Published by Senator Grant Mitchell on 16 March 2009
Last week was frustrating and intense for me and the Liberal Senators’ caucus.
The Senate had received the budget bill, C-10, just days before and the Senate Finance Committee was now reviewing it. There was great pressure from the government on the Committee members (I am one) to rush the bill through despite clear flaws and much public displeasure with it.
Kady O’Malley, of Macleans, sat through the entire two days of these committee proceedings which went about 8 hours on Tuesday and 6 hours on Wednesday. She blogged continuously on her Blackberry, sending her readers real time insight into what was happening. She also attended the Senate Chamber press gallery when the bill was returned to the Senate on Thursday for third reading, blogging still more.
At first, I thought she was simply using her Blackberry for all the things that each of us uses them. But, she never put it down. She was riveted to it, writing feverishly with her thumbs as she blogged the proceedings. There was a compelling intensity and urgency in her demeanor and in her eyes.
When I read her blogs, I was brought into the experience of those days again. She had captured it perfectly. It was a breath of fresh air to read of the respect she developed for the work of the Senate.
I was reminded of how much the world has changed. This realization was compounded when I saw her in the Senate chamber which is not even televised in this digital age. (It was just recently that we have been given permission to bring our computers into the Chamber). Thank you Kady for taking the time to do this work.
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