I was on leave from local and regional politics as long as I was a Minister.

All politics is local.

Men enter local politics solely as a result of being unhappily married.

Local politics like everything else are not what they used to be. But the fact is that our political system - like our physical existence - still breaks down along geographical lines.

When resources are degraded we start competing for them whether it is at the local level in Kenya where we had tribal clashes over land and water or at the global level where we are fighting over water oil and minerals. So one way to promote peace is to promote sustainable management and equitable distribution of resources.

There was this mountain village in Russia where my music was getting in on some German radio station. I remember this because music used to get up to Saskatchewan from Texas. Late at night after the local station closed down.

It was like in Samoa when they'd put up a movie screen on the beach and show movies and the locals would run behind the sheet to see where the people went. It was pretty grim.

My brother Jim and I spent many wonderful summers working on dairy farms in Wisconsin owned by Mom's cousins and as members of our local Boy Scout troop.

My mom has this great skiing event in Jackson Hole Wyoming every year for a local charity.

My mom was an actress in the local Seattle theater doing experimental plays.

While 45 of the 50 States have either a State constitutional amendment or a statute that preserves the current definition of marriage left-wing activist judges and officials at the local levels have struck down State laws protecting marriage.

Not only did I get to play with these great international musicians but I also had the opportunity to jam with the local celebrities in Toronto people like the Walsh Brothers David Wilcox Kim Mitchell and the like. It was a great learning experience.

If anybody wanted to photograph my life they'd get bored in a day. 'Heres Matt at home learning his lines. Here's Matt researching in aisle six of his local library'. A few hours of that and they'd go home.

I think national issues play into gubernatorial races less than obviously in Senate and Congressional races. Much less. They tend to be more decided by personality leadership qualities and by state or local issues. They still have some effect no question about it but not as much as Senate and Congressional races.

I think what actually works best is local-level individual targeting of key leadership nodes.

When I think about the world I would like to leave to my daughter and the grandchildren I hope to have it is a world that moves away from unequal unstable unsustainable interdependence to integrated communities - locally nationally and globally - that share the characteristics of all successful communities.

I was from such a large family that when I first met my wife I told her: 'You can go work outside of the house and I'll stay home and continue making my cartoon strips. Maybe I'll make some commercials nearby you know I'll do anything locally but I would love to just stay at home and raise the kids like I did when I was growing up.'

I don't need to be asking for money for local museums and other projects just to make me look good back home.

History is filled with tragic examples of wars that result from diplomatic impasse. Whether in our local communities or in international relations the skillful use of our communicative capacities to negotiate and resolve differences is the first evidence of human wisdom.

We have wasted History like a bunch of drunks shooting dice back in the men's crapper of the local bar.

Illegal immigration is not just a matter of interest in states along our border with Mexico. It is having an effect on local economies schools health care delivery and public safety all across the country.

In this most powerful nation in the world lack of access to health care should not force local and state governments companies and workers into bankruptcy while causing unnecessary illness and hospitalization.

Pakistan needs to have decentralisation and a good local government system.

There's much more we can be doing in Parliament we could be giving more power back to people at local government level through local referendums.