By Lloyd Mackey (with assists from Deb Grey and Barack Obama)

AS PROMISED, OttawaWatch begins this week with an excerpt from this year's Mel Smith Lecture at Trinity Western University.

By way of background, the late Mel Smith was a constitutional advisor to several British Columbia premiers who, in his "spare time" taught constitutional affairs at Trinity Western. Smith's archives are housed at the university. The Mel Smith lectureship was set up a decade ago in his honour, and, subsequent to his death in 2000, in his memory.

Previous lectures have been delivered by, among others, broadcaster Rafe Mair, Reform party founder Preston Manning, federal Indian affairs minister Chuck Strahl and former Alberta premier Ralph Klein.

This year's lecture was delivered February 5, by Deb Grey, long time former Reform, Canadian Alliance, Democratic Representative and Conservative member of Parliament.

I have chosen to excerpt a part of the lecture that deals with her time teaching grade four at a reserve school in Frog Lake, Alberta. That means I have Grey to thank for writing half of OttawaWatch, this week.

She introduced the lecture by talking about people leaving their "paw prints" on others' hearts, by being able to be, in turn, learners and teachers. Her illustration was a story taken from her Frog Lake experience.

So here goes -- complete with story-telling cool-oquialisms:

You've all had teachers who think they know everything, and even when they don't have a sweet clue what it is they are talking about they'll try and hoodwink you. They need to learn -- we need to learn -- how to learn before we teach.

The best example of that was when I started my career teaching grade four. I am a high school English teacher by trade, but Indian Affairs offered me a position at Frog Lake Reserve, to teach grade four.

Whoo, my! That was an experience, because many of the kids in the class did not know how to read yet, by grade four. And that put me in a bit of a pickle, because I didn't have a clue how to teach them to read-I was a high school teacher. But I remember thinking, "If I want to teach, somehow I need to connect with these kids."

So I asked, "What can you teach me, before I teach you?"

They said "Come with us, Grey Eyes (they called me Grey Eyes), come with us!" Away we went, down to the creek. I started there in late April and by the time I learned every kid's name it was early May and the crocuses were starting to come out and they said "Come with us down to the creek!"

And I said "What are we going to do?"

"We're going fishing!"

"Cool!" Except they didn't take any stuff with them. So I put a sign on our classroom door: Gone Fishing." Imagine, a brand new schoolteacher. I can't believe I was still hired. So away we go, down to the creek on the reserve.

The ice had just melted and that creek was freezing cold. We're all around the side of the creek and one little kid pulls up his pant legs and bends down into the creek. And you see a fish coming and whippee, there goes a fish and lands on the bank. Pretty cool. We didn't need worms, we didn't need a fishing pole, we didn't need hooks-we didn't need anything. That kid just hucked a fish out onto the land.

So I said, "That's good, that's really good." Another kid gets in and does it. And you know what's coming, don't you?

"Your turn, Grey Eyes."

"I'm not sure I can do that," I said.

"You told us you wanted to learn something," they said. "We're trying to teach you." What could I do?

Now this will be fun. So, I see it coming, and they said, "Okay, now!" Whipp- oh, totally missed it. But they say to me, "Do it again." Ready, here it comes, I see him, whipp, ohh but I felt he was slimly and cold, they said "Do it again!" so the third time, and I'm thinking I could be here all day and the superintendent's probably coming! So this time around, the fish comes and whippee, it lands on the bank!

And you know what? I went crazy, and so did those kids. They all went nuts and said, "We knew you could do it!" I caught a fish with my bare hands, and guess what? They paid way more attention to their times tables and reading after that. Why? Because I wanted to teach, but I learned how to learn. I knew that I had left my paw prints on their hearts and they on mine, even yet. We leave those paw prints on people.

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Grey had some nice things to say, both about her political mentor, Preston Manning, and Stephen Harper, her legislative assistant in her early days as an MP.

* * *

Last week, her former staffer hosted President Barack Obama on Parliament Hill. And there was fair evidence that the two men had many moments when they were demonstrating their teachability as much as their respective leadership skills.

The first came when Harper greeted Obama under the Peace Tower. The prime minister immediately offered to accompany the president back out, past 'The Beast' (the presidential limo) to a bulletproof glass that had been set up in the tower's archway. About 1,500 people were waiting in the cold to cheer the president if he appeared. They were not disappointed.

Harper gestured Obama into centre spot, then stood back, smiling slightly more shyly than the president and waving slightly less vigorously. He behaved, I thought, like both a gentleman and a gracious host, giving his guest what both he and his audience rightly deserved.

I know that some of my colleagues interpreted the scene somewhat more negatively than I did, with respect to Harper's behaviour and body language. They suggest that the prime minister acted reluctantly and awkwardly. I don't agree with their interpretation.

I attended the press conference addressed by Harper and Obama and could not help but note that the theme of collaboration kept recurring. (I am sure that anyone who has written a book about Harper with "collaborative" in the title would have noticed what was being said.)

So, having obtained an electronic transcript of the press conference, I did a quick search, using words like "collaboration", "co-operation" and "joint action". The results produced 14 references, and more would likely have shown up if I had broadened the search with more synonyms.

* * *

Shortly before the Obama Ottawa visit, I received another electronic copy, this one containing the new president's remarks at the Presidential Prayer Breakfast in Washington. It had taken place on February 5.

Without drifting too closely to what might be described as baseless syncretism, Obama provided direct or indirect reference to the sacred writings of seven religions -- Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian and humanist. In western civilization we identify those stances as the Golden Rule -- "do unto others as you would be done by."

Here are Obama's remarks -- with my thanks to him for writing most of the other half of today's OttawaWatch:

But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.

We know too that whatever our differences, there is one law that binds all great religions together. Jesus told us to "love thy neighbour as thyself." The Torah commands, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow." In Islam, there is a hadith that reads "None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." And the same is true for Buddhists and Hindus; for followers of Confucius and for humanists. It is, of course, the Golden Rule -- the call to love one another; to understand one another; to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth.

It is an ancient rule; a simple rule; but also one of the most challenging. For it asks each of us to take some measure of responsibility for the well-being of people we may not know or worship with or agree with on every issue. Sometimes, it asks us to reconcile with bitter enemies or resolve ancient hatreds. And that requires a living, breathing, active faith. It requires us not only to believe, but to do -- to give something of ourselves for the benefit of others and the betterment of our world.

Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006), More Faithful Than We Think: Stories and Insights on Canadian Leaders Doing Politics Christianly (BayRidge Books, 2005) and Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW Press, 1997). Lloyd can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.

February 26/2009