Two young women began to shout about TransCanada’s Energy East Pipeline. They yelled about the pipeline hurting the environment, and held up a banner and wore t-shirts expressing the same sentiment.
Their cries came out a few minutes after Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau began speaking to a large crowd at Halifax’s Westin Hotel on Saturday. Reports have revealed that the co-chair of the Liberal campaign was in talks with TransCanada about plans after Trudeau’s election victory to build the Energy East Pipeline, which would transport oil from Alberta and Saskatchewan to the Eastern provinces. The co-chair resigned last week.
“Don’t trust Trudeau!” one of the women shouted.
A series of “boo”s began, and one of the young women was pushed. The two women then made their way out of the crowd.
“Bitch,” an older man said to one of the protesters. “Fuck you.”
The young woman stopped in front of him.
“Excuse me?” she said. “I have a right.”
“You don’t have a right to interrupt someone when they’re speaking!” he responded.
“We can’t trust a party that will hurt the environment,” the other protester, named Emma, told me after this altercation.
The two women left the crowd and went outside the hotel to join a few other protesters fighting for the same cause.
Meanwhile, inside, the atmosphere felt like a rock concert. I felt like a Rolling Stones fan at a Justin Bieber concert. Everyone around me — other 20-something girls, cute guys, seniors, 40-year-olds, kids — donned blood red and were screaming, holding signs saying “Invest in the middle class” or “For a better economy.” But there I stood, in a navy thermal, my head simply an obstacle to see Mr. Trudeau.
“He just walked out!” a 20-something girl with bright red lipstick said to her friend. “I just saw his face!”
Cell phone cameras were everywhere. Everyone seemed to be equally as infatuated with Justin “Nice hair, though” Trudeau as this 20-something girl. An old woman with a puke-green fanny pack stood on a chair, an old man holding the small of her back to balance her, to see “Canada’s next prime minister” speak for 20 minutes.
“The Harper government is out of touch, out of ideas,” said Trudeau, “and if we work hard, they’ll soon be out of time.”
Monstrous cheers and applause followed this statement. This was one of the approximately 15 aphorisms Trudeau said. Each word out of his mouth got the same response: screams of pre-teens — the only age demographic absent from the rally.
“We’re not there yet,” Trudeau said after briefly speaking about his platform. “In the remaining hours, I need you to work hard. Knock on doors…make sure no vote and no votes get left behind.”
Nods all around. Screams all around. Smiles all around. It didn’t matter that the only refreshment served at the rally was water (if that even qualifies as a refreshment), the Liberal supports’ thirst was quenched — barely anyone was even drinking the free water. The rally-goers cheered for Andy Fillmore, the Liberal candidate for Halifax, and Stephen McNeil, the Liberal Premier of Nova Scotia, both of whom were at the rally.
Once Trudeau finished his speech, with a reminder that “Harper has more tricks up his sleeve,” a song came on that was playing before he made his entrance. It had a bouncy beat and a smooth female voice. It sounded like it could be on mainstream pop radio, but the lyrics were unfamiliar. Oddly, it appropriated Trudeau’s messages. The woman sang lyrics like, “’Cause it feels like home” and “Ready for change.”
As people left the rally room, they walked down a line of Liberal volunteers lined up on both sides of the room’s exit/entrance — as if we were Kobe Bryant making a free throw — asking us if we wanted to volunteer with the party.
The crowd began walking down the stairs to leave the hotel. Westin Hotel guests watched the Liberal supporters with both angry and confused eyes. The Liberals smiled. Stretched bright red lips.
The protesters stood outside the hotel, closer to the street than the hotel doors. They weren’t shouting or protesting, but waiting for their friend.
“What did you guys think of the rally?” I asked them.
They looked around at one another. Finally, the man-bunner wearing an anti-TransCanada shirt and a black blazer with a camera around his neck answered.
“It was weird,” he said.
Recent Comments