No gerrymandering in Canada. Boundaries are set by the aggressively non-partisan Elections Canada.
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But then how does a politician decide which voters he gets!?
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He doesn’t choose his voters. They choose him. It’s called democracy
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I’m confused. Rather than a billionaire buying your elections, the people pool their own money to determine the winner?
(Sudden realization of where I am and that I’m thread drifting.)
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Our system is simple. The people vote to choose their representative rather than billionaires buying the rep.
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Sounds very old fashioned.
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To get us back on topic, my most recent linkedin post on the topic of Trans Visibility Week.
Today is the start of Transgender week of Visibility. I’m on the record that I think, on the whole, that visibility was a trap for transgender people, because the community reached out to try to educate people about our needs and our struggles, and instead of empathy we were met with hate, derision, and elimination.
But I’m also not going away. In a month I’ll likely be going to my last CAS meeting for several years, but that’s not going to mean that I’m not going to continue to be a transgender actuary. It’ll be harder, I’ll get to do less networking and see friends and acquaintances less, but I’ll still be here.
Trans people exist, we’ve always existed, and we will always exist. You can make it harder for us to succeed for a year or even for a generation, but we’ll always be here and we will outlast the hate.
My hope is that Canada continues to be welcoming to you. I don’t foresee a change in attitudes here under a Liberal government but the Conservatives are a bit Trumpy these days.
Would like to meet you in person one of these days!
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I trans writer who I follow on linked in as started a series of interviews with trans people across America about how they are dealing with life under Trump. The first two are about a trans man in the military and a trans woman in Arizona that is leaving for Cambodia.
Link to his profile where the series will be hosted is here: medium.com/@leocaldwell
Home from Toronto – it was nice to catch up with a lot of friends/acquaintances, Hockey Hall of Fame was fun and nicely done, and the sessions were mostly pretty good with maybe a little too much focus on AI in the general sessions.
I’m going to miss going to these, I hope there is a future where I get to be in the room for these again, but that seems a distant hope right now.
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Are there CIA-sponsored meetings you could attend? Or go to some Ottawa Actuaries’ Club events?
I don’t know how much you have been able to network with CAS actuaries in Ottawa but I can suggest a few names offline if you are interested.
Alan
I signed up to stay in the loop with the OCCA, so that might be a part of it going forward. I did go to the CIA Annual meeting last year, but probably not this year because it’s in a few weeks.
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The CIA meeting is in Ottawa this year. ….
Any chance to attend just a few CIA sessions or does the CIA still insist on paying for the whole meeting? One advantage of the SOA after I retired was they had a la carte pricing for sessions and events.
I have to pay for the whole event and extra since I’m not a CIA member. THe Spring Meeting gets 16 hours, so I should be good this year with webinars/self reading.
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Do you plan to join the CIA?
Not sure – I’d have to take 6C, and not sure I still have the energy to study for that big of an exam.
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Is there any advantage to having your FCIA if you already have your FCAS?
More employability in Canada should my current job not continue for the next 12 or so years until retirement.
June Update!
Did my annual bloodwork and everything looks fine. E at 480 pmol/L and T at 0.6 nmol/L, both well in the normal range.
I got a gender affirming chronic pain condition, as I’ve developed trigeminal neuralgia, a pain condition that mostly impacts women once they get around 50 where you get a streak of pain shooting across your face (we are talking 8-9 level pain, easily the worst thing I’ve ever experienced) any time I touched my face or ate, drank, or smiled. Medication has controlled the pain down to the 3-5 range, and this attack seems to be subsiding (it comes and goes where you get an attack for a few weeks, then nothing for months or even years).
Vacations coming up with Niagara Falls for Canada Day and then 2 weeks at the lake later in the month, so I’m looking forward to that.
Hope everyone is having a good of a summer as possible!
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