Go to article index for other editions of Bob Orrick's IN RE (In the Matter of).
Incompetence in the Extreme
By
Bob Orrick
This space has referred to 'incompetent' or 'incompetence' on several occasions over the past year. Each reference was based on either personal observation or professional knowledge of the subject. In all cases, the crime of committing an incompetent act can be judged to be severe depending on the nature of the incident. For example, a person who fails to lock the shop when leaving for the night, with the result that a person inspired by dishonesty enters the shop and robs something of value, can be and should be termed incompetent.
Two dictionaries referred to by this space are The Oxford English Reference Dictionary and the Gage Canadian Dictionary. The Oxford describes 'competent' as: properly qualified or skilled, adequately capable, satisfactory, effective. The Gage states: able, fit. Add the prefix 'in' and the word's meaning is reversed. I like Oxford's definition of incompetent: not qualified or able to perform a particular task or function; showing a lack of skill. Our shop employee [or owner] referred to above is an example of an incompetent person - not able to perform a particular task.
What, you ask, is all this leading to; where is this headed?
According to a front-page story carried in a late edition of The National Post, a recent copy of PureCanada, "a magazine published by the Canadian Tourism Commission to lure tourists north, includes maps that, among other gaffes, omit Prince Edward Island and Yukon Territory." There are other gaffes among the magazine's 185 pages. For this, Canadians give the private-public partnership Commission substantial funding.
The incompetence does not end with the Commission; the maps were drafted by Fodor's Travel Guides, a U.S. company that has worked with the federal commission for years. One wonders why the Commission has to go abroad to have maps of Canada drafted; surely there are COMPETENT persons in this country capable of producing quality maps that include all of Canada. In addition to the gaffes noted, provincial capital cities Halifax and Fredericton are not shown nor is the Manitoba city of Brandon. Newfoundland and Labrador is shown as Labrador, the name the province carried pre-2001. Canada's newest territory Nunavut, is spelled 'Nunavit.' Perhaps the most galling mistake for Ontario is that a large portion of the province is missing from the maps. "Northwestern Ontario, from the Manitoba border to Lake Huron, isn't referred to once." Such INCOMPETENCE!
A spokesman for the Commission said that some of the goofs were noted "before the magazine was distributed and a page of corrections was inserted into every copy that was sent out." In my book, that simply is not good enough. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy! That page of corrections did not correct the incompetence that produced maps that failed to show PEI and Northwestern Ontario.
There might be a feeble excuse - it certainly cannot be termed a reason - for the above incompetence. The Commission is a joint partnership - private and public - and it might just be that the standard incompetence that seems to be the norm in Ottawa, i.e., public, held sway over the generally more competent private. Of course, that does not excuse the U.S. company that drafted the maps.
Someone once said something to the effect that if one looks after the little things the big ones take care of themselves. In this case, the 'little' things have altered the map of Canada. Such incompetence!
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
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