Cynicism is an incredibly tempting belief system. It gives you the freedom to dismiss any and all other groups that you don’t agree with by simply assuming that they’re all driven by selfish motives. It lets you ridicule and disapprove of anyone who has the gall to work towards a better world, instead of joining in with them to help. It’s an easy path to a feeling of superiority that’s based on absolutely nothing.

And we all have a weakness for cynicism. It’s a part of our human nature, and it takes effort to resist it. You have to choose to invest people with the trust that they will try to do their best, even when you are faced with an example of their worst.

And it isn’t a one-time fight. What I’ve realized, and what I think a lot of my peers are discovering as well, is that you’ll face the lure of cynicism at every new stage of your civic engagement. From spectator, to new recruit, to seasoned veteran, and eventually to leader, you’re repeatedly challenged by the small number of people setting a bad example for everyone else.

Eventually, you have to accept that there are always going to be people acting against the common good in any given scenario, but you cannot use this as an excuse to give up on the rest of us. Instead of allowing the selfish to steal away your passion and commitment, you have to focus on the wonderful and caring people around you, and give them the same support that they’re giving you.

There should be hockey all over the television right now. I should be waking up to last night’s scores and highlights, but I’m not. Instead, I have to watch dour predictions and explanations of an incredibly boring labour dispute. Forgive me for being low on sympathy, but I don’t care which incredibly rich group of people is on the right side of the disagreement. All of my sympathy is reserved for the real victims of this lock-out: the arena employees, the hospitality workers, the hard-working regular folk who depend on the NHL season for their livelihood. The overall economic impact is massive, and will create considerable suffering and hardship for people who are innocent bystanders.

We’ve all grumbled about the lack of hockey, and I’ve heard talk of boycotting the league when play finally resumes, but take a minute and think about that. The only people who would feel the effect of that kind of boycott would be the same ones suffering now.

Here’s a better way to protest the lock-out: take your business elsewhere. Take the money that you had planned to spend on NHL hockey and hockey-related activities and instead, pump into your local economy. There are a wealth of other, great entertainment choices right in your own city, and they would all love to see you come through the doors. Don’t worry about showing the millionaires (and billionaires) that you’re displeased with them. Go have a good time in your own neighbourhood.

As a rule, I try to stay out of provincial politics, because I’m not smart enough to fight a 3-front war. I barely have the cognitive capacity to fret over Federal politics, and when I lump municipal in to the mess as well, I have trouble remembering what meeting I’m at and for what reason. But I’ll make a temporary exception to give my take on the current contempt discussion going on in the Ontario Legislature.

Background: Last year, the Liberal government cancelled/relocated 2 gas power plants that were under construction, in response to the local residents demands. One was in Oakville, the other near Mississauga. And since the initial contracts with the construction firms were being changed, the government had to negotiate a settlement with the firms to compensate them for the changes. As of last week, the Mississauga negotiations were complete, and the Oakville negotiations were underway.

The opposition members demanded that the details of the Oakville contracts be revealed publicly, even though revealing them would compromise the negotiations, most likely costing the province a considerable amount of money needlessly. The Liberal government offered to release the documents privately to the committee who had requested them. The opposition refused, even though this would have given them all of the information they needed to do their job.

It’s important to distinguish that the government did not intend to withhold the documents indefinitely. This wasn’t a case of trying to hide the cost of cancelling, it was about trying to get a fair negotiation before publicly releasing the documents.

The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly gave all 3 parties a deadline of Sept. 24th to come to an agreement on the release of the documents. And on the 24th, after the  negotiations had finished, the documents were released, fully and publicly. That should be the end of it, but the opposition is determined to continue pressing for a contempt motion. And, ironically, by refusing to stop chasing a flimsy contempt accusation, the opposition is bringing all other business in the legislature to a halt. While they yell and lecture, all other work stops. No bills, no debates, no question period.