West Wing Wednesday Night #19

West Wing Wednesday Nights

Thankful as we are for eachother’s company, work commitments require for our gathering this month to take place a week later than usual – so the call is out to all who can attend on Wednesday, October 21^st, 2009.

On the menu this time, so hard to choose amongst the tumultuous times we live in that feed our imaginations and conversations! But a few things in particular:

–       the western provinces have seen their economy double in 10 years, while Ontario and Quebec’s have progressed only by 55% – that trend is coupled by a net positive migration west – how is that changing (or not) the national conversation?

–       Piano man Harper vs. Quebec fiasco Ignatieff vs the new Queen Michaelle Jean – what is happening in Ottawa? And do we have a new scandal-in-waiting in terms of the handling of the 39B$ in infrastructure funds?

–       US health care + financial system reforms especially in the context of the sinking US dollar

–       Sarkozy’s call for a new measure as the GDP is obsolete  – what would we replace it with?

We also have a new contest (after the fun we had with the SVT): 20$ on the table for anyone who can swiftly explain to satisfaction of the assembly what exactly did Obama do to deserve the Nobel Peace prize?

Last but not least, to note a few events supported/originated by Wednesday-West-Nighters – do look them up and help spread the word!:

–       Linda Naiman has a Kadinsky-inspired Leadership through Creativity full-day workshop on Friday, October 31^st  – see 

–       Angela Verbrugge alerted us to the mass advocacy Saturday, October 24^th event, “Bridge to a cool planet” – 

–       Shauna Sylvester has an upcoming cool one day Foreign Policy Camp – an innovative hybrid conference about rethinking Canada’s role in the world – Monday, November 30, 2009  at SFU Harbour Centre 

Our succession planning, in terms of future Wednesday-West-nighters, is also going well – Candis Callison and Mark Podlasly had their (second) baby earlier this month – gorgeous and healthy – congrats to the whole family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!