Street-level Politics

This past Saturday evening was our Santa Claus Parade - a London tradition that runs through my riding in its entirety. I put it in the Parallel Parliament on this occasion because it reveals, in microcosm, what good politics should be. Have a look at the video. In it you'll see a compassionate and celebratory community lining the parade route and passing along non-perishable food items for the London Food Bank. It's quite an operation. Firefighters, dressed in their bunker gear, move through the crowd accepting the food donations. They then hand them to students, who place the bags of food in grocery carts and wheel them back to the food bank floats for offloading.  All this happens hundreds of times throughout the parade route.In the middle of it all are politicians from every level of government. You'll see our three MPPs, two MPs, our new mayor, and a good number of city councillors. I love just watching it because this is where every political representative should be - in the midst of citizens, stretching the community to reach its potential. It was a city coming together, with its political representatives smack dab in the middle of it all, sharing in the spirit.My wife Jane and I still direct the London Food Bank, now in its 24 year, but this is our favourite food drive of every year. We see our donors up-close and personal for kilometres at a time. I was also a firefighter for 30 years before I got elected and you'll see a good many of my former colleagues playing their own important role. Now, as an MP, it's a pleasure working with colleagues from all levels of government for a couple of hours or so that defines our community. Politicians cooperating with citizens right down at street level: quite a concept.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rta-Nr27neA&fs=1&hl=en_US]