Running for a good cause...

(Simulcast with FC blog)

<--- Photo taken this morning on my street, after I've finished my run.

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Sometimes, some good causes literally come at your doorstep.

I join a 5km run, a fund raising for our neighborhood hospital. I was treated there a few times, ditto for my mom and my dad at one time or another.

The funniest part is that the "race" (not really one. You can walk the entire length and it's ok) runs... on my street!! Talk about Mr. Opportunity knocking at my door.

It is also the weekend of many marches and support manifestations going on throughout the city. For instance there's the walk in support of HIV/AIDS victims... and again for more funding.

I used to be part in that march the other year, but I can't be everywhere, so I figure that for this year, my hospital will get my support.

Once a militant, always a militant, I guess. Even if I've calmed down quite a bit with age.

It was quite a crisp Sunday sunny morning. Barely 7 Celsius... or the mid 40s Fahrenheit for our US friends. Brrrrr!!! Where's Global Warming when we need it?

So you have that incentive to run... if for anything else... to keep you warm. :)

It was quite a festive run... and people along the way cheering us. And the "runners" are of all age, from children to mhhh... some very young at heart fellows, I might say!

Since my home is close to the finish line... once it was over for me, in no time I was back home.

I grabbed my digicam and took photos of my fellows running on my street, still on their way to the finish line!

It may sound odd to people outside Canada who are aware of the reputation of my country, supposedly big on its social safety net...

That's also our drama.

If things were really going well, there wouldn't be a need for a fund-raising event like the one I've been this morning.

Our governments (plural, both the fed and provincial governments) have cut funds drastically, in order to break even in their finance...

... and as anything governmental would dictate, there are inefficiencies... and it is never _there_ which the cuts go through, but they are always passed on to *essential* services to the population.

We see our American neighbours complaining about the cost of health care. Be happy that you *DO* have services in the first place!

Here, we have to wait, and wait... or there some specialized services aren't even available. There's an increasing number of Canadians who have to cross the border and pay *CASH* to your hospitals, and not the wealthiest. End of digression.

So, the way to make up (partly) for these funding cuts are those fund raising events like the one I've been this morning.

Which is an irony. The government runs on our money. It is our money that funds hospitals (and schools, etc...). And on this morning, it is again our money that is going to the neighborhood hospital.

Am I missing something? :)

Cheers,

-E