Harperman Singalong

Well, what a great day for a protest event! Ottawa has been blessed with a great stretch of summer weather this week. We've enjoyed some bonus swims at our favourite swimming hole but the highlight of our week was yesterday's Harperman protest event at Parliament Hill.

We biked downtown along the Ottawa River Parkway. I think I have whined about this in a previous post but bear with me. The parkway, which runs along the Ottawa River, was built when I was a kid, back in the 60's. Everyone in Ottawa knows it as The Ottawa River Parkway. However, a year or two ago Harper had it re-named. Now it is officially The Sir John A. MacDonald Parkway. It seems that you just can't have too many things named after (Conservative) MacDonald. Anyhow...

The weather brought out all kinds of people, with great shirts and signs.

There weren't a lot of speeches. Tony Turner's wife Sharon Reeves spoke. (Tony is still an Environment Canada employee and was advised not to attend.) Clive Doucet also spoke. Doucet is one of the best mayors Ottawa never had. He was a great city councillor but was unsuccessful in his race for mayor.  Both he and Sharon spoke eloquently about freedom of speech.

Tony Turner's wife, Sharon Reeves

Clive Doucet

It was a short but very enthusiastic protest. It simply felt good to be there, right on Parliament Hill, among like-minded folks, all happily belting out a song that summarizes our feelings during this election period. It was a hopeful mood.

For a detailed account of the afternoon, check out CBC's report . Of course, if you haven't heard the song, go to http://harperman.ca to view the song as it was originally recorded in June. There's also a new animated version there. For reports of all the singalongs that were held across the country yesterday, click on press coverage. During the coming week, the Harperman site will be updated with video of the Parliament Hill event. This song has really taken on a life of its own.

P.S. In a sad turn of events, you may have seen Wayne Gretzky, on stage, with Harper today, singing his praises. Many years ago, I took our kids out of school one afternoon, so we could race downtown and catch a glimpse of the Great One. That's it Wayne..it's all over for me.