There was a great turnout for the Walk for Democracy that I blogged about yesterday as well as here. Around one thousand people by one estimate. There was a constant stream of cars honking their support on the way. I guess there are many people who really hate having David Emerson and Steven Harper substituting plutocracy for democracy.
Here are a few memorable sights, the D. E. Burglar, stealing peoples votes. We were given voting ballots with David Emerson’s name on it and underneath were checkboxes for David Emerson running under 4 different parties, I tried to steal back the bag of ballots from him but he fought back hard. Seemed pretty desperate. The casket of democracy was another interesting one along with a the empty throne for the elected member of Vancouver Kingsway, carried by two people on their shoulders labelled Vacant. Here’s a photo of it on Flickr
It’s amazing to see how David Emerson and Steven Harper by screwing over the voters brought such diverse people together. On the stage at the end of the walk there were people who were Conservative (first speaker), Liberal, NDP and probably non political people until they were told their vote didn’t count, and got angry at democracy being under attack. During the walk I saw young people, middle aged people, seniors, couples and families of all races and more than a few socio-economic classes. Pretty widespread support, with a lot of people taking photos and videos of the event as well Radio TV and Print reporters.
After leaving the rally going into one large grocery store I noticed some employees with Recall Emerson buttons. This is almost NEVER done in retail stores i.e., political buttons tend to alienate customers, but this was not a partisan protest, and the campaign has widespread community support. Going down King Edward street, I noticed a lot of recall Emerson signs. You can get a Recall Emerson sign for your lawn here.
As of March 26th there were 600 signs posted in the riding with a backlog of 180 requests. They are thinking of ordering additional signs to the initial 1000 ordered.
Robert Sanzalone of Pacific IT already has some photos up of the event on flickr with the tag walkfordemocracy. I’m in this one. Hopefully we’ll see some more.
That’s the name of another pro democracy website which is organizing this
On April 3, 2006, the day parliament resumes, a small plane towing a banner message reading DAVID EMERSON: CALL HOME will fly near Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Soon after, a scroll will be unveiled to the media and posted in our website. The scroll will include the names of citizens who would like Mr. Emerson to explain why he refuses to meet with the majority of his constituents.
I was one of the ones that paid and my name and that of 270+ others will be on that scroll.
This is not simply a local matter, it’s a national one. If the politicians think that they can get away with this here, they may try it in your riding next time. It’s about whether or not you think democracy is important in Canada. Get involved. Contact the blogs listed in my previous post for ideas on how you can help out.