As I write this, our youngest son, Nathaniel who is just completing a Masters degree in public policy, is being interviewed for a position as an intern with our provincial government. One of the questions he will be asked is: “Describe a recent situation in which you took the initiative.”
Nat’s prepared for this one. After graduating from university with degrees in English and Political Science, Nat worked as a drummer, a drum teacher and, for the past four years, as an arborist for a company called Northern Tree. The owner and other crew members of Northern Tree are also musicians. It’s a sweet set-up.
Nat has always been passionate. When he was six he was passionate about gemstones. He bought himself a pair of fake ruby drop earrings that he wore everywhere. His siblings pleaded with him to take them off – at least in public, but Nat has never feared censure (public or private). Later he became passionate about dinosaurs; about the poetry of the first world war (the war in which my grandfather, after whom our Nathaniel was named was killed); about drums and in the last four years about environmentally responsible arborism.
Recently our provincial government brought down a budget that would kill our province’s Dutch elm disease program. The cost of the program is $500,000 a year. American elms are significant in our part of the province. We were the original bald prairie. 130 years ago when Regina was founded there wasn’t a single tree in the muddy bog. Now there are 350,000 trees in Regina and many of them are American elms and hence vulnerable to the elm bark beetle that spreads the fungus that causes Dutch elm disease and kills trees. Parallel situations exist in Saskatoon and in a number of smaller centres in Saskatchewan.
Somehow this one line in the budget missed public scrutiny, but Nat saw it and a week ago, he wrote a passionate and well-argued rant against the government’s short-sightedness. He emailed his argument to government members, friends, family and, most importantly, members of the media. This week Nat was interviewed on CBC Saskatchewan discussing the cut in the program; his boss at Northern Tree took a film crew to an area close to the city to show how real the threat to our trees is. Our local paper sent a reporter and photographer out to photograph Nat on the job and to talk to him about his concern. He made page 3 and the picture was large and flattering.
Today our local paper had an editorial urging the government to re-think their decision. I hope they will. I also hope Nat gets his internship, but even if he doesn’t, his family is proud of him.