Joe Cressy hopes to make it into the House of Commons this year as the new MP for Trinity-Spadina, replacing Olivia Chow who resigned her seat to run for mayor in Toronto. I first met Cressy in 2009 in that very same chamber but on that day, he was part of a group of about 120 protesters who, in the middle of Question Period stood up and started hollering questions at the government from the public gallery. That’s a very big no-no House-of-Commons-procedure-wise and an army of security guards ended up dragging the protesters out. I was sitting in the House of Commons press gallery that day and the public gallery from which the protest started was right behind me. That’s Joe, above, getting escorted by a security guard out of the House of Commons public gallery.
Upon being evicted from the House of Commons, Joe (in grey jacket above and below) led the gang of protesters in some rabble-rousing outside the front door of the Centre Block. The protest, as I blogged at the time (click through to find a link to listen what it sounded like) was not only noisy but bloody, too, with six arrested (and released) and two injured.
Nearly five years after that protest, Cressy, cleaned up and looking a lot smoother (see his campaign video below), has officially launched his bid to win the NDP nomination in Trinity-Spadina hopeful of a somewhat quieter return to the House of Commons.