How Voices Count in Politics with Bill Casey, our Former MP

E17:  Today’s guest on the Podcast is Bill Casey, our former Member of Parliament. Bill was first elected as our MP in 1988 and was re-elected as a member of three different political parties until he officially retired in 2019.  

I asked Bill to come to talk about how individual people can get involved in the political process. I want to start a conversation about how individual people can advocate for, and push to make the changes that they want to see in our community.  I know that coming out of the Coronavirus situation we have the opportunity to talk about and act to make the changes we want to see, or to keep things the way they were. As members of our community we have the ability to act to make this happen. But, I believe for many reasons over the last 30 to 40 years we have lost the skills, ability, confidence or knowledge on how to do this. With the Municipal Election in October of this year it's important for us to start thinking about what we can do individually.  I want to start talking about this now.

In the interview I reference the following article written by Eitan Hersh from The Atlantic about Political Hobbyists. The gist of the article is that many people, me included, have taken to watching politics as a hobby or as a sport. We are no longer willing to act and do the work of politics. This described me perfectly. I've said before it is safe for me to read online, or comment on Facebook or Twitter. There is no risk to me. I have no risk of being rejected or having my ideas challenged. But, I am also too busy doing politics as a hobby to show up at a council meeting or support a local group in actually making a difference in our community.  This article also led to this conversation will Bill.

In this interview Bill tells us about a number of initiatives that individual people in our community had spearheaded and made happen.  He helped support them as our MP, but they were community led and driven.  

These include:

• National Brain Tumour Registry
• Age of Sail Museum in Port Greville
• Return of First Nation’s Artifacts to Millbrook First Nations Community
• Saving the Armoury in Amherst
• The Historical Site at Beaubassin

Throughout the interview Bill also shares his 3 rules of how to deal and interact with the Government, how former Prime Minister Jean Chretien saved the Beaubassin Historical Site, and how his collection of buoys started.

Bill is also planning to start a blog in the near future to encourage people to get involved in politics.

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Today's episode was brought to you by:

Tony Mitchell with Royal LePage Cumberland Realty. For anyone looking to buy or sell their house contact Tony at 664-1372 or on Facebook to discuss your options right now.