Page Brigette DePape stages a protest in the middle of the Senate floor during the Speech from the Throne on June 3, 2011.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Good god, from the way some are covering the rogue Senate page (I shall not give her any more glory by mentioning her name) you'd have thought she was the leader of significant stature of a historical Canadian protest movement. Were you to read Heather Mallick in the Toronto Star you'd see she has taken the comparison to some absurd dimensions.
If you need proof that the page's stunt is more about the page than her message look at the fact she is being applauded and apparently being offered employment by the king of self-benefiting outrage, Michael Moore. The filmmaker has done well for himself as one of the world's foremost celebrity protesters. No issue is beyond torquing with Moore's Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey approach to subject matter distortion.
Our mini Michael Moore executed her stunt with a similar flare for the dramatic and made sure she was the star of the show. Her public relations execution after the fact was well planned and she has taken every opportunity to seize the spotlight. Mind you, it hasn't been hard to find in some places and you wonder why some suggest that different media organizations have an agenda against the government.
Seems if the page in question really wanted "Stop Harper" message to work beyond her own individual promotion purposes, she might have tried a legitimate mobilization effort during the election campaign when people were deciding how to vote. But then again, she'd have just been one of many voices bringing forward arguments and wouldn't have gotten the exposure she has since achieved. Now it is all about her - and given her appetite for the microphone she seems to not mind that in the least.
Debate and protest are vital things in a vibrant democracy. But so is telling the truth, such as acknowledging when a stunt is a vehicle for shameless self-promotion. Nowadays most people are content to use Twitter for that kind of thing. So can we call time on our crusading page? Her 15 minutes is more than up.