It is nice to know that while many opposition MPs are still enjoying their winter vacations, Conservative MPs are working every day in their communities to engage in open conversation with constituents about the direction that they would like to see government lead us. Tonight for example I attended a large Town Hall meeting featuring Gary Lunn, John Weston, Nancy Greene, and two athletes who addressed their audience and took over an hour of questions from the people they represent in the legislature. The security was much tighter than the City Council meeting that I attended last night, but still no body scanners or bomb sniffing dogs. Just a lot of cops. There were no Conservative logos anywhere, not even on the questionnaire.
As soon as I walked through the front door, I was given a feedback form to fill out if I had any thoughts or concerns, and there was at least one guy walking around with a giant button that said "ASK ME" fielding questions from the crowd before the event started. Many of the people there taking notes were doing so on blackberries. I felt like somewhat of a caveman writing on my Dollar Store notepad. From what I could tell, Nancy Greene and I were the only ones in attendance wearing Team Canada shirts.
As the event began and the moderator started speaking, the first thought that I took care to write down was that the moderator is a narcissist, and I think he'd be the first to admit it. I suppose when you've been a world champion at something, it affects you. My MP John Weston spoke first. He delivered an excellent speech on the long term benefits to our community, and got a solid chuckle from the audience that he had the best reason of all MPs to stay working at his riding office for the next few weeks, with 70% of the Olympic venues being in West Vancouver--Sunshine Coast--Sea to Sky country. They estimate that 3.5 billion people will be watching, but I'm not certain what data that projection is based on.
To be fair to Mr. Weston, he is in the second year of his first term. He is a sincere hard working MP, but he needs to accumulate some more experience before taking on a senior cabinet post like Gary Lunn. I was very impressed with Minister Lunn. He is a very polished speaker and politician, and I look forward to the day when he crushes Elizabeth May. I don't know why Lizzy insists on moving to ridings to take on such formidable candidates. If her riding selection were more about the math than the perceived optics of taking down a big fish, she'd be sitting in the Commons already....but I digress.
Mr. Lunn was followed by Senator Nancy Greene. With all due respect to Mr. Lunn, Nancy was by far the best speaker of the evening. She went up to the podium with no notes and delivered a fantastic speech about the importance of athletics in our society, both in terms of promoting healthy lifestyles and the inspiration that it inspires in our youth. Athletics are the purest form of reality television where we can bring a nation closer together with heroic performances, instead of amusing ourselves by staring at train wrecks.
As we get closer to these Olympic Games where the best athletes in the world are coming to Canada to compete against our best athletes; let's focus on our athletes, on their stories, on the thousands of hours they dedicated to this country with no promise of fame or fortune. It is Canada against the World on Canadian soil. There is a reason that the Iceman packed all his worldly belongings into his car and drove from Ontario to Vancouver in 2005.
In fact the closer we get to these Olympic Games, the more I support the decision to prorogue Parliament until after the Olympics. Parliament resumes what, 3 days after the Olympics? If Bob Rae, John McCallum, Ujjal Dosangh, and Mike Ignatieff want to accuse our soldiers of committing war crimes in 2006, we can wait until March. Nothing will have changed, other than what they perceive as momentum. Is it too much to ask the opposition to shut up for a few weeks to enjoy the Olympics? The focus right now should be on our athletes and their stories.
Whether or not a Liberal prisoner transfer agreement violated the Geneva Conventions does not change the fact that something unique and special is about to happen within our borders. If our athletes can "own the podium", think of what that will do for national unity, with French Canadians, English Canadians, Asian Canadians, et all contributing to the success?
Maybe it is because I live here that I am this excited a month before the spectacle, but I believe that there is a great story to be told. A story to encourage young people to become more physically active, to go outside and play instead of sitting on the couch all day playing video games. You don't get 3.5 billion people watching the X-Box Games. Our society is heading on a health care collision course of baby boomers requiring more medical attention, and an entire generation of young people who have been habitually devoid of exercise.
The World is coming to our door. Our athletes have devoted their lives to this moment. Can't we give them center stage for a few weeks? What happened in 2006 will be no different in a month than it is now. The Liberals refuse to let go because they think they have momentum on this issue and they don't want to lose it. You can ask the same tough questions on March 3rd that you would have asked on Feb 3rd. Meanwhile, our government MPs are working tirelessly in their ridings to meet with the people they represent for consultation on what they would like to see their government do for them. When you have a representative government there is a moral obligation for elected officials to spend time meeting face to face with the people they represent, answering their questions and listening to their opinion. That's what I saw tonight. I sat through the over one hour of questions. It was tedious, but I wanted to know what people in my community had to say about their government when there is allegedly this massive grassroots uprising of anger. I'm just not seeing it.
I was born and raised in Montreal and had the tremendous privilege to still be living there during the '76 Olympics.
ReplyDeleteI also had tickets to many of the events including the opening and closing ceremonies. It was a very exciting time of my life.
Montrealers are very proud of their cosmopolitan city and I was pleased to point out all that is good about Montreal to the many tourists who asked.
One story sticks out. I had just broken up with my girlfriend and had an extra ticket to the opening ceremonies which I sold at face value to a somewhat disbelieving girl from Chicago.
After the ceremony we hooked up with another girl that she had travelled to Montreal with and ended up in Old Montreal which was positively electric with excitement.
One of the big US networks was doing man-on-the-street interviews and a crowd had gathered so we sauntered in and watched for a bit. We waved, hooted and smiled broadly as the camera panned.
Half an hour later one of the girls called her parents home in Chicago to tell them of the days events and they were positively ecstatic because they had just been watching that same US network and had seen her and her friend, and me, in the crowd.
NeilD