Crazy Day(s)...
It`s been a busy two days at Parliament.
On Wednesday and Thursday I was working Accueil (welcoming people to Parliament and directing human traffic) and the Peace Tower. On Wednesday I got to see the Attorney General of the US, Alberto Gonzales, as I was working under the Peace Tower when his entourage (including security) answered a few media questions, and then went into Parliament. That was my brush with fame, lol. I also saw Hedy Fry, a Liberal MP from Vancouver, and exchanged a few words with David Kilgour, an independent MP who had considerable power in last nights confidence votes.
Yesterday was busy for totally different reasons. Besides the daily protesters, more protesters started to arrive around 2. There was a big banner outside that read "Happy Retirement Paul!" I bet they were surprised.
The building was closed to tourists from 4 to 7, due to the voting in the evening, and the number of people who wanted to attend question period and the votes in the evening (no, I didn`t have the right to vote last night, it was only for elected Members of Parliament). We had a 2 hour long line for security, one hour before question period. My shift at Accueil started at 10, and there were already people lining up then for the 308 available seats in the gallery.
Later in the evening, there was more-or-less a countdown until the vote. Luckily I was off work at 6 (the doors to the gallery were locked at 5:45, as no one can enter or leave during voting), so I got to go into Centre Block and watch the non-confidence vote on TV inside Parliament.