Well-planned soirée may atone for party faux pas

On Oct. 28, Manitobans will once again elect the people who serve on our local school boards. School trustee races rarely attract the attention given to other elections. Yet school boards are among our most immediate forms of representative democracy.

Before asking who should be a school trustee, perhaps we should ask a more basic question:

What, exactly, are we electing a school trustee to do?

Trustees are elected to govern a school division. They are not elected to run it.

There’s an object lesson playing out to the south of us, and not exactly the one you may be thinking about.

It’s not the obvious one of “don’t elect a federal leader who has a clear history of caring about his own grievances before he thinks about the needs of his citizens,” or more simply, “don’t elect someone who is less an agent of change than he is an agent of chaos.”

No, the lesson playing out to the south of us — one likely to have an impact on U.S. midterm elections later this fall as well as the last U.S. presidential election — is that there is a clear danger in allowing dark money to fuel political campaigns.

There are estimates that political action campaigns — or PACs — will once again dump billions of U.S. dollars into the mix, funding advertising campaigns and other political campaign efforts, and steamrolling less-funded efforts.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I’m almost 40, and one of my closest friends who was jobless for three years is once again earning decent money again — but she’s still acting like she’s broke!

I don’t care how people spend their money, but she still expects me to pay for her. For instance, if we go out for lunch, she’ll ask if we can do a 75-25 split, with her paying the lower amount. She also comes to potlucks with nothing to share, and then has the nerve to ask to take food home. She will also ask me to cover something and promise to pay me back, but then I have to hound her for weeks to get the money!

But it really took the cake recently when we went to a concert and she asked me to cover her ticket. Then she bought two T-shirts at the merch table! It feels underhanded to me — and insulting to my intelligence. It also feels weird to have to bring it up to her. We’ve been besties since high school —many, many years ago. Please help.

— Taking Advantage, Riverbend

Be careful what you wish for.

The fervent desire of our Canadian sports communities to attain objectivity in processing complaints has led to the creation of a completely unregulated industry for complaint investigations.

As it stands, professional self-regulation has been criticized for operating in its own self-interest rather than the public interest.

But now we have a new Independent Third Party (ITP) industry which operates without licensing or oversight in carrying out its duties relating to reviewing and conducting investigations into athletic complaints.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: Recently, a new couple with no children moved onto our cul de sac, and everybody is taking notice! This attractive pair with no kids both drive amazing cars, work from home and leave their garage doors up a lot. Everybody on the street walks by to sneak a peek into the big garage at just about any time of day.

Lately, the man’s been out on his front lawn in a muscle shirt in the late afternoon, planting shrubs and putting up stylish fall-themed ornaments. At night they often leave the living-room curtains open. That makes for convenient viewing for curious neighbours like us!

A few days ago, my wife invited the new couple over for a barbecue and swim in our pool. They are really nice people, but mentioned that other people nearby have been pretty stand-offish. They wonder why. Should I tell them it’s probably just jealousy over their beautiful vehicles and enviable lifestyle, or should I just shut up?

—Wanting to Help, Sage Creek