A day with GK

Re: Sunday September 16 2007

Today, I was privileged enough to spend the majority of the day with Mr. Gerard Kennedy. He started off bright and early in the day by heading to my hometown of Brantford to kick off the Terry Fox run with Dave Levac. He then wowed a crowd in my new home of Guelph. Then it was off to Hamilton mountain to do some foot work for Sophia Aggelonitis. This is one area where there seems to be a lot of swing/undecided voters between the NDP and Liberal, and a warning to the NDP: Kennedy kicked some butt! Hamilton is always a great political race, with the NDP hoping that they can claim it all for themselves. The Liberal party knows that this will be a tight race, especially as some very strong and well liked Hamilton female candidates have stepped down from political life. The Liberal party has found some great and deserving candidates (e.g., Noreen Virgin, aka Jody from Today’s Special – it’s for everyone, come & join the fun! - come on, who here didn't like Today's Special?!).

Anyways, when it comes to canvassing, Kennedy is a god! For someone who isn’t currently running in any election, and for someone who I would say has the next election in the bag, as well as someone who has established himself to earn himself a worthy Cabinent/Critic position, he sure does his fair share of work for all Liberals on his free time and dime. I think part of his drive is because he still feels very passionate about provincial issues, because those are the issues which affect Ontarians, and the most per capita Canadians, in the most direct way. We will definatley miss him in Ontario, but Canada has gotten a great candidate.

On one main street in Hamilton, we were able to get up about 12 Liberal/Sophia Aggelonitis signs in about one hour from home owners we had met. I was so impressed with how Mr. Kennedy is able to speak to any individual, even when there is a huge 5 x 4 feet NDP sign on their front lawn! So quickly he is able to establish a rapport with an individual who maybe was even hesitant to speak to him, and get into the meat of the election and how, matter of facts, the parties differ on those issues. In Hamilton, the issues were education, health and senior care, and there were definitely vast differences of opinions from the party supporters on those issues, and the Caledonia issue.

GK definitely impressed me today. It’s no wonder he won by such large margins in Parkdale High-Park! My friend Zac Spicer has informed me that he won a margin of 20 000 votes. wow.

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