Rally capped

While last night's coalition rally has already been discussed by Saskboy and Buckdog, I'll toss in my two cents' worth about the evening.

The rally itself looks to have been a significant success. Even in the wake of yesterday's prorogation, enough people turned out to nearly pack the venue - and they were treated to a well-organized event and interesting speeches from Fred Clipsham, Monica Lysack and Stephen Moore. While Saskboy has documented a good chunk of those, one additional comment is worth mentioning: it was Lysack, a Liberal candidate in the 2008 federal election, who rightly pointed out the need for coalition supporters to keep pressure on the Libs' caucus in order to ensure that the coalition is still ready to take office when Parliament resumes.

All in all, the rally succeeded in firing up the troops. The downside, though, is that it didn't do much to get them organized going forward. Only Moore made mention of the need to discuss the coalition through personal connections in addition to writing MPs and media outlets - and there was no apparent effort either to collect information to determine who attended, or to establish any ongoing organization.

It's understandable to some extent that information collection could have been a thorny issue given the different parties involved in the coalition and the rally. But if the coalition is going to hold its own in a difficult PR battle, this can't be the last time people from multiple parties get together to show their support and discuss what's at stake. And if organizers have to start from scratch every time they want to get people together rather than building off the interest of the people who attended last night, then that looks all too likely to put the coalition at a disadvantage.