What a week for idle gossip. As the 12:36 daily newsletter pointed out, Canadians could fill an entire tabloid with their shenanigans, from Trudeau’s blackface history, to the O’Leary boat tragedy, to Auston “Captain Underpants” Matthews. Never mind that the American President is just a step away from impeachment. And in the midst of it all, we have a 16 year old girl from Sweden howling Cassandra-like about our impending doom thanks to climate change.

 

She really gets to me, this Greta Thunberg, although she is not without controversy. The daughter of actors, she has been accused of being indoctrinated and manipulated by her fame-crazed parents, but I think that’s besides the point. Climate change is real, dangerous, and imminent, and no one is really doing anything about it. I suggested on the air earlier this week that while we, as individuals, cannot force the issue, we can certainly make our own gestures to help mitigate our damage, such as avoiding single-use plastics, cutting down on meat, riding a bike or carpooling, etc.  Just a gentle reminder that we can effect positive change in small ways.

 

Well. I received an email from an annoyed listener who suggested that I was talking through my hat, as I am in the habit of “flying across Europe on vacation,” with air travel being one of the greatest contributors to climate change. I get these emails from time to time, from people who tell me that I’m elitist, that I have no right or knowledge to talk about certain issues, that I am a privileged princess who flies across Europe without care or concern. “Let them eat cake” I say, as I try on yet another tiara, “the peasants really ARE revolting”.

 

I used to be quite defensive about this. I’ve been told by certain bosses to downplay that fact that I come from a solid middle class background, that I’m well educated, that my children went to private school, and that we live comfortably. Actually, I’m very proud of this. Both John and I made our own way: there may have been money in both our families at some point, but we never saw any of it. We both have graduate degrees which we paid for ourselves. We worked, and continue to work, hard. The kids went to public school until Grade 7, then we move them to private because they were both top students and we could afford it, if barely. We bought a house at the right time that we renovated entirely by ourselves.  Yes, we have a cottage, that we paid for and built, again by ourselves, in the middle of nowhere. And yes, we travel extensively, and that requires flying. Ironically, we go on sailing vacations, which may seem like the height of luxury, but for my sins they leave hardly any carbon footprint.

 

All to say that I’m tired of being lectured, of being told what I should and should not say, or be. I’m not going to apologize for my success. I can still relate to people who live in crappy apartments eating KD, because I’ve done that, and I still love KD. I worry about health and money, just like anyone else, and, like everyone else, I’m concerned about poor leadership, toxic masculinity, and climate change. Unlike everyone else, I get to talk about it on the radio, and that IS a privilege, but one I hope I continue to earn every day.

 

I am not a princess.

 

I’m a self-made queen.

 

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