Maxime Bernier in Welland
September 15, 2024
Highlights and lowlights from yesterday’s trek to and from Welland to see PPC leader Maxime Bernier:
1. Take the whole tree?
2. Wings on “Tueday” . . .
3. Tours for future students or student tours in the future?
4. Sitting across from me on the Welland-bound regional bus was a girl from Toronto toting a skateboard with the Arsenic brand. Yes, there is such a thing.
5. At Niagara College, a passenger spotted a couple of young kids madly running after the bus and told the driver. So he waited for them. Once again, this is not the Old Country.
6. Assorted scrap metal and a free bicycle tire and tube . . .
7. Walking into the grounds at Club Richelieu, I spotted a “no backpacks” sign from the PPC. Yet I was hardly the only one there with one and no one was stopped. For the record, I had taken a backpack with me when meeting Stephen Harper. Security was very professional when searching it, and there was otherwise no problem.
8. The sound system absolutely sucked and I was barely able to understand a word of what the younger kids who spoke had to say.
9. A middle-aged woman who obviously had a few too many was heckling the second of the speakers, who, from what little I could gather, was going to be a candidate somewhere in Niagara. After the drunk was repeatedly asked to be quiet, they finally had to escort her off the premises. I just hope she wasn’t driving.
10. Warming up the crowd for Maxime Bernier was . . . an Elvis impersonator. Really? I was almost embarrassed for the PPC.
11. It was an interesting demographic in attendance, mostly older “country folk,” as a former friend might say. Friendly and fervently patriotic. Yet I got the feeling I was in the middle of a “fringe” crowd in spite of the fact that the PPC’s common-sense policies are hardly radical. Far too many normies have been convinced that wokeism has become the new normal.
12. Peter Taras, the candidate for Niagara South, was a good speaker, but he kept using the word “compassion™” in his speech without acknowledging the trademark held by our former mayor.
13. Video of Bernier’s 24-minute speech. He is not an articulate speaker, but what he has to say makes sense. Which is why I voted for him when he ran for the leader of the CPC.
14. Signs around the grounds:
15. While walking back to Seaway Mall, someone in a pickup truck rolled down the window and bellyached in my direction about the all the PPC signs on River Road. “Has there been an election called?” he asked. “Look at all the signs. That’s pollution.”
16. While waiting for the regional bus at Seaway Mall, a cyclist with a boom box blasting music at full volume strapped to his handlebars went by. Welcome to Welland.
17. Nearby was a dude covered in tattoos wearing a black T-shirt with the message, “Of course your opinion matters, just not to me.”
18. Also while waiting for the bus, a couple of inbreds sauntered by this sign and asked those of us waiting if this was the bus stop.
19. Among those waiting was a young mother with her child. In the stroller was a large pink purse with the $59.99 price tag still attached.
20. On the return trip, I felt like genuflecting when I finally saw the “Welcome to St. Catharines” sign. During my entire time in Welland, I had that “Calgon, take me away!” feeling.
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