Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau meets crowds at Lakeside Park on eve of trip to Kokanee Lake to visit brother
By Bruce Fuhr
The man who wants to be the next Prime Minister of Canada made a brief stopover in the Heritage City Sunday for an informal meet-and-greet with a crowd of 200 supporters at Lakeside Park.
Justin Trudeau, the MP for the riding of Papineau in Montreal, Que, was mobbed after stepping off Nelson Streetcar 23 with his four-year-old daughter Ella Grace.
“Incredibly beautiful day, incredibly beautiful time to be back here,” the very charismatic leader of the Liberal Party of Canada told a media scrum.
“I’m glad I brought my family (I’m) excited to get up to see Mich (Monday) and always overwhelmed by how wonderful the people are and how open.”
“Seeing the search and rescue gang, of course, really brings back an awful lot of emotions for me and just incredibly pleased to be in a place that is so important to me.”
Trudeau is on a working holiday tour through the Kootenays with his son Xavier, daughter Ella Grace and wife Sophie.
Sunday he stopped in Cranbrook and Creston before arriving at Lakeside Rotary Park.
He spent the next hour shaking hands taking pictures with an enthusiastic gauntlet of supporters that included members of Nelson Search and Rescue.
Some of those same members helped search for Justin’s youngest brother Michel in November 1998.
Michel Trudeau, 23 at the time, died when he was swept by an avalanche into Kokanee Lake in Kokanee Glacier Park. Michel’s body was never recovered from the lake.
“It’s where my little brother is,” Trudeau said when asked about the importance of Monday’s hike to Kokanee Lake with his family.
“(Michel) is in one of the most beautiful places in the world and I want to share that with my family.”
Steven Wood has only been with Nelson Search and Rescue for a year.
However, he was moved to exchange greetings with Trudeau.
“He told me that Nelson Search and Rescue is close to his heart,” Steven Wood said when asked about his brief exchange with Trudeau.
Returning to the Kootenays is an emotional time for Trudeau.
But the son of the 15th prime minister of Canada, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, also wanted to address what he’s seen happening during his glad-hand tour across Canada.
“There’s a sense of optimism about politics that we haven’t seen in an awfully long time,” Trudeau, after being introduced by Mayor John Dooley, said in a speech to the crowd.
“Some say it might be because of me, but it’s not because of me. It’s because people are fed up. People are fed up with the cynicism, the negativity, with the division, and there’s a sense that we can actually pull together and fix some of the challenges we’re facing as a country and a planet.”
Trudeau said the negativity on the hill has forced Canadians to forget about federal politics, instead focussing on how they can make a difference locally or other places in the world.
“We’re better than that and everywhere I’ve been across the country Canadians are telling me, (Justin) try to pull us together,” Trudeau exclaimed.
“Don’t play the easy politics of division and (bring) the country together once again.”
“(That’s only going to happen) when we start to engage all together as a nation and through hard work we’re going to be able to get there,” he added.
“That’s why I’m so excited about this.”
Currently New Democratic Party MP Alex Atamanenko represents British Columbia Southern Interior riding in Ottawa — a riding in which the Liberals garnered 3.8 per cent of the vote in the last election in 2011.
“At 35 seats right now there an awful lot of ridings that aren’t Liberal. So I don’t’ think about it as this riding we have a chance or this riding we don’t, I’m trying to get out to meet as many Canadians as possible,” he said.
“From coast to coast to coast everyone wants better. Everyone wants to get beyond the cynicism and negativity that characterizes out political world these days and I’m just constantly inspired by the people I meet and excited about the fact that people are looking for a change that better reflect their values.”
The last time a leader of a Federal party ventured to Lakeside Park was during the 1984 Federal Election when the Tory Blue machine of Brian Mulroney held court during an afternoon political rally.
Trudeau, first elected in the House as a Liberal MP in 2008 and then again in 2011, was named the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada on April 14 of this year.
After trekking up to visit his brother Michel at Kokanee Lake Monday morning, Trudeau continues the tour Monday in Trail.
Trudeau is also expected to visit with Rossland and District Search and Rescue Unit during the meet-and-greet, set for 12:45 p.m. at Gyro Park.
