Take Off, Eh!
Not that many of you would have been likely to run across this short piece, but, yes, that is me being all Canuck-rabble-rouser-y in the pages of Calgary’s popular weekly magazine, Fastforward.
I don’t know that we have much in the way of a Calgary readership (shout out to Ryan who I think still stops by from time-to-time), but we do have some Canadian readers so I’ll ask those of you who I do know of (and those who simply lurk and read) to get out to your local anti-prorogation rally and help spread the word, if the decision is of concern to you. There are rallies happening in most major Canadian cities and you can find more information about them at noprorogue.ca.
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16 comments
I don’t normally do protests, but I’m going to this one and bringing as many people as I can. I’m hoping the online support translates to the street.
Call it a tea party, maybe you’ll get more people than you would have otherwise!
North
January 21st, 2010 at 12:04 pm
It’s Canada, they might get less.
… unless they serve actual tea. They might get a lot more if they serve tea. Canadians love tea.
Jaybird
January 21st, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Call it a Tim’s Party.
Scott H. Payne
January 21st, 2010 at 12:09 pm
It’s been suggested: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&ref=mf&gid=229770151164
Jaybird
January 21st, 2010 at 3:53 pm
That’s the problem with any sufficiently decent Canadian joke. The Canadians probably already made one.
Perhaps you could do something involving Canadian Tire money?
Jonathan
January 21st, 2010 at 1:22 pm
I’m drinking tea right now, Twinings Earl Grey (yeah, not very creative, I know).
I’m going to the one in Hamilton, although I’m a bit annoyed with the organizers here. I am planning to go dressed very square so as not to look like the stereotypical “protester”. Nevertheless, I just got a thing from them about their planned “die in for Canadian democracy” which strikes me as the sort of stupid thing I’m trying to avoid.
Scott H. Payne
January 21st, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Ohhhhhhh, wow, I’m sorry about that. Maybe write them back and say that you think they’re using “tortured” logic? You can come to our Calgary rally, if you like. It’s going to be pretty straight forward.
Rufus
January 21st, 2010 at 7:01 pm
I’m thinking of maybe going up to Toronto. I’m guessing it will be a more young urban professional crowd there. The issue in Hamilton is that the “Sky Dragon Community Centre” seems to be organizing, and as one might guess from the name, they’re better at vegetarian potlucks than appearing to be the mainstream on the local news.
Rufus
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:18 pm
I went to the Hamilton protest. Happily, it was a very mainstream crowd. It skewed a bit old- the average seemed to be mid-50s actually. A lot of people in the crowd looked like Anglican ministers! Very orderly and no die-in! MPs from all of the parties, except one (no points for guessing which one!) made short speeches and there was an open-mic that went surprisingly smoothly.
Rufus
January 24th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Notes, pictures (and no doubt some Permanent Resident confusion about Parliamentary norms) here:
http://gradstudentmadness.blogspot.com/2010/01/canadians-looking-to-try-democracy.html
If you can get together a good-sized rally in Calgary, this must be seriously hurting the Conservatives. I suppose that could have been predicted – back in their early days the Reformers were big on democratic engagement and accountability to the people.
I wish more of the rallies could be rational and non-partisan ones. Mine is organized by people I know at my university and has both a Liberal and an NDP MP at it, so I’m expecting it will have more of an anti-Conservative than simple anti-prorogation or pro-democracy flavour, which is likely to be counterproductive. But we’ll see. I’ve got a lot of respect for my (Liberal) MP and hopefully he’ll make a good case with a minimum of partisan jabs.
Katherine
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Just got back from the Victoria rally, which had almost certainly over 500 people and possibly up to 1000. Very good speakers – MPs, a UVic prof, a youth delegate to Copenhagen, and several regular people who were chosen from statements sent in to the organizers. Strong focus on the need for more democratic engagement beyond simply voting, and the need for today’s rallies to be the beginning and not the end of action. Strongly anti-Harper, and anti-Lunn (the south island’s Conservative MP).
On the downside, some truthers showed up with a banner – they’ll show up to any protest in these parts and make the participants look like nuts, it’s very aggravating – but nobody paid them much attention.
Zach
January 23rd, 2010 at 7:09 pm
There were some “out of Afghanistan” protesters at mine.
Not that I disagree with their message; I just think it’s better to focus on the one cause in this case.
Rufus
January 23rd, 2010 at 10:57 pm
One of the funnier moments in Hamilton was the one fellow who went off-topic during the open mic. He wanted to complain about the delay he was experiencing in receiving medical marijuana, and was pretty much laughed off the stage.