Federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff's Liberal Express stop in Squamish had the 100-plus crowd uttering "shame to the Conservatives" while cheering for the "alternative" party, the Liberals.
And Ignatieff seemed to revel in every moment of it.
"We're gonna ride this wave [of Conservative discontentment] just as long as it can go and make this wave bigger and bigger and bigger until we get to Sussex Drive," he said.
Ignatieff's casual conversation and personal approach to any who talked to him at the Squamish Adventure Centre last Sun-day, Aug. 22, appeared to strike a chord with those in attendance.
The crowd included locals as well as Dan Veniez, Liberal candidate for West Vancouver-Sun-shine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, and several members of the Liberal caucus including, Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra), Sukh Dhaliwal (Newton - North Delta), Ken Dryden (York - Centre), Rob Oliphant (Don Valley West), Bonnie Crombie (Mississauga - Streetsville) and Senator Mobina Jaffer.
Discontent with the current government lured many of the spectators.
"I've never had a real strong sort of party leaning, but right now I feel like I better look into what the options are because I'm not very happy with who is running the country at the moment," said Ken Glover. "It's actually quite unusual for me to show up to something like this."
Ignatieff began his speech with myriad examples of where Conservatives had gone wrong.
The "problems" Cana-dians have told him about on the Liberal Express tour include shutting down Parliament, suspect firings of people who disagreed with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the lack of action on a Canadian Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr - causing several to utter "shame" in unison - not sticking up for veterans, lack of effective gun control and the recent $17 billion spent on fighter jets.
Ignatieff also poked fun at Harper's G8 and G20 summits.
"Every Canadian's heart leaped at the thought that we would have leaders of the world in our country to show them what a wonderful country it was - show them a real lake, for example, show them a nice back yard in Muskoka, show them what the black flies are like in June, give them a good time," Ignatieff said.
Instead, he said, they got a fake lake in Toronto and a bill north of $1 billion.
"There are lots of ways to rebuild the prestige of Canada on the world stage, but that has to rank as the worst way to do it that any Canadian has ever heard of," said Ignatieff.
The Squamish stopover was Ignatieff's 102nd event with the Liberal Express bus since he began the tour on July 11.
"We have been in nine provinces and two territories," he said. "A tremendous amount of politics is just showing up, and we are showing up in every community in Canada to bring a message of hope, renewal and optimism in support of fantastic candidates like Veniez.
Despite the vehement panning of the current government, Ignatieff said his party doesn't merely rely on the Conservatives' disapproval ratings to make their case.
"It's not enough to depend on the discontent with the government, we have to present a positive alternative," he said.
