I sometimes seem distracted. Bear with me. I will sort it all out somehow. Who said this job would be boring?
 

[top]

Links to other stories:
• Report from Victoria
• Edgemont Liquor Store: Open Letter to Constituents
• Reorganizing Vancouver Coastal Health Authority
• Christensen on Campus - The Education Minister Tours West Vancouver Schools
• Are B.C. Tuition Fees Out of Line?
• My Letter to a Constituent Regarding B.C. Ferries
• $10 Million for Textbooks
• Friends - Party at the Peak
• Harvest Day, Edgemont, 2004
• Squamish Nation Real Estate
• Seniors Accommodation: Kiwanis Court Renovated
• Repairing the Capilano River
• Coho Festival Album
• Mean Spirited? 157 Steps to Otherwise
• Park Royal Hotel: Demise of a West Vancouver Icon
• Grandkids Report
• Rich Coleman, Solicitor General
• The Affordable Housing Crisis
• First Shipments from Pine Valley Coal
• Jimmy on the Economy
• Bear Stories - a Report from the Front Line
• Pat Bell Updates the Mining Task Force
• What do you Actually Do, Ralph?
• Contact us
• September 15, 2004 MLA charges shipbuilders smeared -- Sultan says shipbuilders here are skilled
• September 14, 2004 Thumbs Up -- Vancouver Province
To receive Ralph's newsletter, please .
To remove yourself from Ralph's newsletter, please .

If there are any problems or comments that you would like to pass along about this site, please send an
email to . This site is administered by Solarwinds Multimedia Productions Inc.
and maintained by the West Vancouver-Capilano Association of the B.C. Liberal Party