Earlier this week the outdoor patios along Sparks Street were filled with young people laughing, flirting and making new friends. Nothing unusual about that.
What was different was the silver lapel pin many of them were sporting. It was the exclusive badge of office given out only to members of Parliament.
Funny thing, but the more of these under-30 MPs you meet, all of them unexpectedly elected in the orange wave of the NDP surge, the more you sense they will be a future asset, not a long-term liability, to leader Jack Layton.
They talk beyond their years, think quickly and most have an academic grounding in what federal politics is all about.
The ones without a political science background have street smarts. Consider MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who stumbled into office without having visited her riding. If crusty pro-life Conservatives start giving her grief, this single mother can retort she walked the talk and had a kid as a teenager. Having worked in a pub, she undoubtedly has conversational and put-down skills which are far superior to most veteran MPs.
I've only met half a dozen or so, but I suspect it'll be great fun watching them spring in parliamentary action next week.
Thanks to them, the average age of Canada's 308 MPs has dipped below 50 for the first time in history.
That's why it was somewhat ironic to hear interim Liberal leader Bob Rae declare that he wouldn't run for the permanent job because his party needs generational change to prosper anew.
Mr. Rae should check out the new New Democrat MPs in the House of Commons. In the Official Opposition party, it's already happened.
