Sunday, January 24, 2010

Proroguing protests

Have been reading the coverage of the protests against proroguing of parliament and I am underwhelmed at the numbers. A total of only 25,000 people across the country turned out to protests.

  • Victoria - 1500
  • Vancouver - 1000
  • Ottawa - 3500
  • Toronto - 3000
  • Halifax - 500
  • Edmonton - 250
  • Montreal - 500
  • London UK - 20

I know that in Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria you can get this size of crowd at the drop of a hat to almost any protest - I have been part of organizing ones in all three cities for different issues.

The very low turn out of what looks to be the typical protest crowd says to me that there the issue is not resonating with Canadians.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you should look up some of those numbers again. The total was around 25,000 but that was spread across over 60 nationwide protests which is an impressive organizational feat for a non-organization. And I think the Ottawa and Toronto numbers were MUCH bigger. Toronto was around 10,000 apparently.

Even if they aren't that big for an experienced organizer such your self I think it is very impressive for a grassroots, protests not associated with any party or union. This was just motivated strangers coming together and working hard.

Bernard said...

I have been involved with organizing protests over the years but I have never had the support of a political party or union.

25,000 nationwide is tiny no matter how you slice it. The media gave the issue huge coverage, in Vancouver and Victoria the details of when the events were happening were well publicized. If the numbers had been 10,000 at each of the 60 demonstrations, that would have been impressive.

A year ago there were protests for and against the NDP-Liberal coalition. The anti ones were roughly of the same scale as the recent ones against proroguing.

I can find no evidence that the Ottawa and Toronto numbers were bigger. Point me to them please.