When working on a campaign doesn't cause stabulence

I was up very early this morning and mum and dad took me to the airport.  It will be a while before I see them again.

My flight to Ottawa stopped in Winnipeg, a city that I changed planes in once in 1994 and the airport doesn't seem to have changed a bit in that time.  Naturally I did pushups there but they weren't really worth showing here.  On Facebook maybe.

Upon arriving in Ottawa I took a taxi straight to campaign HQ and in short order I found myself out doorknocking with the candidate.  It was good to get out and do something.  This is a guy I went to university with.  At the time I also wanted to go into politics myself but decided against it.  PP is really cut out for it though and was very diligent in his campaigning.  Much more so than most candidates I've worked with.  There was very little time wasting on his part.  The campaign was very focussed and disciplined and had plenty of volunteers.  It struck me as being a model campaign in a lot of ways.  No backbiting or pettiness (or at least none that I could see and none that got in the way of the whole point of the campaign.)

( Cut for pics )

So between knocking on doors and putting up signs, it was a productive afternoon.  Dinner meant a brief break in the campaign and was follwed by more evening doorknocking until the sun went down.  Then PP gave me a lift to my night's accommodation.  I'm in a backpackers tonight and it looks perfectly nice.

Also, a potential visit to the national campaign HQ may be in the works while I'm here.  PP is going to contact them and see what can be done.

it's a good thing that I had a lot to do today to keep me occupied.  I was starting to get a bit stir crazy.  There is often a bit of a let down after a very good time filled with new experiences, and spending a few days playing it very safe with the family after my adventures with JAQ last weekend was very much a shock to the system.  Being with the family felt a bit like playing it safe mixed with being far from home.  Corresponding with friends like JAQ and others has kept the happiness levels up these past few days, and I think I will be up for some new adventures over the next few days.

Also, I am looking at getting involved in Skype to be able to keep in touch with far away friends better, but I'm not tech savvy enough to know my way around it.

Luckycanuck is in jail

I felt a tiny bit odd yesterday while being dropped off at the backpackers where I stayed.  Nothing was implied, but part of me wondered if I could be seen as too old to be staying at a backpackers.  At any rate, I moved to new digs today.  It's another backpackers and it's located in the old Ottawa Jail.  I am staying in a cell.( Cut for pics )

No political work was done today.  I'm not sure if I will get into the central campaign HQ.  Obviously people have bigger priorities than me.  It would be great to get in and there is stil a chance, but I'm not sure if PP will come through with this networking opportunity.  On the other hand, if I can even meet some of these people socially outside of their workplace it would still be useful.  I'll probably do a bit of work tomorrow afternoon.  I'm on holiday, sure, but this is a key reason I came to Ottawa specifically and I would like to see it through.

I had dinner tonight with a friend of mine from university who now works for the Department of Foreign Affairs and has had her share of postings overseas.  It was good catching up but I do kind of wish her brother hadn't come along.  He's a nice guy, but I don't know him and it complicated social interaction and meant I couldn't be as frank and comfortable as I would have liked to have been.  Also I had bubble tea for the first time ever.  I'm not sure what the big deal is.  The place was crowded with quite a few annoying hipsters and I'm pretty sure the guy making the tea was high.