Impressive, to see a large crowd spend its Saturday afternoon crammed into a basement pub room to discuss Canadian democratic issues. This was the gathering of the Macdonald-Cartier Society I spoke to on the weekend. The Society is a curious mix of a non-partisan educational society dedicated to Canadian political institutions and processes ... and also an alliance of hard-edge young movement conservatives. This, I suspect, is a consequence of a world run by Facebook-based networks.
I couldn't help mentioning how heartening it was that we were not the only Canadians giving up that afternoon to a concern for Canadian parliamentary democracy. I noted that just a few blocks from us at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto (and in other places across the country), thousands had rallied (through another Facebook grouping) to protest the proroguing of Parliament by Prime Minister Harper. Most of my audience wanted absolutely nothing to do with that kind of democracy, but they took my teasing in good spirit, and we had a lively session. (If you follow this blog and my occasional notes on parliamentary issues, you know pretty well what I talked about). Thanks to Immanuel and the rest of his team for their invitation.
