Capital Diary: NDP celebrates Movember, Diane Finley loves kids’ TV
By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, December 10, 2012 - 0 Comments
Mitchel Raphael on which MP had the winning Colonel Sanders moustache
Photograph by Mitchel Raphael
Lanny McDonald, Tom Selleck and the NDP
The NDP held a facial-hair contest at their watering hole Brixton’s to mark the end of Movember, the month-long campaign that uses moustaches to promote awareness of prostate cancer. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and MP Olivia Chow were the judges. The first category was the Jack Layton moustache. With so many young people in the NDP, Chow quipped that many were “early Layton moustaches.” In the end, the winner was Nova Scotia MP Robert Chisholm for his older version of the Layton ’stache. Most intimidating moustache, named after Calgary Flames Lanny McDonald, was a draw between MPs Fin Donnelly and Jean Rousseau. NDP staffer François Soucy took home the honour of raising the most money for prostate cancer and was given a DVD set of Magnum, P.I., starring moustache icon Tom Selleck. The “Mo’ sister” award went to MP Alexandrine Latendresse. Mulcair decided to create a new category on the spot, “The best Colonel Sanders,” which went to MP Malcolm Allen’s white whiskers. Mulcair didn’t opt for a moustache for Movember. He has had his beard since he was 18. He only shaved it all off once when he and his wife, Catherine Mulcair, went in costume for a performance of Grease—no one recognized him without a beard and wearing a leather biker jacket. Another time he shaved off everything but a moustache and again people did not recognize him. His wife said he needs to just keep the beard.
Damn those McDonald’s smoothies
Joan Crockatt, the Conservative candidate who won the recent Calgary Centre by-election, was on the Hill last week for some orientation. She says that, as a former journalist, she is aware of some of the pitfalls of being a new politician, including the endless receptions where one can pack on the pounds. Toward the end of the campaign, she said, “I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t losing weight door-knocking.” Then she realized the problem. During the by-election, she developed an addiction to McDonald’s smoothies—pomegranate, in particular. Continue…
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The official bartender of the NDP, who also teaches MPs ‘iron yoga’
By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, July 19, 2012 at 2:30 PM - 0 Comments
‘She’s an NDP spy!’…
Ottawa’s Brixton’s Pub has been the official NDP bar for
Photograph by Mitchel Raphael
‘She’s an NDP spy!’
Ottawa’s Brixton’s Pub has been the official NDP bar for years. Every Wednesday, staff and MPs gather at this Sparks Street watering hole, making it Brixton’s biggest night of the week. All the tables are reserved for them. At the centre of it all is 31-year-old bartender Julie McCarthy, who has worked at Brixton’s for nearly 10 years and has been manager half that time.
Most NDPers stick to the same drink. The draft of choice is Alexander Keith’s India Pale Ale. For bottles, it’s Labatt 50. Both are now Wednesday specials. “After all these loyal years, they deserved something special,” says McCarthy. Even the newest crop of NDPers, from last election’s “Orange Crush,” favour Keith’s, which makes it a challenge, McCarthy says, because she can only pour one draft at a time. That she knows everyone’s drink of choice means service is fast. Her vacation to France last year led to 40 messages from politicians and staff asking where she was and why it was so hard to get a drink at the packed bar.
