Meet Hardisty, a short film by Poilievre.
Sunday, June 29.
Clem here.
I caught a ride from a strange Easterner yesterday - but aren't they all a little strange? I was heading down to my cousin's place in Hardisty. The driver seemed a nice enough guy, friendly as hell, casually dressed. Although he did look like more of a suit guy - I mean, who irons a crease into jeans? And those boots looked new enough to squeak.
But as I said, friendly and quite a talker. He did have some GoPros stuck up inside, so maybe he has a blog or something. I didn't get a chance to ask.
He kept going on about the town and the people, how rich they all were, how billions in revenue flowed through Hardisty every year. I guess he meant the pipeline. He said each of the 623 residents was worth $150 million because of that, too. I'll have to remind my cousin, since it seems I'm always the one paying for the pizza.
He said his name was Pierre, but he assured me he was not from Quebec, but lived in Ottawa. He did say he'd been born and raised in Calgary, and so shared very deep roots with the area, like so many in Hardisty. I said for most here, those roots go back to when their parents came here from the East Coast, but he seemed eager to debate the point with me, so I let it slide.
I think he just got here a few days ago for the first time, but he seemed pretty keen already on the town and the people. He kept waving at everyone with a big fake smile, so much so that I had to slide down a bit in my seat. He said he was looking forward to doing great things for the area, but I wasn't sure what he meant. I told him I wasn't really into politics but that we all supported Damien here in Battle River-Crowfoot. Damien's a local guy, entering his second term now, getting over 80% I’d heard, and is really involved in the community and spends a lot of hours helping us year-round. He knows what we need, and we all love him.
Pierre got a little evasive then, saying that things might change for the better, and then he started going on about how, in spite of how great he'd said things were in the area, Canada was broken and everybody in Ottawa hated the West and none of it was his fault. He started waving his arms around and going on about things like Axe the Tax. Luckily, we were near my cousins, so I just got him to let me off.
I'll have to warn my cousin about him.
Clem K.