Liberal Leadership Convention - January 26th 2012

This past Saturday, the Liberal Party of Ontario held their leadership convention at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto to appoint a new leader, replacing outgoing Dalton McGuinty. Kathleen Wynne was ultimately selected, becoming the province's first woman and openly gay premiere (hey, yay liberals?.)

With the event at such a high profile location in downtown Toronto, it grew a pretty hearty protest/rally crowd. I quite enjoy these types of atmosphere, and as such, headed down with my trusty iPhone in hand to "document" some of the afternoon's sights. Hit me over the jump to take a look!

With several high profile political figures in attendance, and given Toronto's recent history with large groups of people "rallying" or "protesting" (ha, g20 joke) it came as little surprise to see a fairly heavy police presence. That said, the police in attendance were incredibly respectful of the demonstration, and were busy more so with controlling traffic than the crowds.

these guys stood guard beside MLG on church street for the duration of the festivities.

here's one of Toronto's finest, directing traffic around the remnants of horse-y justice

barricades in front of mattamy arena in MLG, where the actual convention was held. none of the commerce conducted within the grocery store was affected. ($$)

above this, we see the auxillary (bicycle) mounted portion of TPS, on alert at the corner of church and carlton.

in addition to the police there was another specific contingent of individuals on the outskirts of the demonstrations. these of course were the media, there to document both the campaign and the arising protest/rally/demonstration.

here be two seperate helicopters seen from a few blocks back.

here's the canadian broadcasting corporation, making sure a small portion of your taxes are spent discussing how your taxes are spent

and here's even more of that money at work

as one would expect of an event with such political ramifications in today's day and age, there was quite a turn out of demonstrators. individuals from various walks of life; teachers, librarians, steel workers and students all turned out to voice their various concerns to the party and its incoming premiere.

here's a quick snap of the demonstrators marching across college, in front of maple leaf gardens.

this fellow was a real treat, marching along with the procession playing 'pipes to "mourn the loss of democracy"
or, so said the sign a fellow beside him was holding.

here's the united steelworkers union contingent making their way across college.
the fellow holding the flag goes by the hand nathankreig1 on instagram

with such a large crowd in attendance, it was fairly obvious that numerous complaints were to be voiced that day. individuals from healthcare, agriculture, entertainment, energy and fabrication industries were all in attendance with various signs and placards to voice their concerns. below is a sampling.

i agree with most of this sentiment here. except the cannibalism. i don't like rich flavours.

here's some of the OSSTF contingent, voicing their perceived actual concerns

and here's a bit of a slammish of people, concerned about education, energy and democracy it seems?

clearly, most of (if not all) of these signs had a pretty solid amount of effort put into (at least) them, specifically in terms of design elements. many were left at various locations around the church/carlton area, perhaps for newcomers to take part, perhaps by individuals leaving, or maybe just to further the visibility of each group's message. let's have a look see.

here's an example of what CUPE and STFO members were rockin'. dig the pink elephant.
these were left on the side of maple leaf gardens

here's a nice offering from the OSSTF. note how 'everyone' is symbolized by  arms of varying length and colour.
this one was (obviously) wedged into some traffic barricades.

these were left leaning against the side of a Toronto Police Services Courts van, that was obviously there to keep the peace.

all in all, the Liberal Leadership Convention was a pretty positive experience for myself (at least what i took in of the proceedings). The demonstrators and police co-existed rather amicably, and everyone was most certainly on their best behaviour (save a few cars that didn't seem to realize the roads were closed.) Loads of individuals were able to voice their concerns and, hopefully moving forward, a new premiere was appointed that will hopefully allow us to better our province.