Montreal to Ottawa

Well, we're back hanging out with Heather in Ottawa. Montreal was a bit of a bust, but with the rest of the footage we've got in Quebec, I can't feel too bad. Besides, Montreal always shows up in Canadian documentaries, I want more off the beaten path. So, yeah, that's why I'm in Ottawa again. Right . . .

Well, we didn't really do too much last time, so this time we popped in to the parliament buildings and did some filming. Got some nice shots of the city from the clock tower. And got to sit in and watch a bit of halfhearted debating. No cameras allowed there, and I can kinda understand why. They might be afraid that Canadians would see how unimportant these meetings/debates appear to be to our elected officials. We came while a Conservative was going on about things we'd heard a million times during their campaign. Nothing new. The Speaker (who wasn't even the usual Speaker, he was just sitting in) was texting someone on his cell phone. Or playing Snake. And not really listening. Then a Liberal got up and launched into a long, winding speech that tried really heard to make some good points, except it was really badly written, and the woman was not a speechmaker. While she was trying to get her points across, someone went up to the Speaker and they had their own little conversation. No one was listening. To anyone. The speeches had next to nothing to do with what other speeches were about. It seemed completely and totally pointless. Oh, yeah, there was maybe 20 people there all together. Granted we couldn't see the NDP from where we were. But still. It was sad. These people make too much money.

Anyway, after being completely disillusioned by the government, we went to the pub. There I got into a really cool conversation with some students about this film, and Canada and how everything fits together.