Show of support
Small protest, large crowds greet Prime Minister
Ivy Inkpen didn’t take the easy road to see Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
As she stood outside the Montague Curling Club Thursday morning, Inkpen said she hitchhiked from Summerside to Montague Wednesday night and stayed behind the town’s welcome centre overnight where she made posters for her morning protest.
One of those posters said, “help me save a child.”
Inkpen said she was there to get Trudeau to commit more funding for mental health supports for children in P.E.I.
She said she also wanted Trudeau to hold the provincial government accountable for money it gets from the federal government.
“We need help now,” she said.
While Inkpen was outside, several hundred people crowded into the curling club Thursday morning for a meetand-greet with Trudeau during his first public appearance of the day.
Trudeau worked his way through a crowd that closed in around him, shaking hands and stopping to take pictures with people as they held up cameras or phones. There was no announcement, but Trudeau briefly addressed the crowd before stepping down from a platform to shake more hands and pose for more pictures on his way out of the room.
Back outside, Inkpen told reporters she was tired of empty promises from the provincial government.
“I want action now,” she said. Although Trudeau got a warm welcome from most people at the curling club, not everyone was as cheerful.
Marlene Geirsdorf, who said she had questions she wanted to ask Trudeau, including about his government’s immigration policies, booed him.
In Charlottetown, the crowd to see Trudeau was smaller as people gathered behind a railing on the waterfront to see the Prime Minister.