By Lloyd Mackey

EDNA and I got our H1N1 flu shots at 2:45 Sunday afternoon.

More to the point, our vaccinations came with a minimum of fuss, muss and waiting.

And full credit must be given to the people that federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says should be getting it.

What she says, in effect, is that the feds have delivered over six million shots, to date, to provincial health bureaucracies. Those shots, in turn, are being put into peoples' arms by local municipal nurses who have been recruited from their regular jobs, into the vaccination program.

The nurse who jabbed me usually spends her working hours in the Ottawa public school system, providing health services to high school students. And, I should add, I did not even feel the needle.

The process of getting our shots was a textbook example of queuing theory that any high school math student would be able to understand. No six-to-twelve-hour lineups, here. And no credit was given, during the great Monday night emergency debate in the House of Commons, by the local Ottawa-Vanier Liberal MP, Mauril Belanger.

Of course, there was no point in Belanger agreeing with Aglukkaq. That would mean undermining Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff's Commons contention that the federal government opposite had "failed miserably."

And we need to be careful about faulting the Liberal leader for being negative, as well. After all, that is his job -- at least one of them. As leader of a government in waiting, he needs to reduce his own waiting time as much as possible. And one way to do it is to exploit the occasional stories about jab waiting times in city vaccination clinics across the country.

But people who want to encourage collaborative governance in a minority parliament must feel some of Industry Minister Tony Clement's frustration, especially when he pleads with his opposition counterparts to "work with us" on keeping the message clear and focused.

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So what was our story?

Edna had been reading the Ottawa papers closely in her due diligence search for the best way to get our vaccinations. We were marginally at risk, with pre-existing conditions which mean that we should be careful to keep our respiratory systems in the best possible shape.

So, at 7 a.m. this past Sunday (November 1), we headed to Parc Richeleau in Vanier, the historic French-speaking neighbourhood, to the west, between our Beacon Hill condo and the Parliament Buildings, where we spend our working days.

Park Richileau is a pleasant enclave a few blocks off Montreal Road, the street which usually takes us from home to work. It is a former seminary which was operated by the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) Roman Catholic order. There are still some signs of the past -- a statue of the Virgin Mary at the entrance and a prominent cross atop one of the handsome brick buildings.

Outside the largest building in the complex -- which, today, serves as a multi-purpose community and meeting centre -- two white tents were set up. We joined a dozen or so people waiting at one tent entrance. We were soon ushered in, given numbered wrist bands and medical information forms to fill out, then told emphatically to return at 2 p.m.

Ushered out of the complex, we headed for Bytown to pretend to be tourists in the city that has been home for us for the past 11 years. We had breakfast at Cora's, a favourite local eatery, then wandered through the market, examining piles of neatly arranged fruit and vegetable displays.

It being the day after Halloween, we saw a cluster of pumpkinettes with amusingly-painted faces. The pumpkinette market having passed by nine hours, we were presented freely with one of the little guys. It now graces our breakfast table, along with some dried corn, to remind us that there are still a few more weeks to enjoy, before fall turns to winter.

We did some other Sunday stuff and returned to Park Richeleau at 1:45, where we were ushered into the same tent where we had been in the morning. Within 15 minutes, our numbers were called and we were sent into another waiting area. There we completed the medical forms.

We were done with the vaccinations, through the post-shot rest process and "outta there" by 3 p.m. precisely.

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The whole process was well-organized, efficient -- and friendly. I doubt it, but it almost seemed as if the young people guiding us through the process had been through the WestJet attendant training program.

So kudos all round. In Ottawa, at least, the locals got it right, as I expect they did in the many cities across Canada where the anomalies raised by the opposition, during the emergency debate, did not occur.

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I will wrap, today, with the mention of three November events that will capture the attention of people interested in the faith-political interface.

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The Wilberforce Weekend, set for November 13 - 14 at the University of Ottawa, will focus on lessons to be learned about political advocacy, from the story of late 18th century-early 19th century Christian activist William Wilberforce.

The proceedings will focus around the Friday evening screening of the movie, Amazing Grace, which tells the story of Wilberforce's long efforts to end the British slave trade. It has a fair amount of application related to current efforts to curb human trafficking around the 2010 Winter Olympics in British Columbia. The session is sponsored by the Faith-Political Interface initiative of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, whose website describes the event as:

. . . a national seminar to explore and enhance transformative cultural and public policy advocacy supporting people with disabilities, those chronically ill, dying, or otherwise medically at risk.

Geared toward Christian public servants in Ottawa is the 9th annual Faith@Work Forum, to be held in the board room of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper. The speaker this year is Janet Epp Buckingham, director of the Ottawa-based Laurentian Leadership Centre of Trinity Western University.

The event runs from 9:30 a.m. to noon on November 14. Three groups sponsor the Forum, the Christian Commitment Research Institute (CCRI), Ottawa Canadian Chinese Christian Professional Fellowship (OCCCPF) and Public Service Christian Fellowship (PSCF). Info is available from Michel at 819-684-1275 or Edward at 613-228-9108.

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A ground-breaking inter-faith event designed to acquaint MPs and senators with the great variety of faith groups operating in Canada, is set for Parliament Hill on November 23, throughout the afternoon and evening. The event is an out-growth of All Party Inter-faith Parliamentary Friendship group (APIF), jointly chaired by MP David Sweet and Ottawa Rabbi Reuven Bulka.

While OttawaWatch is aware that some evangelical Christians look askance at the event -- and APIF -- the activities will have the full involvement of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, which has, as affiliates, 40 Christian denominations and over 150 parachurch agencies. Other participating religions include Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Baha'i and Buddhist, among others. As well, there will be resources supplied by the Canadian Institute for Conflict Resolution of St. Paul University and the Tony Blair Project.

Other MPs working with Sweet to get politicians to pay attention to the event are Glen Pearson (Liberal, London North-Centre) and Glenn Thibeault (NDP, Sudbury). Sweet hopes to be able to add a Bloc member to the promotional roster. Speaker at the closing of the event will be Pierre Allard, former assistant commissioner for Corrections Canada, who is well known globally for his advocacy of restorative justice concepts. A former priest, he was ordained later as a Baptist minister, and has served on the executive committee of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization.

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Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006), More Faithful Than We Think: Stories and Insights on Canadian Leaders Doing Politics Christianly (BayRidge Books, 2005) and Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW Press, 1997). Lloyd can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.

November 5/2009