After the dust settled

We actually found the place where some of the climax of "Bon Cop Bad Cop" was filmed. How cool is that?

It was a great ride, the trip to Montreal was. (Thank goodness I'm not working on my novel right now. That was a frightening sentence.) Enjoyed the hell out of it. We had a chance to see some of the sights, taste some of the food, and enjoy some relatively warm weather before the Leadership race grabbed us by the lapels and pulled us into the Palais with no chance to get out until it was all over.

We had a great meal here!


I don't know what the deal is with this year -- so many hugely meaningful moments for me, and the convention was another one. It was one massive melee with a HUGE side of noise. Ears rang for three days after, but that could be from the cold I managed to catch. Oh well, It passed. The most interesting thing was, I gained a huge amount of clarity while I was there.

I've never been hugely political -- did the hate Trudeau thing when I was growing up because it was fashionable around here, but living in a one party province kind of beat it all out of me. I lean left, and could not see how I could ever be on the winning side, so took the easy road and did nothing but vote. However.... That may just change. We will see.

How I felt about Dion winning? I was in the Kennedy camp, and was one of the 93% who went with him. I trust Kennedy, and so I trusted his 2nd choice. And I thought he moved at exactly the right time. I believe there will be changes in the Liberal party now. And I believe THAT's what needs to happen in order for the Liberals to gain the trust of Canadians again. I know Kennedy would have done it, and I hope Dion will be able to do it -- or at least start. Hope that answers any questions you have about the leadership race itself.

Didn't hear many of the speeches, those things the pundits all claimed would sway us on the ground. The voting in the first round was so screwed up, we were in line to vote when the first bunch spoke, and could only hear them through a bad PA system. When I finally finished voting, I found my husband and brother in law; they were going in with Kennedy as part of his demonstration, so I stuck with them instead of trying to find my mother and sister inside again. So I missed the rest of those speeches. But I heard Kennedy's, up close and personal. At the end of it, I realized that I would gladly pick up a pike and go to war for that man. The part of my brain that works hard to keep me safe nearly stroked out trying to get my attention -- but I wasn't listening. Kennedy said the things I believe, and I thought he said them well. However, I can't talk about the others, because I didn't really have a chance to hear them. I did catch them after, on TV. But it's not the same.(And that blew me away as well. I didn't think it would really be different, but it was.) I was impressed with Martha Hall Finley. Ignatieff pisses me off, so I wasn't buying into his speech at all. Same with Ray.

Want to know why I think Ignatieff didn't win? He didn't win because he thought he'd won, and so was playing to the media, and to the rest of Canada. He was starting his campaign to take away votes from the Conservatives, and forgot about us on the floor. I've seen this happen many times -- in sports. A team thinks they have a lock, and look to the next game, and forget to play the one they're in. And they lose. Way too many suits in that camp anyhow. It was aggravating being pushed out of the way by a suit so they could get to their next important meeting.

Dion's got guts, and I think he'll do the right thing.

I don't know how much of the wildness you saw on TV was alcohol induced -- but most of the people around me most days were sober (or hung over), so that was mainly us acting like fools. It was a lot like a sporting event, actually, except that, after you introduced yourself to the person standing beside you, and found out where they were from, you discussed politics and strategy instead of sports and strategy. It was great! And actually, many of the people were suffering more from lack of sleep than over drinking. Those people never stopped!

It was an amazing week, all in all. I could break it down, and it would probably sound kind of horrible -- 5 1/2 hours standing in line for various things, the first vote running so late we missed most of the speeches, huge amounts of excess (re money spent, which personally drives me bonkers) never quite knowing who to talk to for information, no bathrooms (!!!) inadequate facilities, and on and on. If I hadn't been at this particular function, I would have been really pissed. But in spite of all that, it was an amazing experience. I learned just how frigging big this country is, just how multi cultural it is, and got to meet some amazing, funny, extremely well informed people from all over.

I had the opportunity to hear Romeo Delaire, Jean Chretien, and Paul Martin speak in person. I listened to Colin James (one of my favorite guitarists) belt out a couple of tunes shortly after watching an opera singer gargle an aria while drinking red wine. (Yeah, you read that right. It was screamingly funny!) I spoke to Justin Trudeau at a private party, and have the pictures to prove it. I screamed my head off and waved signs and banged a tambourine to support "my guy." I rubbed shoulders with senators, and discussed Liberal strategy for Alberta with a Democrat from Boston. (He told me to call him in March (we figure that's probably when the next election will be called) and he'd rally the Democrat troops to help us make some headway in the province. Really.) It was an amazing week, and I'm so glad I went.

And, through it all, was in constant contact with my daughter as she tried to work out where the heck she was going to work. Her not having any options (she thought) turned into an embarrassment of riches as she mulled over four job offers, and dickered for a better starting wage. She picked one (they upped their starting wage by 2 bucks) and is now in training. And sounding happy as a clam. So, there you go. And yahoo for cell phones.

And now I'm trying to settle back in to life just before Christmas. It's hard, though. I keep flipping from my favorite Christmas movies to one or the other of the news channels, just to see what's going on, politically. I think I'm hooked.

Should be an interesting new year.

Re: writing. Back at it, but still without much fervor. Good friends (thanks Bev and Ryan) got me through a bad weekend, and I'm feeling much better about things, and am pecking away. Something will catch my attention (I'm like a magpie that way, shiny things always catch my eye) and that's what I'll work on for a while.