Boy Van Vs. Girl Van

Day two of the Atlantic caucus roadtrip palooza is off to a roaring start.

The boys' van is on a mission: get to Halifax, and the beach. We're having a great time in the process, though our trip seems to be much akin to the Tim Horton's commercial, where the characters stop no where but Timmy's.

Our dedication to the mission at hand is hampered by our slow cousin - a second van carrying the amazonian delegation to Atlantic Caucus. Taking a break from their tireless blog post write-a-thon in order to locate a desparately needed ATM machine and practice their "suck it" motioning and stomach punching, the occupants of the Van of the Valkeries, and their hapless vict...err... driver Jay "no water before bedtime" Telegdi have taken to unleashing their karate-riffic fists of fury - lethal weapons actually - on the unsuspecting New Brunswickers on the Transcanada east... One only hopes they gave warning first.


More on this timeless "odd couple" struggle between male vigilance, and female scattered disorganization once we get to Halifax.

All that we can say so far is this: the double XX chromosome contingent of our caravan simply didn't get it done.

Dylan Stogran- Ottawa Orleans

En chemin .... (Atlantic Caucus Diary Entry 1)

C'est jeudi matin et nous venons de commencer notre voyage de 15 heures à Halifax - nous sommes dix en tout dans deux camionettes. Nous arriverons bientôt à la ville du Québec et jusqu'à maintenant les blessés et les morts incluent seulement 1 oiseau, et 2 Blackberrys - mais on verra comment la voyage se déroulera....

Ça fait seulement trois heures et déja j'ai réussi à lire tous les revues People et Us Weekly que j'ai apporté. Heureuse à vous dire que je suis complètement informée sur les actualités au sujet de Lindsay Lohan, ainsi que le progrès du divorce de Britney. Je vous le jure, c'est vraiment un temps de fun fou ici.

Je vous promets tous que la fin de semaine deviendra beacoup plus intéressante bientôt donc revenez ici souvent pour des mises à jour non seulement sur les événements importants à Atlantic Caucus mais aussi sur le status de ma santé mentale.

- Carlene

Cause to celebrate

On Friday, July 20th, Liberals young and old gathered at the active nightlife destination, the Caprice. Tiffany Glover, a Vancouver Quadra dedicated Young Liberal, celebrated her birthday with an enjoyable combination of ingenuity and generosity. The reason was as Tiffany said, “It's my birthday and there's a by-election in the air: this is "A Reason to Celebrate"! Tiffany worked hard to promote the fundraising birthday party and posted the following message on facebook.com
“The recent announcement of a possible by-election in my riding has inspired me to try something new. Instead of giving out goodie bags at the end of the party as was tradition when I was young, all of the money raised from ticket sales will be donated to Joyce Murray's campaign to keep Vancouver-Quadra a Liberal riding.”
The hard work clearly paid off when $250.00 was raised for the Joyce Murray campaign. We want to congratulate Tiffany on an excellent idea, the hard work of following it through, and a very happy belated birthday.

Cano-lotta Fun

Never having been to the prairies I didn’t quite know what to expect, I’ve seen “Corner Gas” and “Little mosque on the prairies” but I still didn’t know what I was getting into. So when I travelled to Lake Diefenbaker Saskatchewan I was amazed by everything from the long and hazy highways to the neon yellow canola fields.

I learned a lot about prairie life and what it was like. As I sat on the porch overlooking Waka lake, watching the sky that CBC has been hailing, I listened to a man speak about his distrust for the government and that he would never vote Conservative again because of their handling of the Afghanistan issue. He said “that’s a deal breaker.” He asked how we Liberals were faring and if we were going to fix the mess that’s been happening of late. I offered my best and said that it was largely up to him and people like him to make that change on Election Day. So I think that I won over at least one person over the weekend.

Jay Telegdi- Bradford-West Gwilimbury, Ont.

Ontario Experiences Camp Wanna Be Free

Although disappointed after hearing from a lifer that highway bison sightings were a rarity, our time in the "friendly province" was overall quite good. Winnipeg airport was a breath of fresh air after experiencing the early morning rush at Pearson (6.30 is an ungodly hour).

Who knew that vast yellow fields were canola? We didn't. That's why we stopped just outside of Winnipeg to take some glamour shots in a bright yellow field and investigate this oddity. We were informed by a nice local about the crop we were standing in, who gave the trademark "friendly Manitoba" smile after learning we were from Ontario. He was only about a kilometer down the road when an unmentioned member of the Ontario team stripped down past his unmentionables to streak through the canola.

The PT Cruiser is a car designed for baby boomers cruising down the strip reminiscing about their earlier years, a fact that we learned first hand. It is not a car designed to travel Highway 16, the one lane “new Trans-Canada” highway from Winnipeg to Saskatoon rife with tractors, RVs and generally slow-moving, lane hogging vehicles. Passing required accelerating from a few kilometers back, but nevertheless we made it to Saskatoon in reasonable time.

Camp Wanna Be Free was everything and nothing like I expected. As an Ontario Summer Fling regular I was used to regimented weekends with pulling and politicking – capped off with a generous dose of hospitality each night. At CWBF things seemed to meld together; fun, politics, sessions and beach time were indistinguishable but it worked. Overall CWBF was a great experience, one that I hope to experience annually!

-Kevin

Down South America Way

(Mackaycartoons.net)

"We are not going to say, 'Fix all your social, political and human-rights problems and only then will we engage in trade relations with you,' " Mr. Harper said at a joint news conference with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. "That's a ridiculous position."

For the complete article check out:

Rubbing elbows with Dion

As a thank you for doing two days of phonebanking, the Ottawa Summer Students got to rub elbows last night at District 89 with Stephane Dion and many of the former leadership contestants last night. In attendance were Scott Brison, Bob Rae, Maurizio Bevilaqua, Martha Hall Findlay, Carolyn Bennett, Hedy Fry, Gerard Kennedy.

It was a good time, for a good cause with all money raised going toward paying off leadership debts.

With 2 similar events coming up next week in Scarborough and Mississauga, those in the GTA region will have the chance to do the same.

For more information visit the Liberal Party website. To buy tickets contact Diane Mitchell at(416) 921-2844 ex 341 or dmitchell@liberal.ca

I was recently out in Saskatoon, taking a French immersion course at the University of Saskatchewan. It was very interesting to see how there is a good Francophone community in Saskatoon and in Saskatchewan in general. It was great to see that most were fellow Liberals who were quite pleased with previous' Liberal governments' decisions to support Francophone communities outside of Quebec, and this support from Liberal governments has made it easier to keep their language and culture.

What was also interesting was to meet the general public in Saskatchewan who were extremely upset at PM Harper breaking his election promises on the Federal equalization payments towards the province. It was very evident in our talks with everyone that many will aggressively campaign against Mr. Harper in the upcoming election. Another issue that agitated many in the province was the income trust promise. Now most of us don't think of income trusts and investments when it comes to Saskatchewan, but because of former Finance Minister Ralph Goodale, haling from Regina, the issue is close to home. Many seeing how Mr. Goodale's integrity was viciously attacked by Mr. Harper and others, and then Mr. Harper himself breaking his promise, they saw that as something too big to allow to just pass by. Mr Goodale is a legend in Saskatchewan and is well known for his integrity and ethics throughout the province and of course throughout the country.

Overall, it was great to see fellow Liberals in Saskatoon and have many different discussions with them on multiple issues that affected Saskatchewan and the Country as a whole.

Husain- Mississauga

Presentation- 7/7/07

This weekend I was fortunate enough to represent the young liberals at the National Women's Commission training day in Kirkland, Quebec. It was a great experience for me and I had a great time speaking with the female Quebec candidates about new media. During the presentation Mme. Krieber helped out by commenting on Blogs and facebook. She mentioned to the group of candidates to check out her favourite blogger, Jason Cherniak. J'étais vraiment heureuse quand beaucoup des candidates en mentioner qu'elles ont vu les ad Libérale, "Liberal vs. Conservative," Elles étaient vraiment fier du travail que nous, les jeunes libéraux, faisons chaque jour. It was a great experience for me and as a young woman in politics I am looking forward to working with this organization in the future.

Phonebank Marathon

Watch out Conservatives! The Young Liberals had a very successful evening of phonebanking yesterday for an upcoming event.

My Summer in Ottawa

For the past 3 weeks, I have had the opportunity to work on Parliament Hill as part of the Liberal Summer Internship Program and it has been amazing.

Being from Sault Ste. Marie and only having been to Ottawa for a few days at a time, I really didn't know what to expect of the city or the atmosphere on the Hill. I can honestly say that everybody I have met has been great and the experiences have been really fun.

During the past 2 summers, I had interned in Toronto at Queen's Park and while I really enjoyed my time there, Parliament Hill is a totally different atmosphere. One reason for that is because Queen's Park Liberals form the government, while Ottawa Liberals form the opposition. Because we are in opposition and there are fewer interns and fewer staffers, it feels more tight-knit and everyone genuinely has a good time together and from a work standpoint, it feels like everything that I do is important to winning the next election.

My time in Ottawa so far has been one great time after another. From socials at D'Arcy McGees, to parties at Stornoway, to my first Canada Day on the Hill, this has been a summer to remember. With 2 months left, I can't wait to see what else happens.

=(

Women's organizations cut staff in wake of Conservative funding guideline changes (EN) (FR). Je n'oublierai pas la prochaine fois que je...

Hamilton Youth "Take Back Canada"

The Hamilton Young Liberals started Canada Day by going to the heart of Tory country, the rural area's of our riding. We marched with our candidate, Arlene MacFarland Vanderbeek, in the Lynden Canada Day Parade. Expecting to find a frosty reception, we found the town lining the roads welcoming us to their community.

"Harper lied about income trusts," one resident told me. "I'm not going to get fooled again. You've got my vote next time around".

"We need to get serious about cleaning up the environment," another resident told me.

"We shouldn't be in Afghanistan anymore," another person said.

We finally knew that we had made an impact when a older gentleman yelled from the sides of the parade route, "Go Grits!".

Young Liberals of Canada - Toronto TakeBackCanada.ca launch!

Canada Day with Toronto's Chinese community and the youth of Canada's party with the Honourable Tony Ianno. Hundred's of TakeBackCanada.ca water bottles were handed out along with pins, stickers, Canadian flags and the facts on Harper!

NS Young Liberals Take Back Canada on the Halifax Waterfront

Amongst the crowds of tourists and native Haligonians, the Nova Scotia Young Liberals found great support for the takebackcanada.ca campaign. Within no time at all, people were seeking out the buttons and stickers, asking questions about the campaign's origins and how they could help give Harper the boot.

If ever there was doubt that Nova Scotians feel betrayed by Stephen Harper, it was wiped away today with the incredible support and interest for the Young Liberal initiative.

Below are some pictures. Enjoy!

Colin Hebb
President, Nova Scotia Young Liberals

Young Liberals Take Back Canada in Ottawa

The Take Back Canada campaign was a huge success in Ottawa this afternoon. A dozen Young Liberals took part and handed out water, pins, and flags. If you haven't seen the website yet, check it out at http://www.ylc-jlc.ca/takeback/