It’s already been a few weeks since we went to hear Elizabeth May campaign at the University of Guelph. I hesitated to go because the “Get Out and Vote” event was targeted at students, but since it’s not every day party leaders are in town I changed my mind and dragged Eric out with me.

The crowd was small and the meeting was short. An organizer of U of G’s student vote mob discussed being ejected from a Conservative rally.

It’s disturbing that you may not be allowed to hear your Prime Minister speak if you don’t belong to his political party, yet unwanted Conservative campaign material can legally show up in your mailbox at any time. Today I received this prize:

Second up, John Lawson explained what motivated him to run as the Green candidate for Guelph and the need to move beyond your comfort zone when advocating for your beliefs. The comment stuck with me and I later decided to volunteer at the local Green Party office. However, I didn’t want to knock on doors, call people, or otherwise behave intrusively (very narrow comfort zone). I guess in the end they couldn’t find any tasks to match my skill set because after one phone conversation, no one ever called me back. (Or maybe I just sounded Harperishly uncooperative?) Note to self: Remember to make a list of Factors Which Cause Me Grave Demotivation.

May spoke about “voter suppression” as a tactic used by American Republicans, and now also by Harper Conservatives. I’ve since heard the term thrown about by Ignatieff and in the Globe and Mail. So while anti-democracy is trending, I transferred all my unvolunteered excitement and voted on the first day of advanced polling.

Here’s a brief and incoherent video of the rally (snippets only because the ‘youths’ kept walking in front of me):