“Maybe I’m too old,” says London resident Gil Fearhall. “Maybe I’m of an age where ethics and honour and tradition were more important than they seem to be now.”
Gil has lived in London West since 1974, when he moved there from Winnipeg while working for the Canadian Red Cross. He’s been retired for almost 15 years. On Tuesday night, he was one of the thousands of London West residents who joined a telephone town hall with Micheal Ignatieff and Liberal candidate Doug Ferguson. We spoke to him after the town hall was over.
Gil told us that he watches Question Period and can’t stand how the Conservative government refuses to answer questions. There’s too little respect for Parliament, he says, a fact that has come to the fore in recent Conservative scandals – the Bev Oda affair and the in-and-out scam.
“The in-and-out scandal seems to be part of what the Conservatives are all about, treating issues of this nature with disdain,” he told us. As for Oda: “It’s very disturbing that she was involved, and that the Conservatives brush it off.”
“It’s about the lie,” he says.
Gil asked the final question of Tuesday’s telephone town hall, about Parliamentary tradition and respect for democracy. He seemed to be pleased with the answers he got from Michael Ignatieff and Doug Ferguson.
“There’s no question I’ll be voting Liberal,” he told us.
- A.G.
Adam Goldenberg is Michael Ignatieff’s speechwriter. Follow him at http://twitter.com/adamgoldenberg. Email him at adam@email.liberal.ca.
