Calgarians brought their umbrella to help them brave the intense rain as they waited for a chance to get their Forever Canadian lawn sign. The movement’s unity bus stopped at the Renfrew Community Association in northeast Calgary Sunday afternoon at one of two pop-up events in the Calgary area. Former Deputy Premier and Forever Canadian petition proponent Thomas Lukaszuk met with supporters. “This is amazing. It’s pouring rain outside, and there’s a lineup around the block, and that just shows you how passionate Calgarians and Albertans are about being Canadian,” he said. Since opening the Forever Canadian campaign headquarters in Edmonton May 23, Lukaszuk estimates they have handed out about 5,000 lawn signs. “We haven’t been tested in our generation on our pride and love for this country,” said Lukaszuk who says Albertans tell him being Canadian is not where I live. “It’s who I am, and how dare anybody attempt to take that away from me, and that is the emotion, the feeling that motivates people to stand in the rain to collect lawn signs,” said Lukaszuk. Lukaszuk says he will spend the next five-and-a-half months crisscrossing Alberta in the Forever Canadian Unity Bus to hand out lawns signs and encourage Alberta to vote to stay in Canada on October 19th. He says we have to win this vote, this referendum decisively. “We have to send a signal, not only to our Alberta government, but to the rest of Canada, but most importantly to the world, that this country cannot be broken up, that we are solid, there are no cracks in this country. We have to be unified at this point in time in these very turbulent geopolitical times,” says Lukaszuk. A similar pop-up event was held in Red Deer Sunday where Lukaszuk estimated 400 people braved the rain there to collect a lawn sign.
