LOL! Yup. I definitely preferred that one to "Frigid Wench". 
Posted on 03/26/2003 2:00:23 AM PST by Trouble North of the Border
FRIENDS OF THE USA Freedom Rallies across Canada
I felt it would be beneficial to start a main thread for rally information as so many events are spontaneously being organized.
Please post information here for any rallies that we have missed.
Many thanks to roadtofreedom for compiling and emailing this information.
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Here is a list of Freedom Rallies being organized across Canada in support of U.S. and Allied efforts in Iraq and for the liberation of the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein.
*Note we have included contact information because it seems that dates and times change but this is the latest information as of 12:00 AM March 25, 2003. For further information contact rally organizers.
Please make sure to visit the web posted information. You will be able to find rally information being posted and updated on the Free Dominion website:
http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10198
God bless the USA and your courageous stand. We're giving 'er heaps up here. Most rallies will be pulled together by the weekend.
God bless the troops.
God bless President Bush and Tony Blair!
Thanks for the post!
Christie Blatchford
National Post
Wednesday, March 26, 2003
TORONTO - When real estate developer Richard Diamond boarded his flight in Montreal last week, he had no idea of the forces he would soon unleash.
Mr. Diamond was there attending a family function, and en route back to his Toronto home, settled down to read his newspaper.
What he found -- a story about the booing of the U.S. national anthem the night before at a National Hockey League game between the Canadiens and the New York Islanders -- made him so heartsick that he began making furious phone calls when he landed.
Within a few days, the 42-year-old Montreal native had on his hands a genuinely burgeoning grassroots movement that will next week culminate with a noontime "Rally for America" at Toronto City Hall, designed both to give voice to those unhappy with the federal government's handling of the Iraq crisis and to show simple support for Americans.
As 33-year-old Josh Cooper, one of the first people Mr. Diamond called, said yesterday, "We're not a political group. We're not a religious group. We're not pro-war. We're not anti-war. We only want to show support for our friends in America."
Mr. Diamond appears to have touched a nerve: Within days, he had so many supporters -- Jewish, Christian and Muslim -- he kept having to find larger and larger meeting rooms, and donations were flowing in even before the group, now formally called Friends of America, yesterday set up its bank account or its Web site, www.friendsofamerica.ca.
At an executive meeting yesterday, among those at the table were Mr. Cooper, a golf camp owner who is running for the Canadian Alliance nomination in his Thornhill riding next month; Ray Heard, a senior Liberal and Bay Street executive; lawyer Andrew Muroff, 35, who was born and raised in the border city of Windsor and is licensed to practise in Michigan; a 32-year-old woman named Melony Jamieson who announced herself as proud "10th-generation Canadian" and who was one of the movers and shakers behind Nelson Mandela's visit to Toronto -- and two Americans now living in this country.
As Mr. Diamond told the meeting yesterday, organizers considered calling the group "Canadian Friends of America," but decided that would defeat one of their central purposes -- to frankly acknowledge and celebrate the close web of intimate ties, as evidenced by the connections of those at the table, that bind together the people of both nations.
As Mr. Cooper's stepmother, Helen Cooper, said quietly, "The fact that Americans live among us should make us more sensitive, not less. What about all the vacations we have in one another's countries? What about all the fishing trips they make to our lakes, the golfing trips we make down there? What about all the good times we've shared? The traditions, the loyalty, the shared civility and the ability to listen to one another?
"All that is eroding," Mrs. Cooper said. She is a teacher, rued the degraded quality of the Iraq debate and reminded her fellow organizers, "As violently as everyone feels about the [Liberal] government, let's make this thing civil."
For Cherry Tabb, president and CEO of the Herzig Eye Institute, joining the group was personal.
Her 29-year-old brother, James, is a captain with the 82nd Airborne, assigned to service in Afghanistan, last she knew, though she suspects he may now be in Iraq. "That's what hooked me," she said. "There's a lot of emotion attached to this for me."
One of the group's unofficial slogans -- "the voice of the heretofore silent majority" -- means for Ms. Tabb "being able to give meat to that voice. I want to send a message to the current [Canadian] government that they are misrepresenting many people and to the U.S. government that Canadians are being misrepresented."
Ms. Tabb, who is married to a Canadian and a landed immigrant, said she just recently hung her U.S. flag at her home, and was wondering, only half-seriously, if she would soon find "eggs on my window."
That sort of tentativeness had no place at yesterday's meeting. As speaker after speaker said, "We're proud of our relationship with the United States."
Mr. Cooper said he was most embarrassed by the anti-American tone in the country. It's one thing, he said, for Canada to decide not to send troops to fight alongside Americans. "So send field hospitals then," he snapped. "Send medical aid. Send a message of support to our friends."
The rally, which Mr. Diamond hopes will be kicked off by undetermined celebrity speakers and the playing of the Canadian and American anthems and the raising of both flags, begins at noon on April 4 at Nathan Phillips Square.
The fever appears to be spreading. Georganne Burke, who was born in Syracuse, N.Y., said Niagara Falls is planning its own rally on April 12.
In Alberta, a group is taking out an US$18,000 advertisement to tell Americans what the Prime Minister will not: "We support the U.S.A." The group of about a dozen citizens led by High River, Alta., resident Richard Wambeke is putting a quarter-page announcement in USA Today next week.
We're working on that, too! You would not believe the anger this has provoked against the Liberals! Next election, we'll be ready for them!
See this thread for a summary of Rally events to date.
LOL! Yup. I definitely preferred that one to "Frigid Wench".
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