Canada finally has a real opposition

The Ottawa Citizen:

I paid close attention to Bill C-6, the legislation that sent mail carriers back to their routes this week, as it wound its way through the House of Commons and Senate. As the NDP's filibuster extended into its first night, and then through the next day, I watched a lot of CPAC and monitored a lot of Twitter.

When I was in the gallery on the south side of the Commons, it was at least two-thirds full - and even fuller, at times. While there were a few pro-union folks in the crowd, there were also families, complete with at least one crying baby, sitting there, watching intently. And there were no doubt other people like me, who'd made the short walk from their downtown dwellings to watch some history in the making.

Beside me sat a House of Commons page. He'd worked a lot of shifts in recent days, but here he was, off the clock, watching Parliament. He explained quietly to his other neighbour all the intricacies of the House chamber: who did what, what was on that computer screen, what happened next. There was something inspiring about that kid's presence in the gallery.

So there I was, sitting beside an off-duty page, watching two young reporters explain to the country why a full House of Commons was sitting together on a Saturday evening in June.

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