The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

Update: I mis-attributed a line by Rob Rishchynski (Green Party) to Lorne Gershuny (Marxist-Leninist Party). This has been corrected.

• I’ve got more notes. In fact, I took notes for the entire meeting. They’ll take a little time to transcribe, but I hope to get some of that done later tonight.
• I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be in the sort of town meeting that you often see on The Simpsons or Gilmore Girls. The all-candidates meeting was probably a close approximation.
• A shout-out to my fellow bloggers who were there: 
• Melanie from Chandrasutra (whom I met when Seb Paquet came to town)
• Ian from False Positives.
• I’d also like to once again thank Michael “The Darker Side to Rants” Kalus for shrinking the raw video to something manageable and posting it to YouTube. My iMovie evaporated in the last system update, and Michael stepped up and saved me a lot of trouble. All this wouldn’t have been possible without your help!
• Although they weren’t of voting age, a couple of kids were allowed to “jump the line” and pose questions to the candidates. I think that was a nice touch.

• Transcribing Terry Parker (Marijuana Party) doesn’t take much effort. His responses to questions were always one of these:
• On issues related to crime: “mumble mumble ending the prohibition on marijuana mumble mumble will solve this mumble mumble mumble.”
• On issues like the Island Airport: “mumble mumble mumble I don’t know what the party stance on this issue is mumble mumble will have to consult mumble mumble.”
• On issues like healthcare, tuition fees and other programs that require lots of money: “mumble mumble tax revenue mumble mumble legalized marijuana mumble mumble $2 billion mumble mumble.”
• On energy and the environment: “mumble mumble hemp mumble mumble renewable resource mumble mumble mumble fuel mumble forests mumble.”
• On other issues, such as the Copyright Pledge: “mumble mumble pass.”
• Okay, were any of the candidates willing to take Michael Geist’s copyright pledge?
• Terry Parker, Marijuana Party: “mumble mumble pass.”
• Rob Rishchynski, Green Party: Yes.
• Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party: Yes.
• Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party: Yes.
• Sarmite “Sam” Bulte, Liberal Party: Are you kidding?
• Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party: Yes.
• Question I wish I’d asked: Terry, are you high, and if so, are we talking just a little crispy, or full-on baked?

• Candidate for whom I have the most pity: Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party. I may not buy into his politics, but he carried himself well, spoke eloquently and made some statements that sounded like they came out of Wired Magazine (my favourite was his statement on the inadequancy of the current system of government: “A 19th-century invention run by 20th-century parties trying to solve 21st-century problems”) Oops — that was Rob Rishchynski’s (Green Party) line — Joey. He was also the only one who made some kind of statement about Canada’s foreign policy and its military role in world affairs. In spite of all this, if past voting history is any indicator, he’ll still get fewer votes than the Marijuana Party’s Terry Parker, who had all the presence of (ahem) a potted plant.