Campaign Event Recap 2

As I mentioned earlier today, Neil and I were thinking about going to the Green Party's Halifax 'Rally for Democracy' to see what Elizabeth May had to say. As planned, we did manage to make it to the event.

Much to my surprise, the event was actually quite well attended. On stage May suggested that it may have been the largest election event to have yet taken place in Halifax this campaign. While this may be true, I think that the Liberal event last weekend may have given this event a run for its money.

Almost as soon as we arrived at the event we spotted May. She appeared to be giving an interview to a TV-based media outlet. This interview seemed to go on for quite some time, much longer than I might have expected.

While this aforementioned interview was ongoing a banjo player was entertaining the masses.

This guy played for quite a while. It was really a nice touch. Actually, shortly after listening to the music for a while I realized that something like this was missing from the Liberal rally, and they really should had someone providing a little bit of pre-rally entertainment to keep the crowd up-beat and motivated for the talks to come. Though a small, gesture, having this performance was really great.

Eventually, a few speakers came to the stage to talk about the Green Party and issues that they have been facing. I think the third speaker was the candidate in our Halifax riding, Michael Dewar. Dewar gave a full-bodied address and was quite a bit more animated that the other speakers.

After speaking for a few minutes Dewar introduced May, who, as promised, spoke primarily about issues relating to Canadian democracy and the upcoming televised debates instead of traditional Green Party topics (though a few references to such issues did slip in).



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I was particularly pleased to hear a few of her comments about the role the media has been playing in this election and that they have been complicit in facilitating some of the questionable practices of parties when it comes to having overly controlled campaign events. Sadly, as she noted, this isn't an issue that is likely to get much play in the national media.

Anyway, though the rally wasn't quite over, we decided to leave shortly after May finished speaking.