{"id":129,"date":"2019-08-12T12:30:07","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T15:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=129"},"modified":"2019-08-22T22:05:43","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T01:05:43","slug":"meet-nancy-mercier-who-was-prevented-from-visiting-our-sweet-little-sackville-by-a-handful-of-unsweet-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2019\/08\/12\/meet-nancy-mercier-who-was-prevented-from-visiting-our-sweet-little-sackville-by-a-handful-of-unsweet-citizens\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Nancy Mercier who was prevented from visiting our Sweet Little Sackville by a handful of *unsweet* citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"

Ms. Nancy Mercier, Beaus\u00e9jour MP Candidate for the People’s Party of Canada (PPC)

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bonjour Madame Mercier)\/Hello Ms. or\nPastor Mercier:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make an informed voting decision, \u201cBambi\u201d started doing its homework educating herself on political parties in the spring\/summer of 2018 (way before the October 2019 federal campaign). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 27, 2019, you were supposed to come\nto Sackville, NB, to the Painted Pony Restaurant (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/paintedpony99\/<\/a>) for a \u201cMeet\n& Greet\u201d dinner-event. A large number of people were interested in getting\nto know you and your new party\u2019s platform\/ideas, including myself. As far as I\nam concerned, I was highly motivated to meet you for two main reasons. First,\nto learn about you as a person, after reading your inspiring story\/bio (https:\/\/pastornancymercier.com\/about<\/a>) which started\nwith the following words:  \u201cIn January\n1995, Pastor Nancy Mercier had a Near-Death-Experience (NDE) caused by a broken\nneck or spinal cord injury from a serious car accident, which resulted in\nsevere and permanent paralysis or quadriplegia (C5 level)\u201d.<\/em> Second, I was of\ncourse curious to see who is the Beaus\u00e9jour federal candidate with the People\u2019s\nParty of Canada (PPC) established by Mr. Maxime Bernier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, your Meet & Greet event in\nSackville was cancelled at the last minute because a small group of fellow\n(\u201cfascist\u201d?) citizens threatened the restaurant in question and prevented the\nevent from occurring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get to know you, Bambi and her spouse\ntravelled miles away to Shediac where a successfully well-attended Meet &\nGreet event took place the next day. I recall having met around the dinner\ntable a DIVERSE group of people from all sorts of backgrounds—both\ndemographically and intellectually. How refreshing to see this sort of\ndiversity for a change ?. The group talked about many topics of interest in\nboth English and French. We exchanged stories and ideas. We talked about the\neconomic platform of the PPC (great ideas, I find). We talked about other\ntopics, including the sad story in Sackville. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought to myself: What a lady Ms. Nancy Mercier. You handled the situation with leadership and intelligence. I personally admired how you talked about your political competitors, for a lack of better words. You had words of respect and compassion for Mr. Dominic Leblanc (after all, we held our meeting in his stronghold). I like your attitude. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cunsweet\u201d group from my town wrote on\nsocial media platforms that you were homophobic. I learned that you marry gay\ncouples. How ironic. I discovered a woman FULL of ENERGY! Bambi was happy to\nspend a fun evening with enriching people. What a loss for Sackville \u2639.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I am interviewing you to share with\nthe readers of Bambi\u2019s Afkar blog two points of interest to me personally: (1)\nyour resilience and (2) your political vision, as a PPC candidate in my riding\n(Beaus\u00e9jour) running with the new PPC federal party of Mr. Maxime Bernier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I appreciate your time on the phone today.\nThank you for having accepted my invitation. I will ask you four questions only.\nPlease feel free to elaborate as much as you wish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are ready, let\u2019s begin\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

QUESTION # 1 by BAMBI: <\/strong>What can you tell \u201cBambi\u201d about your resilient journey (in general since your tragic accident (i.e. your near-death-experience) and\/or currently on a daily basis?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ANSWER # 1 by NANCY MERCIER: <\/strong>\u201cWell, it has been 25 years, this coming January 1st<\/sup> that I had my car accident that caused my spinal cord injury and consequently my paralysis. From the very beginning, my near-death-experience in itself left no doubt for me that there was something else greater than what my own fear facing my accident and the resulting change in my life. I didn\u2019t really know what to think about this at the beginning. Did I cope at the beginning by thinking of God or growing spiritually? I do not know that I identified it as something related to God at the very beginning. I just knew that I had an incredible experience. It took me some time to figure out all this and to seek out information to understand my journey since the accident. Nevertheless, from the very beginning, I felt that there was a power greater than I. Of course, putting trust in in God is difficult, regardless of the nature of tragedy that we face. With life adversities, we do not have as much control as we may think. However, we have the choice to chose how to react to adversities and exert control over how we feel, behave, and act. I asked myself questions like: Do I want to understand what happened? What do I do now? How do I survive day after day? I educated myself about my injury. I learned about it and this has allowed me to regain control of my life. For example, I learned how to avoid risk by either modifying my behaviour or equipment to ensure an independent life. This was a great learning experience not just for me but also for my husband and family. I would add that I grew up spiritually during my coping journey. This has perhaps helped me understand aspects of life that we usually do not take the time to think much of, like how life is purposeful, life life\/death and the soul, etc. I strongly believe that hardship is meant to be overcome to learn from there and move on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To sum my point and answer your question\nabout resilience in overcoming hardship, I made a conscious choice not to live\nin fear or anger but rather in peace. Of course, the latter comes with good and\nbad days. Life is life; Good\/bad days are part of everyone\u2019s life. In my case,\nI learned to have faith in God. I moved on with my life and things have worked\nout by themselves with time\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

QUESTION # 2 by BAMBI: <\/strong>Why have you\ndecided to run for the PPC party of Mr. Maxime Bernier and what are the main\npoints of the PPC\u2019s platform that the citizens of our riding would benefit from\nlearning about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ANSWER # 2 by NANCY MERCIER: <\/strong>\u201cI guess my reason\nwas like Maxime Bernier: To do politics differently. His message of putting Canadians\nfirst attracted me. It resonated with me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PPC\u2019s platform will help restore democracy, sovereignty, the eroding constitution, the economy, which is in bad shape. Furthermore, his plan for the health care system(s) (a personal issue to me) will give provinces the incentives to deal with wait times and rising costs. This will ensure a better access to health care and create conditions for innovation. In addition, as a person living on the disability pension, I know the struggles and barriers that people with disability encounter. When it comes to economy, in addition to reducing the Government spending, the PPC\u2019s platform will help attract more businesses to our area by facilitating commercial exchange among provinces, by de-regulating, and by creating the winning conditions for businesses to create jobs and innovate. Of course, this in addition to simplifying Canadian tax system and cutting taxes. So, basically more money in people\u2019s pockets. All these points are important to the citizens of our riding who sadly are working harder yet for less money. Last but surely not least, the PPC brings transparency that Maxime Bernier established, by telling the truth himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond our riding and province, I want Canada\nto improve ultimately. Sovereignty and freedom are the fabric of our country. I\nwould like Canada to remain unique to what it is to the rest of the world; of\ncourse, with improvements (there is always room for that), not just preserving\nthings. I also believe there is so much to do in terms of the fragility of\nfreedom and the threat related to globalization and Islamism. If a country\nlacks freedom, there is no democracy, there is nothing left. Canada is no\nlonger the same. For me, things like our heritage, way of life, and values\nmatter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To sum, the PPC will help ensure that our\nfreedoms are restored and that the economy is doing better (simplifying the\nCanadian tax system and reducing taxes, removing regulations, not meddling much\nin business). This means increased prosperity\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

QUESTION # 3 by BAMBI: <\/strong>Where do you dream\nto see Canada in the next 5 to 10 years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ANSWER # 3 by NANCY MERCIER: <\/strong>\u201cI dream of a\nCanada that is stronger, freer, and with more prosperity. That would be\nabsolutely the goal if we form the next government. Not just for 5 or 10 years.\nThen, it would be for the next 25+ years. In that sense, this is my dream. I\nwould add to this maintaining our country, restoring what is lost (e.g.,\nfreedom), respecting the constitution the country is founded on with improvements\u201d.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

QUESTION # 4 by BAMBI: <\/strong>Any concluding\nwords for the citizens of Sackville who were prevented from meeting you in\nSackville? Or to the handful of citizens who acted in a non-democratic\/legal\nway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ANSWER # 4 by NANCY MERCIER: <\/strong>\u201cI will answer this question with our platform\u2019s values: Respect, Fairness, equality, responsibility (Ms. Mercier is referring to PPC\u2019s values of Individual Freedom, Personal Responsibility, Fairness and Respect). I have respect for the citizens. So, in the context of what happened, I respected the citizens. I decided not to pursue further and not to make a complaint (to lay charges), although what happened is illegal under Canada Elections Act (risk of jail time even). We did not go down that road as we immediately realized that the owner of the restaurant refused to host our event because of fear. We decided to give a chance to other ways to let people know about us and about our platform. Maxime Bernier is coming to the area and he plans to come to Sackville. We are working on this, although no fixed date yet. I will also come to the Fall fair on September 25th<\/sup>, 2019. I plan to host a rally, with or without Maxime Bernier (ideally with him, added Ms. Mercier; Bambi allowed herself to agree by nodding ?). I have also accepted and invitation to a debate at Mount Allison University on the evening of October 3rd at 7 PM (previously posted as October 7). We did not get the full details about the event yet, just the invitation. However, I heard that only the Green party candidate and myself have accepted the invitation\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we have reached the end of our\ninterview. Many thanks again, Ms. Mercier, for your time, clarity, and\ngenerosity. All the best to your campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a conclusion to this post, someone\nasked me when Sackville became home for us if I minded small towns. I remember\nhaving replied jokingly: I love small places; I was born in a small country\nand\u2026 I am small myself ?. More alarmingly though, what I mind the most in life\nis the small-mindedness rather than (geographical) smallness per se.  \n\nThis being said, best\nwishes to our big Canada!\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bonjour Madame Mercier)\/Hello Ms. or Pastor Mercier: To make an informed voting decision, \u201cBambi\u201d started doing its homework educating herself on political parties in the spring\/summer of 2018 (way before the October 2019 federal campaign). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sackvillesmemorialpark"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions\/180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}