Michael Ignatieff and Christian Provenzano at a spagetti lunch in Sault Ste. Marie. Photo: Sarah McMaster
The Liberal Express officially started rolling at the Calgary Stampede. For me, it started a couple months earlier, albeit unofficially, on May 3rd, 2010 in Sault Ste. Marie.
Michael and his team came to visit, and to say that our local riding association was excited would be an understatement. Together we hosted an open, publically advertised town hall. No Liberal membership required. No effort to stack the room. No intention to plant the questions. We simply opened the doors.
Michael sat in the midst of an impressive crowd holding a microphone, taking any and all questions. I remember looking at the first person who stood to speak and thinking to myself: she’s on the Conservative riding association’s board of directors. I remember the second person and smiled, inside, when I took note of the Jack Layton button on his jacket. I particularly liked that he was sitting beside Zsuzsanna, in the front row.
I did not recognize a Liberal until the seventh person made her way to the microphone and I remember thinking that this is what politics should be about. You should know what your political leaders think. You should be able to ask them questions directly and draw your own conclusions afterwards. And they should listen. They should care about what you think. Regardless of your partisan affiliation or your lack thereof.
As the Liberal Express rolls out of the summer and into the fall session of Parliament, it stopped in Sault Ste. Marie. Today, I watched Michael do what he did back in May, and what he has done ever since, over the last 53,000 kilometers. He listened to Sault Ste. Marie’s educators. He discussed innovation, and spoke honestly and openly to a roomful over a pasta lunch. He met with our local growers and producers, and took their questions. Any and all questions.
I have said, time and again, that I would rather lose the next election while trying to bring people together than win it by dividing them. In that respect, I am on the right team. Today, as the day ends, I reflect where we were last May, where we are now, and where we can go together, if we respect each other enough to listen and to speak honestly. If we follow Michael’s lead.
-Christian
Christian Provenzano is the Liberal candidate in Sault Ste. Marie
