What's new in the zoo
So a lot has happened since my last post, which happens when I don't write for like 6 months. Tricia found a job and now lives in Edmonton, so problem solved! Its in her emergency management field and just a 10 minute walk away from our apartment. She just moved here about 2 weeks ago actually. She has only worked there for 4 days so far, so its a little too soon to say if she loves it, but it has potential.
The Wildrose Alliance lost the election, which means things are a little more stable in the Government of Alberta as change will be less chaotic. For a while it looked like we might have to move to BC or back to Ontario if they won, since it would be intolerable and I may have been out of a job of course. But, they imploded and the more reasonable Alison Redford Led PC's were re-elected. Although, I still dig the NDP of course, I actually don't mind working in the Civil Service for Redford. She is more of a Red Tory and not a Conservative like Harper, Rob Ford, or Tim Hudak. She cares about policy, and thinks that government can actually play a meaningful role in people's lives, so I respect her and it is encouraging for me as a policy guy and shows that the work I do may actually make a difference. It could be a really interesting 4 years, so hopefully the Wildrose will be kept at bay.
The job is going well too, it was well worth the move to Alberta to live out my dream as a policy geek. My job involves reading about what other jurisdictions are doing and writing briefing notes about it, go to lots of meetings and listen and talk once in a while, work on outcomes-based performance measures, analyze gaps in our policy, etc. I absolutely love it, except when I have to construct a table with 50 projects or so, that kind of sucks, but is useful in the end. Learning lots as well. Great team to work with.
So things are pretty stable now, the Alberta experiment may be a success, its unfortunate in some ways, which means I won't likely be moving back to Toronto or BC, but Edmonton is a decent place and having a meaningful and rewarding profession is what we all stride for in life isn't it?
I would give it another year or so to be really certain if we aren't moving. Once we pass the point of no return we would likely move into a bigger place so there is always a guestroom for people to visit. Now that Tricia is here we will start making plans to finally get married as well, sometime within the next year I think. So all is well, especially now that winter is over, that lasted a while!
The Wildrose Alliance lost the election, which means things are a little more stable in the Government of Alberta as change will be less chaotic. For a while it looked like we might have to move to BC or back to Ontario if they won, since it would be intolerable and I may have been out of a job of course. But, they imploded and the more reasonable Alison Redford Led PC's were re-elected. Although, I still dig the NDP of course, I actually don't mind working in the Civil Service for Redford. She is more of a Red Tory and not a Conservative like Harper, Rob Ford, or Tim Hudak. She cares about policy, and thinks that government can actually play a meaningful role in people's lives, so I respect her and it is encouraging for me as a policy guy and shows that the work I do may actually make a difference. It could be a really interesting 4 years, so hopefully the Wildrose will be kept at bay.
The job is going well too, it was well worth the move to Alberta to live out my dream as a policy geek. My job involves reading about what other jurisdictions are doing and writing briefing notes about it, go to lots of meetings and listen and talk once in a while, work on outcomes-based performance measures, analyze gaps in our policy, etc. I absolutely love it, except when I have to construct a table with 50 projects or so, that kind of sucks, but is useful in the end. Learning lots as well. Great team to work with.
So things are pretty stable now, the Alberta experiment may be a success, its unfortunate in some ways, which means I won't likely be moving back to Toronto or BC, but Edmonton is a decent place and having a meaningful and rewarding profession is what we all stride for in life isn't it?
I would give it another year or so to be really certain if we aren't moving. Once we pass the point of no return we would likely move into a bigger place so there is always a guestroom for people to visit. Now that Tricia is here we will start making plans to finally get married as well, sometime within the next year I think. So all is well, especially now that winter is over, that lasted a while!