Life in the Knife

A BBQ with Michael Ignatieff in Yellowknife

Posted on 18. Apr, 2011 by Shane in Events, Political

It is federal election time again and the national party leaders are making their way about the country. Today, it was the Leader of Liberal Party of Canada, Michael Ignatieff and his wife Zsuzsanna Zsohar, who visited Yellowknife to support his Western Arctic candidate Joe Handley. The event, located at Sombe Ke Park, was an outdoor BBQ. Despite the -19 degrees Celsius (+ wind chill) a few hundred interested or curious Yellowknifer’s lined up for burgers or to see the Liberal leader face-to-face, shake his hand, ask him questions, talk about the issues or even challenge him on various subjects, which brings up my next topic…

The one thing that made this leader’s visit to Yellowknife noticeable was how accessible he was. Even though his staff guided him efficiently through the event, it was obvious that anyone could simply walk up to Mr. Ignatieff and start talking – about anything – and they did whether they were Liberal supporters or not. Even the Green Party candidate, Eli Purchase (shown in photos below) was chatting it up with Mr. Ignatieff. Near the end of the one hour event, Mr. Ignatieff flipped some burgers and he even took some time out to speak one-on-one with several young adults who were carrying signs that stated that they were voting in their first federal election. Check out my photos of the event below – *Click on the images to enlarge the photos* – and checkout the video of Mr. Ignatieff speaking here.

Tags: 2011, April, April 2011, bbq, election, Election 2011, Eli Purchase, Joe Handley, Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff, nwt, Winter, Winter 2011, Yellowknife