Rally For Canada, Saskatoon

Political Animal 104 Comments
A good turn out of “severely normal” Canadians showed up at Saskatoon City Hall at noon, and a good time (if somewhat chilly) was had by all.
For a round up of reports from across Canada, your best starting place is Blogging Tories.
Update – Star Phoenix coverage (Via Financial Post). Yours truly is quoted. 		rally1.jpg

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Part way through the rally, I walked over to the small, noisy, (and predominantly francophone) pro-coalition group and asked them to close up so I could get everyone in the shot.
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The photo taken, I told them that I simply wanted to record the faces of those who had chosen to disrupt the moment of silence that had just been observed for the fallen soldiers in Afghanistan.
And that, in a few hours, several thousand people would know them, too.
Full size image
Update – several of you have sent photos via email. I can’t possibly use them all, but here are a few… including my favourite from Ward, from Vancouver!
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London, Ontario courtesy of Jason.
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“No Guff” sends shots from Nanaimo, BC
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Click for Winnipeg rally pics. Maurice writes “A few days ago, Winnipeg’s leftwing elite held their pro-coalition rally in a warm hotel banquet room.”
Also – Youtube of the Queen’s Park rally in Toronto.
Pelalusa has a bunch of photos and video, too. (sorry, link fixed!)
Feel free to drop links to your own albums in the comments.

104 Replies to “Rally For Canada, Saskatoon”

  1. awesome. winnipeg rally went very well too, over 300 people despite the -35 windchill! real prairie people!
    there were about five pro-coalition morons in attendance at ours.
    (btw, link to full size image appears to be broken)

  4. link working fine,steve.Funny Kate.Tried that here in Edmonchuck,but we are not allowed to take pics of beaten bodies until after the cops are done.

  6. This whole coalition deal-making is precisely why Porportional Representation is bad. You don’t get to vote for a government. The politicians decide what government you get.

  7. I am glad to say that I was able to attend the rally in Saskatoon. It was a good turn out, even for a cold day.
    It was good to hear that several of the Liberal MP’s are wanting out of the coalition. While I don’t always agree with the Liberals, I respect them, for most part, and the ones wanting out of the coalition remind me why.
    However, the best part of the entire rally happened when I was leaving. The Chevy pick-up parked in front of me had a “FREE SASKATCHEWAN! END THE SOCIALIST REGIME!” bumper sticker.

  8. So the local CUPE offices can get a few of their members out with some signs and they think it is a “grass roots” effort.
    The coalition is Socialists, Unionists, Separatists and generally stupid people who are afraid to run in an election as a coalition because they know Canada would kick their traitorous asses so hard they could wipe their butts and blow their noses at the same time.

  12. Will the flag be flying at half mast on parliament hill?
    Show a little respect, and don’t use Soldiers as your political football.

  15. Good photojournalism work, Kate!
    See the guy in the middle in the bottom pic? Looks like a young Vlad Lenin with glasses, doesn’t he?
    In the back is a sign so ironic as to be yet more proof positive that Leftists have a mental disorder: “We want democracy”. Eh? Overthrowing the duly-elected-by-the-People-just-weeks-ago-government is “democratic”? Hoo-boy!
    Leave it to the deranged Left to believe that the will of the politicians trumps the will of the People. Don’t they realize that the Leftist politicians, if they can’t take power via democracy, they’ll find another way to steal it? Oh, wait… yes, they do, and this is what they want; shame on them! I wonder if they’re now using what might’ve been Hitler’s ‘Plan B’ for if he hadn’t won? Does anyone believe that Hitler would’ve ultimately respected the democratic will of the German people if he hadn’t won? Not me. These National Socialists are, after all, all alike, at least ultimately.
    The disrupted the moment of silence for the dead and wounded? Why am I not surprised? Ah. So these are the people who support the Leftist putsch! Undemocratic socialist revolutionaries who disrespect those who paid the ultimate sacrifice so they could have the right to be such antisocial lunatics in public. National Socialism really does make one mad, doesn’t it?
    Somebody call Zombietime.com.

  16. Is someone hiding behind the sign on the right side? It sure looks that way. Maybe even 2 people?

  17. I was at the saskatoon rally too. I can safely say my toes have finally thawed out. That was a cold day but a good time!

  18. The weenies all seem to have man-boobs, even under three layers of cloths.
    Too much tofu makes the mind and body weak:)

  20. Great to see the pictures and videos. Loved the signs, especially the hammer and sickle.
    Best, of course, was Walsh’s lonely gig. If she was still alive, Princess Warrior would have really screwed Dyawn.

  21. It was great to shiver with my fellow patriots in Toon town. I think we had the best soundtrack too:
    “We don’t need no coalition!
    We don’t need no thought control!
    No dirty backroom politicians!
    Hey!
    Dion!
    Leave our votes alone!”

  22. The TO rally featuring Dion and the speechifying Jackrat seemed fairly cold and lifeless except for the hot air provided free and for an extended period by the bald one. I think City TV did a quick wide angle zoom in error and the crowd wasn’t very large considering the resources that the NDP can usually call on. Probably most of the regulars were already committed to other demos.

  23. It was great to shiver with my fellow patriots in Toon town. I think we had the best soundtrack too:
    “We don’t need no coalition!
    We don’t need no thought control!
    No dirty backroom politicians!
    Hey!
    Dion!
    Leave our votes alone!”

  24. Attended the Kelowna rally held in Rutland Community Hall. Would estimate over 200. Organized by a Grade 11 female student. Also addressed by a Grade 12 male student who wants to be Prime Minister some day. He gave a very passionate speech about democracy.
    Very positive experience. All speakers were respectful. Which I notice is something our opposition are not doing as they name call Harper and make nasty remarks about him.

  25. Was at the anti-coalitin rally in Toronto. Small crowd of about 500 or so but enthusiatic. The crowd seemed much larger at City Hall for the communist/socialist rally. Now you know why Toronto is solid socialist with its huge public unions.
    Only silver lining for the economic crisis is maybe thousands of these socialists will be laid off or their wages cut back drastically as money is properly spent on the private sector that creates all the wealth not consumes it.

  26. oh boy . . . a petition to freep.
    I have left my “name”, well actually more of a description of what I thought of their 62%, and a few paragraphs in the comments section

  28. All the counter protesters look like college students. Wouldn’t be surprised since Jackie Layton is promising them all free tuition.

  29. “I’m not going to stand by and let a separatist run my country.”
    Note: “Landowners” include urban landowners; “on both sides of the Ottawa River” includes Quebec.
    …-
    “Landowners plan Ottawa protest against coalition
    Rural landowners are planning a protest rally Monday on Parliament Hill to voice opposition to a proposed coalition government.
    The rally, which will involve heavy agricultural and forestry equipment in Ottawa’s downtown core, is expected to draw participants from the Upper and Lower Ottawa Valley as well as Leeds and Grenville, Hastings-Prince Edward and the Peterborough area.
    Gill Cyr, vice-president of the Leeds and Grenville Landowners Association, said area farmers are poised to protest on Parliament Hill.
    “We’re getting a lot of calls,” said the soybean and wheat farmer who resides between Prescott and Brockville. “We’re back on stronger than ever right now. The feeling is that this coalition is going to be terrible for rural Ontario… It has nothing to do with democracy. It’s strictly greed.”
    Protesters are demonstrating against the proposed coalition of the Liberals and the New Democrats, which is to be propped up by the Bloc Quebecois.
    “No one I know in rural Canada voted for a coalition that would have a separatist holding the reins of power,” said Reg Presley, vice-president of the Prescott Federation of Agriculture. “This is nothing but a power grab by three little men who want to be king.
    “They need to know that rural Canada is standing on the outside looking in, and that’s why we decided to do it on Monday,” he said. “We’re not going to let these three clowns railroad us.”
    The farmers and landowners are part of rallies sprouting up across Canada both against and in support of the proposed coalition government.
    A bus from Kingston is to stop in Brockville at 9:30 a.m. until 9:45 a.m. at the Food Basics grocery store before making its next stop at Kemptville’s Shoppers Drug Mart, Kemptville at about 10:45, aiming to get to Parliament Hill by noon. It will cost $20 per person for the coach bus, said organizer Connie Fournier. It departs Ottawa at 4 p.m.
    Ontario Landowners’ associate director Jamie MacMaster said the rally is not just a farm protest.
    “This is a call for all rural folks, not just farmers, but small businesspeople, loggers, machinery dealers, construction guys, whatever, on both sides of the Ottawa River to come and stand with us on Monday morning,” he said, adding: “I’m not going to stand by and let a separatist run my country.”
    Anyone wanting more information about transportation, can e-mail Fournier at contact@freedominion.ca.”

  31. I’m sure the coalition supporters were very, very concerned about the woman taking their pictures and posting them on her blog so ‘thousands’ of her fellow bile-spewers could work themselves into a frothing rage at the very sight of them.
    Oh, shiver, shiver! Quake, quake!

  32. Great rally, first one I was ever in. Very good conversation, laughs and nobody liked the ‘3 stooges’ and their lust for power. Big issues the $1.95, government and bureaucracy perks. Not to many liked CBC, and a they like PMSH and what he is doing about the economy. Don’t just through the money out there and if money is lent make sure it as payed back.

  33. The Rally in Calgary today was GREAT.
    We drove in from Airdrie and parked at Dalhousie Station in the N.W.
    We got on the C-Train and discussed how we were dressed for a couple of hours outside in the cold.
    Some people behind us exclaimed, “I guess you’re going to the Rally” and we gave the affirmative.
    Soon nearly everybody in the car started talking excitedly of going to the Rally and the events of the past week.
    All supported PMSH and by the time we got down to the City Hall Station, it was about 10:50 AM, about 200 people debarked from our C-Train and walked straight over to the rapidly filling Olympic Plaza where the Rally was already underway.
    After some semi-organized chants we were lead in a rousing chorus of “Oh CANADA” which we sang again at the conclusion of the organized part of the Rally.
    Alderman Rick McIver lead us in a moment of silence for the Polytechnique(sp?) Massacre and another period for the three infantrymen we lost yesterday.
    Monte Solberg speechified, after Rick McIver and Jason Kenney, and said we had about 2500+ people there.
    (my opinion was we had a few hundred more but I guess Monte was just being conservative)
    Mayor Bronconnier was notable by his absence and so was Joe Clark who stood for Calgary Center in 2000.
    (apparently leading the Gay Pride Parade is more up Joe’s alley then leading the Rally for Canada like retired MP Monte Solberg did)
    The CBC was notable by it’s absence but there was a CBC Radio van.
    (of course on Radio you can say there were 50 people at the Calgary Rally and who is gonna dispute it with a picture?)

  34. Good pic, Kate! Sadly, I’m not surprised that two of these punks are hiding behind their sign! And yeah, quite a contrast between them and the REAL Canadians whose moment of silence they chose to disrespect! Come to think of it, I’d hide, too…

  36. I was at the Saskatoon rally. I think one of the “punks” hiding behind the sign was actually a little kid. The other was likely the Mom. The left indoctrinates them early.

  37. I was one of these (let me remember the names people called us) socialist, bolshevik, communist, hippie, racist, traitors. I will apologize for us having spoken when they honoured the recently deceased soldiers; the speakers weren’t very loud, and I doubt any of us knew what was being said at the time.
    I recall that despite claiming to be “unifying” Canada, Conservatives and some of their supporters have been very hostile to anyone who disagrees with them. I’m a history major, and I know that Conservatives aren’t “fascists”. On the other hand, we were called communist agents (apparently, we still work for Stalin?) at the rally, and someone told us to “go back to Russia”.
    There is the obvious hypocrisy of saying Stephen Harper “respects Quebec” right before dismissing Bloc MP’s as evil separatists who have no right to be involved with politics. Even if most of us disagree with their objectives, 1.3 million Quebeckers voted for the BQ, and have the same democratic rights as everyone else. They wanted good politicians to represent their interests (more than just separatism). If the Bloc wishes to prop up a gov’t, as it did several times for the Conservatives in the last Parliament, it can do so.
    I won’t say that everyone at the rally was hostile. Some of us had some good one-on-one, reasoned, debates, without the insults and threats that others prefer to use. Hopefully things calm down before Christmas, though it will pick right up again at the end of January.
    By the way, I’m the one on the left of the picture holding the yellow sheet, in case anyone wants to have a nice discussion about Canadian democracy.

  38. G’Day maz2 !
    In another news item….just who cooked up the whole rotten coalition anyways?
    Ralph Goodale (from Regina).
    And Marlene Jennings (from Montreal)

  39. Oh, and for being fair and balanced, I saw some children in the anti-coalition crowd. There were also some of those “punk college students” on the opposite side as well.

  40. In Nanaimo we had a great rally, with more than 100 people attending. The crowd included families and pensioners and happily lots of younger men and women. Plenty of great signs and lots of Canadian flags.
    This being historically NDP territory, they of course had to stage a counter rally directly across the street. Thankfully it’s a busy throroughfare right downtown, so conflict was avoided. They were a scruffy, older crowd, many of whom I recognized as the hard-core NDP crowd. I can guarantee there wasn’t a single Liberal party member in the bunch. Another thing that wasn’t amongst them was a Canadian flag. Not a one.
    And while our group broke out in several rousing choruses of O’ Canada – in fact I got ‘pre-empted’ when they started before I could ask for the first round. The other guys : nothing but some anti-Harper chanting. They really do hate Harper more than they love Canada.
    I had walked across the road to take a ‘long shot’ of our crowd and one of the NDP’ers started to take a picture of me. I pointed to the ‘I Support Our Troops’ logo on my shirt and said “make sure you get this, too”. The guy yelled out to his fellow loser’s that they too support the troops, shouting, “bring the troops home, they’re being slaughtered by George Bush”.
    Not much point in trying to point out that our troops were first sent to Afghanistan by “their coalition partner” the Liberal party or that as of the forming of th coalition, their own party leader apparently agrees.
    I was very proud to be part of our rally and to see so many who care.

  41. I have telephoned to protest that the local CTV Montreal supper newscast said that our rally ended early because we wanted to hide our small numbers. The rally was from 12:00 to 2:00 and we started packing it in at 1:55 because we were cold and had done our thing. There were maybe 60 people there, some who drove in from Sherbrooke. Mostly francophones. Meanwhile the pro rally was all union people with union signs so they make no bones about whom they represent. Christian Paradis the Conservative Minister was at our rally as well as Pierre-Olivier Brunelle the Con. candidate in Pierrefonds-Dollard. Thanks to everyone who turned out. Nothing so far on Radio Canada (I saw RDI there). We did get coverage on the number one English station CJAD!

  44. “There is the obvious hypocrisy of saying Stephen Harper “respects Quebec” right before dismissing Bloc MP’s as evil separatists who have no right to be involved with politics. Even if most of us disagree with their objectives, 1.3 million Quebeckers voted for the BQ, and have the same democratic rights as everyone else.”
    ~Derek
    Yes, Derek, 1.3 million Quebecois voted for the Bloc and not only do they have the same democratic rights as everyone else, the Bloc were given respect at the Calgary Rally today as being part of the group of 308 MPs who were working to serve Canada.
    Well, you can imagine that the group of people within my earshot disagreed.
    Why? Because we all know that the Bloc exists only to destroy Canada.
    Yes, we give them the right to take part in our political process.
    The Coalition even wants to give them 6 seats in the Canadian Senate.
    Perhaps you don’t know, Derek, that Canadian Senate seats are for LIFE?
    Imagine a separate foreign Quebec nation, with these Six Bloc Quebecois Senators-for-Life with dual citizenship still throwing a monkey-wrench into the Canadian political process and demanding a transfer of wealth from Canada to Quebec.
    Yes, Derek, I call that EVIL.

  45. Having watched the YouTube video with that old gasbag CBC ‘star’ Mary Walsh, reminded me of how old and tired that “hey ho, hey ho (fill in the blank)has got to go” chant has become.
    Oh and the appropriation of the “Yes We Can” meme of Obama’s was very orginal too, dontcha think!
    No wonder the ‘gang of three’ party is going down: they haven’t had an original idea in years.

  47. In addition to my Sentinel e-mail address receiving anti-coalition stuff, my own personal (not related to my online moniker) email inbox is already receiving stuff from concerned family members of mine in Ottawa, who are well aware of the situation and are alarmed and opposed to the so-called “coalition”.
    One email from a family member was actually of a Blogging Tories post mocking Stephane Dion… another was a forwarding of a petition against the “coalition”.
    Clearly, Canadians are no longer apathetic, no longer think politics is something they can afford to ignore. Clearly also, the Left miscalculated that they would either be supported against the supposdly “scary” Conservatives or that the People just wouldn’t care. Boy, were they wrong, and, boy, did they awaken a slumbering juggernaut of Public Opinion against themselves…
    This is of the magnitude of the Quebec referenda and threatens to equal the magnitude of the FLQ crisis, potentially…
    But I do believe that, after the break, cooler heads will prevail. There are those in the Liberal Party who will not go along with a coup, and, should the coup go ahead, the Liberal Party just might splinter into at least two factions, further splitting the Left-wing vote. Funny how Iggy seems prepared to blame it on Harper, daring him to split the Liberal Party… well, Iggy might get his wish, still…

  48. Kate, simply the best :-). Those creeps had it coming :-).
    That said: What a great day for freedom-loving people all over the world engaging in free speech freely gathering to petition for redress of grievances…
    Shame on the CHRC and the Supine-Socialist-Seperatist Bloc.

  49. “Perhaps you don’t know, Derek, that Canadian Senate seats are for LIFE?” – Oz
    I didn’t know that, because it’s not true. Senators can only stay until age 75 (this has been the case since 1965). Did I forget to mention I’ve taken courses on the Canadian parliamentary system? Besides, the rumour of giving Senate seats to the Bloc is as sketchy as the coalition appointing Elizabeth May as Environment Minister, or Stephen Harper rushing in new Conservative Senators if he knows his gov’t will fall. There’s a lot of rumours and innuendo swirling around in this period of tension, but we must be careful not to use them to defend a position.

  50. Pretty pathetic Dionski rally in Toronto, no wonder he was late for it, who wouldn’t be? Maybe he had to get fortified at a local bar.
    Noticed the Queen of hand gestures and empty flak, Carolyn Bennett and perpetual loser Syd Ryan were among the faithful there with him.
    They are in such disarray, divided in camps and no one seems to know what the others are up to.They seem to all be winging it on their own, certainly Rae and Iggy are. It’s a fine stinko mess and certainly they have to be told they’re in no position to offer themselves up to govern any time soon.
    John Manley has it right, they should get back to work and rebuild the party.

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