Protest shuts out partisan politics
Despite enthusiastic attendance by local Liberal, NDP and Green candidates, the official portions of Friday’s global climate strike in Ottawa were free of partisan politicking.
More than 5,000 people assembled on Parliament Hill after a march through downtown Ottawa. Twitter feeds show that every local Liberal candidate running for a federal seat came out to the climate strike, including environment minister Catherine McKenna. So too, did local NDP and Green candidates.
However, the rapt audience on the lawn of Parliament was not made available for political stump speeches — as sometimes occurs at events like this. Microphone time was instead reserved largely for local activists, who took the stage and told stories, performed songs and made their case for climate action.
After the speeches, rally MC Kori Liversage said the absence of electioneering wasn’t for lack of trying.
“We had a lot of politicians want to come up, but ... this is for the people, by the people,” she said. “We’re trying to ensure that voices get heard that don’t normally have a seat a the table.”
She said she was happy to see that individual political candidates came out to march and show their support.
“The politicians, they need to listen for once. Usually they’re doing all the talking. I think now it’s time for them to listen, and then act.”
When speakers at the rally did mention the upcoming federal election, they urged only that those who are eligible to do so cast a ballot on Oct. 21. The Citizen did not observe any partisan endorsements.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Green Leader Elizabeth May were both in Montreal on Friday for what was expected to be the largest climate march in the series happening across the country. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh was at Victoria’s climate strike.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer wasn’t marching anywhere, but said other Conservatives would be. A look at the Twitter feed of every local Conservative candidate found no mention of Friday’s climate strike in Ottawa on any of them.