It seems to
me that BC Conservative Party leadership candidate Dan Brooks, really has a way
of connecting with people. I have seem
it through my own interactions with him ... and in observing him speaking with,
and listening to, others.
The other
day I had a recent letter passed to me by an old acquaintance of Dan's. I think it speaks to the character of who Dan is
... how, if elected, he will lead the BC Conservative Party ... and from there show the leadership needed to govern our province, when elected to the legislature,
with our team of BC Conservative MLA's.
Have a read, and see what you think:
Have a read, and see what you think:
As a young man in the Scouts Canada program I experienced first hand the
great out doors of Beautiful British
Columbia. From the seat of a canoe and under the
shoulder straps of my first back pack I learned to enjoy nature and recognize
the testimony it presents of the beauty of life.
But Scouts, believe it or nor,
wasn’t always so pleasant.
Putting several teenage boys
together in a classroom or out in the wild can be quite hectic, and even
dangerous. Dan Brooks knew how to take those – so called – difficult years of a
boys life and mold them into the “bar” of his life.
On more than one occasion in my
adult life I have found myself asking; “If this were scouts, would I be giving
up?”
Three lessons – in particular –
have always stuck with me and pushed me to stretch myself to greater heights.
The first; Respect, and we never
forgot it. Second; Chap stick, thank goodness we had it. And third; “Your going
to do it, your going to like it, and your going to be happy.”
On Dan’s first scout night as our
newly called leader, he taught us to respect ourselves, girls and women, your
parents and leaders, and the out doors. The second scout meeting he taught the
same principal. The third meeting, once again; we learned respect. Every
meeting and scout camp there after we learned to respect.
I still find myself naturally
opening doors for women, looking some one in the eye when they are speaking to
me, listening when being spoken to or taught, having something of value to add,
and reporting back. A habit developed as a boy.
Second; chap stick. It’s a long,
involved story of which I urge you to ask Dan about yourself, but for me the
memory and life lesson was behind the funny experience. It happened on a cold
winter night in the shoulder deep snow between home and Kennedy lakes.
The younger scouts stayed at home lake while Dan and the rest of us broke our own trail and
headed for Kennedy – a distance of approximately 8 km’s.
