Live from Montreal

A quick break from the organized spontaneity to recap last night's events.

First of all, let me say that Howard Dean rocked. He got a massive ovation when he talked about how the party should "never cede a single province, a single riding, a single vote", spoke a little French ("Fox news is going to love this" he quipped), and talked about giving power to the grass roots. Even delegates I know who didn't like the idea of having Howard Dean as the guest speaker were impressed.

What I probably could have done without was the three hour buildup to Dean's speech which featured every single Maritime musical performer in Canada. I also didn't really understand the contortionist doing more backflips on stage that Bob Rae on the constitution. Shawn Graham did a good job talking about the need for a positive message rather than constantly tearing down our opponents. I guess Tanya Cappo didn't get the memo since she proclaimed that it's only a matter of time until "voters have no choice but to return us to power". Glen Pearson was certainly positive...maybe a little too positive since he called the Liberals "the only indispensable political force in the country".

The evening was probably a little awkward for the Ignatieff delegates who had to sit through a dozen denunciations of the Iraq war from pretty much every speaker who got up on stage.

Other highlights from yesterday included one of Gerard's kids shouting at a group of us in the food court "those people are voting for my daddy". I also managed to score pictures with my two favourite federalists in the world - Andrew Coyne and Jean Lapierre.