Words, Their Meanings and Misunderstandings

There are people who really wish I would not run in this municipal election and who, if I do run, are very determined to ensure that I do not succeed. Most of them I have never met in person - however, they are comfortable screenshotting my tweets and doxxing me in hopes of having ammunition to use against me should I run. They are comfortable discounting my qualifications, as an example putting "economist" in brackets. Economist isn't a title I have just applied to myself, it's one that I've earned - via graduate studies in economics (I hold a Masters of Arts in Economics from the University of Victoria) and professional experience including more than a nearly two decades of experience being an economic consultant, teaching economics and working as an economist for the provincial government). 

Recently, some have really liked to disparage that I have commented that the current development environment in Victoria today has some parallels to colonialism. Others point to a previous blog post I made, where I recognized colonialism caused harm (particularly to Canada's first nations) but also was a part of our history, and a part that brought economic development and improvements to standards of living for many. 

For some, colonialism is the term used to describe the most reprehensible parts of our past. The parts that sought to extinguish other cultures and that justified racism and abuse - the parts that very much so should be denounced as we work towards actual reconciliation. It is not a general term for many people but is much more specific for them and is similar to the Holocaust - it refers to a very specific period of Canada's past that dispossessed the original inhabitants of their territory and enabled them to be replaced with settlers. The reprehensible parts of Canada's past deserve a much more specific term, or alternatively, the general term needs an appropriate replacement because it needs to be talked about - as it isn't something that is purely parked in the past and no longer happens in a variety of other ways.

My use of the term historically has been in this general way - in the way that the Oxford dictionary defines it and as follows:

noun

1. the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

Would I wish my words to cause hurt? No. Do I think that people need to be able to express ideas and have conversations: absolutely. Twisting meaning that isn't there and wasn't intended is a tactic used when a person wishes to silence another. My use of the term "colonialism" has presented an opportunity for those opponents to twist meaning from what was intended into something that is toxic and illustrates the struggle many have with wading into public life to begin with.