Monday, July 12, 2004

pancakes from a possible future PM

pancakes from a possible future PM

Every year at this time, Calgary turns into a ten-day party. Yep, it's Stampede time again.

The entire city gets right into it. One of the main traditions associated with the Stampede is the Stampede Breakfasts, in which various city businesses and organizations feed thousands of people breakfast of pancakes, sausages, and fried potatoes - for free. There are several Stampede Breakfasts held on each day of the Stampede, at various locations throughout the city (as well as a few of the suburbs).

Today, I went to the breakfast put on by the CBC studio. When I finally got to the front of the line (after about an hour of waiting - there were over a thousand people there), I was very surprised to see none other than Stephen Harper, the current Official Opposition leader in Parliament, flipping pancakes.

He's a lot bigger than I thought he was - just over six feet tall, probably about 200 pounds. Somehow he always looked like a smaller guy on TV, more around my size (5'8", 175 pounds).

Jeebus, I couldn't believe how nervous I was to talk to him. I managed to stammer out something like "You keep their (the Liberals) feet to fire this coming year, y'hear?" - he told me he would do what he could.

It was very odd to see the leader of the Conservative party volunteering his time for the CBC, which treated him and his party very badly in this past election (the CBC has, over the years, become the propoganda arm of the Liberal party). I know that in his position I sure wouldn't have helped the CBC out - I guess it goes to show that he is a bigger man than me in more ways than one.

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