Today was a walk-away-from-it-all-day, and I wound up walking up to the local MP.

It didn’t start out that way, it started out as a golf day.
Not hard core 18 hole golf, the kind my siblings consistently clobber me at - mini golf.

I’m a part of a competitive family in denial.:^)
There are two mini-golf sites in the region I live in.
One is kitchy mini-golf at it’s finest, 18 holes of waterfalls, giant polar bears, a primary colours mini golf place.

We’d planned to hit the more serious and serene putting golf site first, but heading in, there was a pile of people.
For a mini golf site, it was a pile.
Lot’s of expensive cars in the lot, I figured it was The Kiwanis Club or a local church.

I got clobbered at the primary colour course, and later in the day we headed back to the more serious mini golf putting site.
The crowd had thinned, I decided to sit the game out, settle down and let the sibling rivilry countinue it’s course without me while I read “How to Be A Canadian (Even if You Are Already One) by Will and Ian Ferguson.

That book never got cracked open.
Instead my twin hollered at me to head in because the game was free.
All I had to do was stick on a name tag and get my hand stamped, because the local MP was doing a meet and greet.

Cool.
Free is good.
I walked up to a hapless volunteer and said,

“So. If I get my hand stamped, wear a name tag and say something nice about our local MP, is it true I get a free golf game?”

The look I got was priceless.
My hand got stamped, I wrote ‘Stupid’ on the name tag, stuck in on my t-shirt, thanked a volunteer for the golf club and ball and stood back.

It’s not hard to play spot the politican.
Look for the party faithful.
The ones that contribute serious money to a campaign and hang around like moths to a flame. I’d swear some people flutter. Politics can be a lonely game.

I had to do what comes next.
You know I had to.
I walked up to our MP and said,

“I watched the vote on C-38 and I didn’t see you. I haven’t looked it up in Hansard so I thought I’d ask what you voted and where you sit.”

Our local MP looked at the name tag, looked at me and proceeded to answer my question directly and honestly. That’s the kind of guy he is, and I didn’t even see the wheels turning. He didn’t glance around for an aide, give a hoverer a surreptitious glance, clear his throat, or shuffle - I got a straightforward answer with no political phrases in it.

My twin came over and said something about the name tag.
He never missed a beat.

“So, for the first time in your life you can say, I’m with stupid?”

You gotta love it.
Many of us that woefully lack wit, admire people that have it and use it well.
We yacked about the Hill, the new US ambassador, the other parties, negative campaigning, George W’s visit, the upcoming election, and I got to meet his wife.
In the background hovered a few of the party faithful.
Of course.

I excused myself and went to get trounced on the course. Both the local MP and his wife came up to say good-bye. It’s kind of what you do at a meet and greet, and it was good of them.

I told them I’d write about our encounter here because it’s a blog and I can, and I told him he was welcome to pop over anytime and just be himself.
I think it would be great if his wife stopped by if she wants to, because in all of the hoverers in that long, hot end-of-summer day, only two people thanked her for the job she does as a political wife.
That’s not right to me, it just isn’t.

Given that the seating in the House is mostly alphabetical, if you gauge using the head-on…this-side-of-the-house-camera; the local MP sits to the left and back a bit from his party leader.
After the election he’ll be back…(resist joke here)

It was a fun and unexpected encounter. Rare these days.
Oh, and yes, I got clobbered in that game, too.

I should have more walk-away-from-it-all days.:^)