Exactly a week ago, I had my first taste of local politics (as well as my first taste of gelato), live. It was at the last place you’d expect a heathen Atheist such as myself being: a Church.

Me, my supervisor (who is also the Christian Service Animator for the school which I attend), and my friend Chris went to a local Church, where several Ontarian MPPs (Members of Provincial Parliament) and many locals were present. Me and Chris were definitely the youngest people there, as we were surrounded by lots of elders, as well as the local university’s radio host who put the program on radio (who has Multiple Sclerosis) and a lawyer as the host of that day’s public forum. The reason why we were all there was to discuss poverty reduction, specifically within Ontario. Though there was a lot to be said about poverty reduction, there was one thing that stayed with me during the entire “production”; per se: the lack of professionalism.

Tatum Wilson, an MPP in Hamilton on the side of the Liberals, was a very brave man. He was that afternoon’s representative of the biggest target of the NDP (New Democratic Party) MPP’s, and he knew that he’d be, but he still attended. As the NDP MPPs Andrea and Paul “The Man In The Middle” (I can’t remember their last names), as I had called him before knowing his name, were discussing strategies on poverty reduction alongside Tatum, they focused more on attacking Liberals rather than discussing what their party has to offer the province on how to reduce poverty. Tatum was left to fend for himself each time, but he did so with class. It all too well reminded me of a time when I got a letter from the NDP party of Ontario, and how they kept attacking our current Premier, Dalton McGuinty. I actually counted, and the amount of times they attacked Dalton within just a few short paragraph amounted to about 6 times.

A strong benefit of being part of the event and not one of the people watching it in front of the TV set or listening to it on the radio was feeling the whole tense atmosphere. There was fire during the question sessions, especially when a man asking a question right before Chris did was making quite cliché statements that were just meant to piss Paul off. You could imagine the look on Chris’ face as he asked his questions after said man and made his idealistic and admirable yet somewhat naïve statements on homelessness and poverty in general. He was received with much applause and a “hear, hear!” from a man in the audience. Then came my question, but that wasn’t so significant, so I’ll skim right through.

After the whole production (okay, a little before it ended), I went to the Pilgrim Room and ate some food. They had delicious tea, coffee, donuts, cookies, you name it! Apart from the food, however, I had a really good time talking to the elders at some of the tables. It was really nice for me to have conversations on politics with people who actually cared for once, unlike my peers at school. I learned about all of the groups they’ve started within the city regarding different global issues such as poverty, homelessness, war, and the like. They all had so many personal experiences regarding the issues from their lives.

Someone who intrigued me very much at the Church was a man named Joseph, who had a very touching story. Joseph was a man who underwent poverty (according to him, not only physically, but spiritually and socially) after his business in England went down. He put 90,000 pounds into that business (approximately $200,000CDN according to him), only to lose it all during a stock market crisis. Worse came to worse, and he claimed his only salvation by coming to Canada to try to find work and stability. He did not find work, and was forced to go on ODSP, which provided him very little of his basic human needs. This was his story that led him there, to be involved in poverty reduction.

After this experience, I learned that there is nothing like politics living itself out right in front of your very own eyes. See it for yourself, live it for yourself. If you’re going to see your country’s future blossom, live it, don’t watch it on TV. If you’re going to see your country’s future destroyed, the same applies. There is nothing like the atmosphere of reality living itself in front of you as opposed to the reality that others are leading you to believe, because it doesn’t give you the same feeling. Tell me your stories of reality unfolding itself in surprising ways.