Tuesday April 15th was a memorable day for me. I got the phone call right around 6pm telling me about a hockey game between the Conservative MPs and the Liberal MPs taking place here in my riding to raise money for the Bell Kids Help Phone.
I quickly grabbed my Conservative Party baseball cap and scooted on down for the 8pm start.
Walking into the Bell Sensplex, I had no clue which rink to go to but noting one gentleman wearing a small earpiece, I immediately asked him “So which rink is the big game being held in?” He chuckled and pointed to the main rink to the left. You have to love government security guards!
I made my way into the mostly empty stands and waited for the game to start. About 815pm or so, the players started showing up on the ice for warm up and it was clear that more than just MPs were going to be playing when a young Ben Harper skated out on the ice for the Conservative team.
It was right about then that the Prime Minister made his way behind the bench to coach the Tories.
I spent the evening with a group of Conservatives including my MP, the Honourable Gordon O’Connor and Ottawa South nominee Elie Salibi in cheering on the boys in blue.
Conservative fans clearly outnumbered the Liberal fans, but it was nice to see Martha Hall Findlay show up to cheer her team on. Highlight number one of the evening was watching her belt out one heck of a finger whistle when the Liberals scored. She probably whistles better than anyone I know!
Highlight number two came in the second period when Ben Harper skated up the left wing, crossed the puck off the right wing boards where Gord Brown played decoy leaving the puck for speedster Patrick Brown who slid it down low where Ben Harper deflected the puck into the net on a great give and go tip in.
Highlight number 3 happened between the 2nd and 3rd period when the Prime Minister came around to the stands and had photos taken with pretty much everyone who wanted one. It was a pleasure meeting him again.
After one more full period and a five minute scoreless overtime, the final score was 5-5.
Post game there was a small party upstairs in the restaurant/bar where most of the players and a few spectators enjoyed some socializing. I was lucky enough to have my picture taken with the Honourable Jim Prentice and MP Dean Del Mastro who played one heck of a game between the pipes.
A friend of mine wanted his picture taken with Stephane Dion who showed up after the game. After taking two photos of friends with M. Dion, Martha Hall Findlay jumped up and took my camera so I could get a shot with him. I must note, that I am proud to say I wore my Conservative Party baseball hat in the photo. I thanked her and congratulated her on her recent win in the by-elections.
All in all the evening was a treat because it said to me that despite the battling in Parliament and on the ice, all of those involved got together for a good cause and enjoyed some friendly mingling together afterwards. And although the game ended up deadlocked, the winner was the Bell Kids Help Phone.
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Sounds like fun and it’s nice to see often bitter rivals come together for a good cause. There might be hope for humanity yet. (real conservative)
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Great Story. Nice to see the Prime Minister and his son Ben getting away from the Ottawa opposition & media smears and getting onto the important things in life. Family and STANDING UP for Canadians. What a pleasure to read a story about REAL people in this crazy Liberal world.Seems the only people affected by all this are the perperators themselves with their army of Liberal cameras…..swat swat those fly’s.
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Great story, that would have been cool to see.
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What a refreshingly great story…thank you for sharing. Now why can’t the MSM get on board for things like this and tell the tale on the national? Might show all the politicians in a different light.
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Thanks for sharing this story. It sounds like a great time. I think the public gets the impression that all the politicians are angry with each other all the time, and we can see from this story that it’s not true.
Also, the CTV party clips showed all the MPs and media mingling and enjoying themselves. Too bad we don’t get more of this side of things.
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Great post! I hadn’t heard about this. Reminds us that no matter what we think about politicans, they are human too. They like to laugh and having a good time.
If I hadn’t been so miserable writing exams right now, I would have come out to Kanata to see that! Probably would have been more entertaining than how the Sens have played.
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Hey — what great fun. I live about 5 minutes from the Bell Sensplex and I am so disappointed that I did not know about this event. You are lucky to have been there.
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Thats the spirit of doing something for the greater good. Its just sad now that theres liberal mp’s making claims that the CPC is stealing from taxpayers. Garth Turner was on Mike Duffy live tonight making those claims.
Maybe he should take a lesson from some of his collegues and not be so bitter.
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Thanks for the story. Well written and just plain fun to read.
Pat