The People have spoken!

Allelulia! It is over!

It's been an action packed few days. On Sunday we braved the cold to sing Harperman with Tony Turner, on Parliament Hill. It was a small but very enthusiastic crowd. Many were members of the public service who thanked Tony for his role as spokesperson for their issues. By Sunday, the polls were pointing to a Harper defeat so the mood was upbeat.

On Monday I worked in a swing riding. A week ago, polls indicated that the riding of Nepean was a neck and neck race between the Liberal and Conservative candidates so I volunteered to help out the Liberal on election day. For only seven measly hours I got a tiny taste of what the media has been talking about - that is, the incredible work that goes into winning an election. First, we dropped off ads on the doors of known Liberal supporters in the area. Then, after the polls opened, we picked up the bingo sheets, at each polling station. These sheets track who has voted in each poll. Those voter numbers are cross matched with lists of known Liberal supporters for each poll. That process is repeated each hour. Around dinner time the tactic shifts to actually knocking on the doors of the supporters who have not yet voted and offering them rides to the polls. When politicians say, "We need to get out the vote," they really mean it! This is not glamorous work. But this is how the Liberals won the election, through months of sheer hard work. (Liberal Chandra Arya did win in Nepean.)

Here in our riding of Ottawa Centre, our NDP member, Paul Dewar lost to Liberal Catherine McKenna. Voter turnout here in Ottawa Centre was a whopping 82%! Politics is such a tough game. Dewar was not part of the Harper government but he was swept out of his job on this strong Liberal wave. Dewar didn't do anything wrong. He is a very well respected MP and it's  a shame to lose him and many other strong NDP members. However, I won't complain today. McKenna ran a great campaign. I was very impressed with her at the all candidates debate.

Trudeau has performed so well over this long campaign. It is a treat to hear a politician speaking in an optimistic manner. Much of what he said yesterday and today reminds me of Jack Layton. Maybe that's a large reason why he won. People want something to hope for, something optimistic. Harper, on the other hand, in his speech last night, felt he had to tell us not once, but twice, that we are living in dangerous times. A total contrast to Trudeau's use of the Wilfred Laurier phrase "sunny ways."

This morning I had an email invite to the Trudeau rally, here at the Westin Hotel. It was a warm sunny day and we had planned to work in the garage. So there was the choice - clean the garage or witness the triumphal return to Ottawa of Justin Trudeau? As I wrote here, back in April of 2013, when Justin won the leadership, I am a nostalgic fool. As a grade ten student, in 1968, I went to the convention site when his father, Pierre won the leadership. We went downtown again in 2013 when Justin won his leadership. So today, I pinned on my 1968 Trudeau button and we headed downtown to hear Justin Trudeau's speech.

It really was exciting to be in that room again, this time with him as Prime Minister elect.

He spoke so enthusiastically, so hopefully, so warmly. What a refreshing change for all of us. I wish him and his family well in the days ahead.

This is the closest to Trudeaumania that we've seen, since Pierre!

Unfortunately Justin Trudeau will not be able to undo all the changes that Harper wreaked on our country. Some of those changes are permanent. The federal government is a big operation. It will take time to change directions in so many areas. So we'll have to be patient with our hopes for this new phase of life in Ottawa, in Canada.

Harperman - One Last time

Last night I saw an interesting item on TVO's The Agenda. Here's the promo for the show: "It's been called the war on data: the cancellation of the long term census, records tossed in dumpsters, the shuttering of government libraries, and cuts to environmental organizations. This has led to what some see as a country that increasingly doesn't know itself. From understanding how many Canadians live in poverty to the state of our lakes, oceans and polar ice, The Agenda convenes a panel to discuss what has happened to Canada's data."

This show is both enlightening and frightening. It provides us with even more reasons to vote for anyone but Harper. It is astonishing that major newspapers are endorsing his government.

Tomorrow afternoon we're off to the Hill again. They're calling tomorrow's event the Harperman Farewell Singalong. (harperman.ca) This time Tony Turner, the song's composer, will lead the singing. There were about a thousand of us there in September. It's going to be a lot colder tomorrow but I'm betting there will be many of us who feel it's a fitting way to mark the end of this long campaign.

That's it till after e day. Fingers and toes crossed!

Harper land - military influence?

What  a week! Between the election campaign, Blue Jays games and hosting our grandchildren, it's been crazy! I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I am optimistic that this may be the last time I write about Harper as our PM.

Just as the Texas Rangers made all those unexpected errors in Wednesday's seventh inning, we have witnessed a couple of errors on the election field as well. Trudeau's performance has shown nothing but improvement throughout these seven weeks, but then his campaign co-chair sent that inappropriate email, to Trans Canada, tossing Mulcair an unexpected gift. Will this help Mulcair? And then there's Harper, consorting with the Fords. How desperate is he, to do not one, but two events with them this week? Surely this is a huge tactical error. How can a law and order PM associate with criminals?

Along with these major stories, I heard an interesting local piece on CBC radio last week,
about Ottawa's summer sound and light show. Now this is not a huge story, but it demonstrates how things have been done in Ottawa, during Harper's regime.

Back on Oct. 24, 2013 I wrote my first Harperland rant, about living in Ottawa under Harper. In that post I complained about how Parliament Hill's summer Sound and Light show had been "Harperized." By that I meant that the show's content had been altered to include many more references to the military's role in Canada's history.

You may ask why I keep going to this show every year, if all I do is complain about it. The fact is the visuals are great. It's a short, free, entertaining tourist attraction. It's a lovely way to spend a summer evening with out-of-town visitors. Tourists love the use of the Parliament Buildings as a screen for the show. However, this past summer's version was even more objectionable than ever. Many of the cultural highlights from past year's shows had been dropped in favour of even more military content.

Anyhow, I feel slightly vindicated in my criticisms by last week's news report, which shows that it was Heritage Minister Shelley Glover who dictated much of the final content of the show, over the objections of her deputy minister and other government staff, who wanted less military content and more references to women.

I've got nothing against the military. Of course I recognize the important role they play in Canadian society. I simply think that under Harper, their status has been elevated unnecessarily. Take sports, for example. Has the military always been intertwined with professional sporting events? Is it my imagination or has that partnership not strengthened over this past decade?

On the night of our local candidates debate, Pat left the meeting early and was walking home when there was a sudden roar overhead. He said it was alarming and he was not alone. Many Ottawa residents, especially those downtown, were frightened by the noise of the CF-18 fighter jets that performed a flypast at the Ottawa Redblacks football game that night. It was Canadian Armed Forces Appreciation Night. (Would they ever dedicate a doctor appreciation night? How about nurses or social workers  or farmers night?)

The next day both The Redblacks and the Air Force apologized...sort of. "Folks, we regret that anyone was unaware of the flypast in advance" tweeted the Air Force. That "anyone was unaware?" Are we all supposed to read the Air Force's twitter feed on a regular basis?

Redblacks CEO Bernie Ashe stated, "All teams hold one such ceremony once per season and our focus was on doing our best to let Canadian Armed Forces members know that we support them."

In Montreal, residents' reaction was similar after their flypast. CBC reported that, "Two CF-18 fighter jets streaking low across Montreal Sunday afternoon left many downtown residents wondering what was up. Turns out the jets were doing a flypast as part of the Montreal Alouettes' pre-game show. Many Montrealers didn't know it was scheduled, however, and were caught off-guard by the screaming, darting jets overhead." 

I would love to know just how much we Canadians are paying for these flypasts at CFL games.

Another popular Ottawa summer tradition is the RCMP's Musical Ride Sunset Ceremony. We are lucky to have the opportunity to attend this free two hour show, held at the RCMP stables for four nights in late June every year. This year though, there were complaints about an added feature. The RCMP Emergency Response Team put on a demonstration before the Musical Ride portion of the show. As Kelly Egan reported in The Ottawa Citizen, many in the audience were stunned by the mock takedown at a family show. In his blog, Frank Koller wrote, "Is there no place now where Canadians can be spared the Conservative Government's jingoistic militaristic bleating with its conjured up images of dangers lurking around every corner, nurturing the fear that others are out to rob us of our freedoms?" Egan wrote that the EMR mock takedown is only added to the Ottawa version of the Sunset ceremony. No other Canadian cities see that demonstration. It was added about ten years ago. Ten years ago? A coincidence? I think not.

Will the atmosphere in Ottawa change under a new government? Here's hoping.

The Election - Advance Polls Open

Well we're almost there! Today the advance polls opened. You can vote all weekend. We went to our local polling station about an hour after they opened, expecting a short wait but it was busy. When we left, there were at least twenty people in line! I wonder if this is usual or is this a predictor of a higher than usual voter turnout? I cannot remember such interest in an election or so many groups working so hard to defeat the sitting government. This week Rick Mercer used his season-opening rant to encourage voter turnout.

There's a great site which encourages strategic voting. They have identified swing ridings across the country. My riding of Ottawa Centre will probably go NDP again, although Liberal Catherine McKenna will likely close the gap from the last election. Presuming that Paul Dewar does not need my help, I have offered to work in the riding of Nepean (for the Liberals) on election day. There, the Conservative and Liberal candidates are running neck and neck so every vote will count.

Today I heard Harper's radio ad, that warned of a $1000.00 tax grab by the Liberals, if elected. Harper spoke in a friendly, concerned fashion and ended with, "We'll talk tomorrow." So does this mean he will air a new radio ad every day, now until the election? We really are headed into a very intense phase of this long campaign.

Harperman - Tony Retires

"Tony Turner says the Conservative government can't silence him anymore." That's the opening line in a piece that appeared in last Saturday's  Ottawa Citizen - "Harperman writer decides it's time to go, sing out for change".

As you can read there, Tony has decided to retire now. He has been told by senior management at Environment Canada that he will face some kind of discipline for his recording of Harprman. I sure hope they are unable to affect his pension.

For the next twelve days he'll be singing Harperman  a lot. "I have been asked to perform at rallies and I will do that for the balance of the election. This election is too important to be silent."

All candidates meeting

Ah election season...it's just like Christmas! The lead up, the preparations, the decisions, the excitement and then the finale - Christmas Eve - Election Day! Now that we're into October, it really seems like we're building up to a crescendo. The final debate was last night. Our airwaves will now become supersaturated with ads, as we count down to the 19th.

On Thursday night I attended an all candidates debate in my riding of Ottawa Centre. Ottawa Centre goes back and forth between the New Democrats and Liberals. The NDP's Paul Dewar has held the riding for the last nine years. He was the foreign affairs critic for the NDP. Dewar's a fine person and I really hope he gets back in.

We got to the meeting ten minutes before start time but clearly we were too late.The two hundred chairs were already filled and there were maybe a hundred more people who stood for most of the two hour meeting.

It was an entertaining evening. The crowd was, for the most part, very polite. The CBC's Amanda Pfeffer served as moderator and did a great job. She managed to keep things running smoothly with good grace and humour. At one point during the audience questions, she reminded the questioner to choose just two candidates to answer his question. He responded, " Okay I'd like Paul and Catherine and Damian to answer."  To which Pfeffer replied, "Well, we'll put you in charge of the budget."

Near the end of the evening someone asked the candidates to state how their party, if elected, would support the CBC. That question and the responses by the NDP and Liberal, drew a lot of applause. 

Although the audience was polite, at times you couldn't help yourself. There were a couple of occasions when the Conservative, Damian Konstantinakos,  was stating how his government supported the CBC or listened to scientists, when spontaneous ripples of laughter erupted around the room.

One of the most unusual questions of the night went something like this, "Can you tell us which particular policy in your party's platform that you personally do not agree with?" That was a tough one. The Liberal candidate had to answer that one first and to her credit, after some hesitation, she answered that she thought they could do more work on prisons and incarceration. 

A more dramatic question was,"It's been almost a year since the shootings on Parliament Hill. What is your position? Was that a terrorist attack or was that a person with a mental health problem?"  The Conservative candidate was quick to name it a terrorist attack and went on to talk about ISIL. The NDP and Liberal candidates both spoke very thoughtfully about  mental  health challenges contributing to the whole  tragic event.

Most of the audience questions were directed to incumbent Paul Dewar and his main challenger, Liberal Catherine McKenna. They were both very impressive. The Green Party's Tom Milroy was also a good speaker.

This meeting, this riding, reflects the problem right across the country. A majority of people want to get rid of Harper but don't know which way to turn. If only the Liberals and the NDP had banded together. If only they had decided to run either an NDP or Liberal in various ridings. Harper has got to be loving this contest between the two main opposition parties. I hate to think of it, but he could slide back in, because the Liberals were too proud to consider working alongside the NDP.