It's cold here - the kind of cold that sticks to you, that makes inhaling difficult, that freezes your eyelashes together - and so I woke up this morning glad that I finally invested in a 600-fill down jacket. It's a black, three-quarter length coat, the kind that keeps your warm from your head to your knees - imagine wearing a sleeping bag, and being grateful for the insulation. This type of outerwear is expensive, and cost more than I've ever spent on one item of clothing -perhaps more than I've ever spent on one item of anything, save for a computer. I justified the purchase because a) I live in Canada and b) if I didn't get it this winter I would just need to get it next winter, so I might as well get it now and get more seasons out of it.
In any case, I was wearing it this morning and my mum saw me in it and made the following comment:
"The government should buy everyone one of those coats."
I smiled a little bit as I thought of the entire Canadian public wearing poofy, matching coats for five months. My mum's right, of course - I get so many government cheques each year that I know they could have purchased me this coat and still sent me a certain amount of tax-rebate and living allowance money. I'm pretty certain, too, that if the Canadian government put in an order for 30 million North Face winter coats, they could get wholesale pricing. We'd all be happy, warm, little citizens who might be more apt to vote and not end up with the disaster we have right now in parliament.
And so I conclude: government-issued outerwear would be good for democracy (or if nothing else, some sort of national cohesion, which we're in need of right now).
3 comments:
I recognize that Canada is much colder than Cambridge, but I suspect that one of those coats would make me hot & claustrophobic. I do think the government should buy everyone A coat. I would like a tailored green wool coat.
Also, the government should buy everyone a bed and dinner. But I think our government is flat out of cash. I heard recently that I might be able to work in Canada with my library degree - thanks to NAFTA.
I hope Canada gets its democracy back!
While the government is fiddling with their calculators, or, in Canada's case, on extended leave of absence, I suggest these extra-warm coats to fill the time - the coats would at least help some of the bedless, dinnerless people avoid the horrible fate of freezing to death.
Come to Alberta, Sarah, the government has so much money they give it away four times a year. Of course, they're trying to circumvent the Canada Health Act with private health care, so perhaps it's best to go elsewhere.
(I hope so, too!)
I feel the need to point out that Harvard helped me buy a winter coat when I first moved to the east coast. Something like the Warm Weather Fund asked me to itemize my cold-weather needs and cut me a check to help pay for them.
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