Long Post

Well, longer anyways. In case people out oni the blogging world are worried that I got kidnapped by an Ignatieff supporter and am being held hostage for the support of other Kennedy delegates. Nah, I actually posted the clip of me on Global from my dad's house in Belleville.

My weekend - Very cool. We arrived (I hitched a ride with the other Kennedy guy from Prince Edward - Hastings... Prince Edward, as in the county, not the island ;)) in Montreal late late late Thursday night, almsot Friday morning to be exact. By the time I got settled into my hotel room (fancy shmancy room at the Delta ;)) It was after one when I got to bed - doesn't bode well for the 6 am wake up call. Up first thing Friday morning to head to the Palais de Congres to register. Registration was open from 7 to 9, but there was a Gerrard Kennedy Rally thing at 7:30. So finally after the Rally grabbed some breakfast and headed back to my hotel room for a bit. Not realizing it would be several hours before returning. I had brought clothes with me to run in, but hadn't taken into consideration how dead I would be, so instead I crashed for about an hour and a half in my comfy king sized bed and it was wonderful.

Back to the convention hall it was. Time, 2:00, wouldn't get back to my hotel room until close to 12:00 that night. The next several hours were spent cheering, waiting in line to vote (for a long long time, they were apparently having computer problems), watching the speeches and cheering some more. By the time we were done at the palais de congres, it was probably 9:30, and I headed back to the Hyatt with John (guy from my riding - The Kennedy contingency was at the Hyatt, they were full when I booked so I was in the wrong hotel). The Kennedy Team was having a Party that night, so we got some dinner and then headed down to the main bar for the party. After waiting in line for 30 minutes and not getting served we decided to leave, me back to the Delta, John Upstairs (Note to self - should you ever chose to go to one of these again, book your hotel early to ensure you are in the same hotel as everyone else - I was in the Ignatieff hotel as it turned out).

I got back to my hotel room at around 11:45 and decided I wanted to stay up to see the results from the first ballot which were set to be announced at 12:00. In the meantime I arranged my wake-up call for 6:00 again so that I could run in the morning. Turns out they were announced the results late (like 12:20) and I couldn't just go to sleep I had to watch the analysis and what not, so again, didn't get to bed until 1:00. Ooops. I was embarrassed to call and rearrange my wake up call so decided to just grin and bare it. In the morning I ran on the treadmill for about 40 minutes, and felt awesome. I've lost a bit of weight, and am really noticing a difference in my running :). didn't stop me from being dead tired though.

I decided to pack up everything then and bring it over to the hyatt to leave with John so that we didn't have to head back to the delta later on. In my rush to leave in the morning I managed to forget 1) my laptop charger, 2) my brown hearing bone tweed dress pants, 3) My new blue button down dress shirt. Damn. Didn't realize this until Sunday morning. Hopefully as we speak these items are finding their way back to me via puralator or Fed ex. The first vote Saturday morning (2nd ballot) ran smoothly and we were in and out quickly. Waiting for the 2nd ballot results took forever, and we were all a bundle of nerves when they started reading out the numbers. It was sad when Kennedy failed to bring in much new support from the candidates that had dropped out and we were clearing in 4th place. We all thought that he had done exceptionally well with the speech the night before, but I guess others didn't feel that way.

While waiting in line for the next vote I was informed that Kennedy had dropped out and was asking his supporters to back Dion. I was okay with that since I had been impressed with Dion's speech the night before - And Ken Dryden actually, that one surprised me. So the rest, you hopefully know. Kennedy supporters were very loyal to him and over 90% followed him to vote for Dion. Dion surged into first, Rae was dropped. Rae supporters went more to Dion then Ignatieff (even though they weren't told which way to go by Rae) and Dion won on the 4th ballot.

After the votes were counted and the speeches were made we started out journey back to belleville. I was super tired and ended up sleeping for about an hour from brockville to kingston and when I woke up I knew I was in trouble - The lack of sleep over the past several weeks was catching up to me and I was getting a cold. Sunday morning sure enough, my throat hurts. Monday I came into school to try and get some stuff done before it got too bad, but Yesterday it took over and I stayed home sleeping a good portion of the day.

So how do I feel about the results? I'm content. Obviously not my first choice, but I'm happy to see Kennedy in a powerful position now and glad to see that the "old liberal" candidates did not win - Ignatieff was mainly being supported by the old Martin camp and Rae was mainly being supported by the old Chretien camp. I like that one of the underdogs one, and he one based on his message, not my the party brass saying he'd win. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction and the liberal party will get the renewal/change in so desperately needs.