The Social Life and Times of Public Figures

Reading the morning news as I always do, I saw one of the headlines screaming something about how Toronto’s mayor was taking a vacation.

Aside from it being none of our business – and it isn't all that uncommon during the holiday season to take a holiday – this got me thinking about how invasive technology has become, especially to public figures.

Granted, those in the public’s eye have always been chased, hounded and even stalked by the media. But thanks to technology, now anyone with a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop or other mobile device can instantly dig up dirt on anyone – famous or not.

You can Google, tweet, friend, follow, fan or foursquare anyone these days. And in the case of the latter, you can show up where someone is, to snap a photo for Instagram.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford hasn't had a lot of success with the mainstream press. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with his policies or politics, there’s no question that he isn't very media savvy. He’s rough around the edges, says what he thinks, and does what he wants despite being advised otherwise.

And he’s paid the price – the media constantly chases Mayor Ford, just waiting for that “gotcha” moment to splash all over the local and national news.

However, where and when the mayor of Canada’s largest city takes a vacation is going too far. Everyone deserves time off. It isn't as if the city, the country or the world for that matter, will fall apart because any one of us takes a holiday.

Yet we know when famous people take time off, do wild crazy things, get into bar fights, or worse – go to jail for just being screw-ups.

Not that the life and times of Lindsey Lohan, Justin Beiber, or your local city or town’s mayor really means anything to you or me.

Famed scholar and media critic Noam Chomsky calls all of this unnecessary attention in the media on famous people a distraction from the issues that really do matter.

Chomsky is right – the time we spend chasing public figures while they vacation or do whatever else they do, takes us away from our own families and friends.

And thanks to social media, it is even easier to be distracted by other people’s problems, instead of solving our own.

Maybe that’s why we take so much time to fan, friend and follow people that we really never really know – because it distracts us from the harsh reality of our own lives?

Happy Red and White Day Canada

This weekend, on Sunday July 1, we Canadians will be celebrating the birth of our country.

  

I love Canada Day – people wearing red and white, cars with mini Canadian flags on their antennas, Canadian flags hanging from balconies and on flag poles outside people’s homes.

We Canadians are a lucky lot. We live in the best country on earth. We really do.

We have a free, democratic society. Free access to a great health care system. And for the most part we are liked internationally by other countries across the globe.

We worship the beaver, the moose, and Don Cherry’s ramblings on Hockey Night in Canada.

We love to bitch and moan about the lack of Canadian content on television, but then we boast about going to see the latest Hollywood blockbuster.

The language police clamp down on all things Canadian in Quebec– unless they are in French. Then we laugh and joke about how it is typically Canadian to even have people policing language in this country.

Our cities and towns are clean, safe and we are always friendly and courteous.

We still haven’t found our unique Canadian identity, but that’s uniquely part of being Canadian. We are always searching for what it means to be Canadian, in the shadow of the giant the US of Eh, eh?

We are known worldwide for having among the best beers and wines in the world – some of the world’s best wines come from Niagara Falls, ON.

And some of the most famous celebs came out of Canada – Pamela Anderson, Jim Carrey, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy, Avril Lavigne, and Shania Twain.

This Canada Day, I'll be celebrating our nation's birth doing what we Canadians do well -- cooking raw meat with fire -- I'll be BBQing burgers and other BBQ treats -- I'm dying to taste one of my new recipe home made chicken burgers on the grill.

 

I'll be watching fireworks at sunset with friends, enjoying some grilled meats, and thinking about the wonderful country we live in.

However you enjoy your weekend, from far and wide around the world, enjoy your own celebrations with family and friends.

 

Happy Canada Day!