She deserves it
Work in Progress/by Ivan Morgan
There is growing public support to name the new high school in Paradise after councillor Elizabeth Laurie, who died too young last year of cancer. I absolutely add my voice to that chorus. In fact, I’ll go further. If the new school isn’t named after her it will be an outrage.
I knew Elizabeth a little and always thought she was a terrific person. I can remember her once, many years ago, asking me for political advice. Back in the day I wrote a political column for another publication, and she wanted to see what I had to say about the idea of her throwing her hat in the ring. I told her I was all about it. She believed there should be more women in politics – as did I. Go for it, I said.
She ran, and she won. I followed her career. She’s been called a trailblazer in a male-dominated arena, which she was. But she was so much more. She was a person with a good head on her shoulders. A compassionate person who looked out for her constituents and had an eye on the future of her community.
At the time of her passing she was serving her fourth term on Paradise Town Council.
Do we need more women in politics? Absolutely! However, I have worked with enough female politicians to understand that women can be just as vile, self-serving, two-faced and hypocritical as any man. That doesn’t mean I am against the idea, it means we need more people like Elizabeth Laurie.
Her name needs to go on the new high school. She had a vision for the future of her town. She guided its future. She helped it grow. A school is by its very nature the incubator of the future. What better role model to all students – especially female students – on what intelligence, compassion, decency and good old common sense can achieve? It wasn’t just that she was a woman politician. It was that she was a good politician.
Her life was cut short at the ridiculously young age of 44, but I saw a long and storied career in politics ahead of her.
What would her future have been? She’s not here to ask me, but if she was, I would tell her to skip the cesspool that is provincial politics (or maybe she is what they need). I would have advised she run federally, as it would have been better for her and in my opinion better for the country. Would she have wanted to spend so much time away from her family? Probably not. Provincial politics needs more people like her – it sure needs something. Speculation is a Mug’s game; the sad truth is we’ll never know.
What I do know is young people need to know about Laurie, who she was and what she stood for. What better way than to name the high school after her? Most of the schools I attended were named after old men I never knew anything about. This new school should make a point of keeping her memory alive.
The mayor of Paradise was quoted in this paper as saying he had formally requested the school be named after Laurie and they responded with policy. I looked up the provincial school board’s school naming policy and it’s as unnecessarily verbose and complicated as you would expect it to be. Let’s keep things simple.
To my mind the mayor’s mistake was asking. He, and the people of Paradise, should tell the provincial government that’s what they want. In fact, this growing powerhouse of a community should never ask the provincial government for anything. They should tell government what they want. It’s their school which they are paying for and should be able to call it whatever they want. To hell with the hoops drafted by the provincial board for people to jump through; just bloody well name the school Elizabeth Laurie High.
So there.
When I was talking to someone about this column they jokingly suggested a school should be named after me. What a great idea! A lasting memorial to pipping off and smoking all manner of things behind the gym.
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com