He is in Québec City for the annual NPD congress and he’s doing a few conferences in the meanwhile. He was at my school tonight and the meeting was great. The room in which the conference was, albeit small, was packed to the limit. He talked for a while, then people asked questions and he answered in a very intelligent way.
I thought he managed to be funny and serious at the same time, grasping well the interest of the (young) audience. He asked us first to tell him about some hopes we had for Canada and then oriented his speech towards said hopes. He spoke a lot about environment and Kyoto – mentionning a funny anecdote in passing: apparently he and his wife, Olivia Chow, sold their last car in 1982. Now, they go to work at the Chamber by bicycle. There’s not a single “parking place for bicycles” on the Parlement Hill, but he found a way nonetheless: apparently there’s a “No parking” sign for cars nearby… for Stephen Harper’s limousine. “So, what do I do? I park my bicycle to that sign.” Eh.
Anyway, great man. He made me seriously consider joining the party. (And I do know that this picture is the crappiest ever!)