PROMISE KEPT

i'm surprised. this morning, i awoke early without hesitation to fulfill my promise to you out there and myself that i'd go and get involved with the green party.

immediately upon arrival at pape subway station on the danforht line, 8am, i was greeted by an eager young campaign assistant who was excited to hear that i came all the way from eglinton-lawrence to see jim harris in action. right away, i was called upon to pass out the latest leaflet from the green party of canada, and i gladly obliged.

news cameras caught me and jim discussing his radio spot yesterday in kitchener-waterloo, and while he was more than sportsmanlike about 570news' atrocious media conduct, he agreed quite sincerely with my criticism of the broadcast. CPAC had the opportunity to hear the words of another young green enthusiast named rob:

"i don't call it democracy," he said, referring to the current state of canadian politics, "right now i call it 'demockery'!" he exclaimed to a bemused jim harris, who says he'll have to use that in the future.

i met a colleague of jim's named paul charbonneau, a member of the toronto-danforth electoral district association and green party candidate in scarborough-guildwood (although he lives in danforth). he's been in the community for a long time and claims to be friends with both jack layton and dennis mills...he's courageous for admitting those things!

he noticed me taking photos and asked if i'd be willing to help out with more photography, perhaps some for for the website.

would i?

you see, it's that easy, provided you have candidates who can promote at street level and don't have to wade through an army of reporters and campaign entourage to share points of view with the voting public. i was really struck by their willingness to converse with people openly and without the benefit of PR walls.

i agree with rob about the state of "demockery", but we can still count on people to explore these small venues of access that can take us in different directions.

a message to all politicians: what are you afraid of? no more baby kissing, non-committal hand shakes and nodding along. start engaging in public dialogue with your people, then maybe we'll start to get involved. wouldn't it make for a more active society if we gave you more than just a vote, but our time as well?

we want to see that you're willing to put in the time for us first.