… In a modest fashion, at least, OttawaWatch is returning.
The last episode occurred in February, when I reported a hiatus, so that I could take on the task of communications advisor to Senator Don Meredith.
As of last week, the Senator and I have agreed that I be released from my contract. As a result, I am back on my “perch”, in the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery.
There were several good experiences related to my work with Meredith. Among them was the opportunity to learn about the many things happening in cities across Canada, which bring together faith, community and the body politic. In the new OttawaWatch, I will attempt to tell some of those stories.
I would reiterate what I said when I began my work with the Senator – he is a person to watch. That is because he will continue to parlay the work he and other faith leaders (he is Pentecostal business person/pastor) have been doing to help dampen down youth violence in the Toronto area. That “parlay” will involve his identifying faith and community groups doing similar things across Canada.
One of the things that impressed me, in first learning about Meredith’s work, was the conflict management and resolution emphasis woven throughout the programs of the GTA Faith Alliance, which he co-founded several years ago. My own interest in the role of conflict in religious and political groups triggered a desire to pay attention to that aspect of the Alliance’s work.
* * *
There will continue to be some influences shaping the stories I hope to tell. One is the Manning Centre for Building Democracy. It was 25 years ago next month that I became involved, briefly, in a process that brought embryonic Reform Party founder Preston Manning together with the Alberta Report magazine. The latter was founded and published by Ted Byfield, now 83 and valiantly striving to complete his epic Christian history encyclopaedia.
The informal convergence of those groups created a symbiosis that had at least a little bit to do with what is sometimes referred to as a Canadian “faith-political interface”. The influence of that interface, often over-stated or, alternatively, ignored, will come to provide some fodder for the stories I hope to tell.
On September 15, in Edmonton, there will be an event to mark those 25 years. Edna and I would like to be there, to swap yarns with several hundred people who were a part of this seismic period. But that is not yet a given. Whatever, I hope to report, either close up or from a distance, some of the stories that have spun from what began in the fall of 1986.
* * *
The renewed OttawaWatch will be distributed, initially, to a list of 300 readers. My hope is to turn it into a blog or posting that would give people the opportunity to respond and interact. The technical aspects will be worked out over the next few weeks.
* * *
Something else happened in the five months OttawaWatch has been away – a federal election. Undoubtedly, those election results will also produce some stories worth telling, from a faith/community/politics perspective.
* * *
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@rogers.com.
&nbs… In a modest fashion, at least, OttawaWatch is returning.
The last episode occurred in February, when I reported a hiatus, so that I could take on the task of communications advisor to Senator Don Meredith.
As of last week, the Senator and I have agreed that I be released from my contract. As a result, I am back on my “perch”, in the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery.
There were several good experiences related to my work with Meredith. Among them was the opportunity to learn about the many things happening in cities across Canada, which bring together faith, community and the body politic. In the new OttawaWatch, I will attempt to tell some of those stories.
I would reiterate what I said when I began my work with the Senator – he is a person to watch. That is because he will continue to parlay the work he and other faith leaders (he is Pentecostal business person/pastor) have been doing to help dampen down youth violence in the Toronto area. That “parlay” will involve his identifying faith and community groups doing similar things across Canada.
One of the things that impressed me, in first learning about Meredith’s work, was the conflict management and resolution emphasis woven throughout the programs of the GTA Faith Alliance, which he co-founded several years ago. My own interest in the role of conflict in religious and political groups triggered a desire to pay attention to that aspect of the Alliance’s work.
* * *
There will continue to be some influences shaping the stories I hope to tell. One is the Manning Centre for Building Democracy. It was 25 years ago next month that I became involved, briefly, in a process that brought embryonic Reform Party founder Preston Manning together with the Alberta Report magazine. The latter was founded and published by Ted Byfield, now 83 and valiantly striving to complete his epic Christian history encyclopaedia.
The informal convergence of those groups created a symbiosis that had at least a little bit to do with what is sometimes referred to as a Canadian “faith-political interface”. The influence of that interface, often over-stated or, alternatively, ignored, will come to provide some fodder for the stories I hope to tell.
On September 15, in Edmonton, there will be an event to mark those 25 years. Edna and I would like to be there, to swap yarns with several hundred people who were a part of this seismic period. But that is not yet a given. Whatever, I hope to report, either close up or from a distance, some of the stories that have spun from what began in the fall of 1986.
* * *
The renewed OttawaWatch will be distributed, initially, to a list of 300 readers. My hope is to turn it into a blog or posting that would give people the opportunity to respond and interact. The technical aspects will be worked out over the next few weeks.
* * *
Something else happened in the five months OttawaWatch has been away – a federal election. Undoubtedly, those election results will also produce some stories worth telling, from a faith/community/politics perspective.
* * *
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@rogers.com.