Closer to The Heart
And the men who hold high places
Must be the ones to start
To mould a new reality
Closer to the heart
The blacksmith and the artist
Reflect it in their art
Forge their creativity
Closer to the heart
Philosophers and ploughmen
Each must know his part
To sow a new mentality
Closer to the heart
You can be the captain
I will draw the chart
Sailing into destiny
Closer to the heart
Closer To The Heart by Rush (1977)
I heard this song on the radio yesterday and I thought this would be a great slogan for a political campaign. In an era where the majority of us don’t trust politicians, where marketing/spin dominates, where every word coming out of a politician’s mouth has been vetted and checked against the polls – a politican that could get close to the people and make politics about the betterment of things.
New Brunswick is declining. Across the board. We are more dependant on taxpayer dollars from other provinces than we were ten years ago. We have the first sustained population decline since Confederation. On just about every economic indicator we are well behind the national average and slipping further. And to add insult to injury, PEI and Nova Scotia have beat us in almost every economic category in the last few years.
And the anecdotal stories that I hear reinforce this decline. Most of Northern NB is reeling. Saint John continues to struggle. Fredericton, well, Fredericton is Fredericton. Moncton is doing well by Atlantic Canadian standards (it is still growing far slower than cities in the fast growing regions of Canada).
And the government continues to micromanage and pick away at the issues as if that was bold and aggressive action to tackle the provinces. $8 million over three years on R&D. Wow. One new rural call centre. Wow. We are focused on e-Learning in New Brunswick (the e-Learning industry has collapsed in the past five years). eNB will bring the benefits of the Internet to all New Brunswickers (we have dropped from 7th to last place among the provinces for households connected to the Internet in the past five years).
So with this as the backdrop, I proffer Rush’s intro lyrics:
And the men who hold high places
Must be the ones to start
To mould a new reality
Closer to the heart
Make it personal. Dying communities is personal. Communities dependant on welfare – is personal. Declining industries like the forestry, fishing and mining – this scares people – they worry about the future of their towns.
Stop friggin’ around and give these people some reason to hope (outside the optimism of Moncton and the airheadedness of Fredericton).
Bring it closer to the heart. And the people will vote for you, I guarantee it. People are ready, I think, for a hard dose of reality. If a politican said that Northern New Brunswick was dying. People would agree. Saying that the ‘Prosperity Plan’ is working doesn’t do much for the many areas of this province that are not very ‘prosperous’.