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Reporter's Notebook: Catou MacKinnonAction Démocratique du Québec BusCBC Online News | Updated March 12, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007 The cream pie brigade Shopping malls, home shows, bowling alleys and factories. Ask me what I’ve seen of Quebec so far... and that’s the list I can compile. Well, there’s all that, and the absolutely glorious view of the St-Lawrence from the captain’s deck on the ferry from Matane to Baie-Comeau. Sigh. But mostly we’ve been on the bus, off the bus with not much in between. Generally, each day with the ADQ camp starts with an announcement. There’s a message to get across, and that’s when we get it. The rest of the day is about gladhanding with potential voters. It’s about Mario Dumont engaging in small talk with the guy who runs a smallish company that makes big suspensions for big rigs. Or about the ADQ leader risking a roll in the gutter in an attempt to throw a strike at a bowling alley. “On compte sur vous!” is an ubiquitous line, thrown out several hundred times during the campaign. “We’re counting on you!” Translation: Vote for my team, please. Pretty please. We the media follow obediently, with cameras, microphones and notepads in hand. Waiting. For what you may ask? It’s unlikely there will be story to tell after one of these public appearances. Perhaps there’s an anecdote about a certain leader who refuses to dip a fruit brochette into a chocolate fountain at a home show in Rimouski, unbelievably enough, because that leader DOES NOT LIKE CHOCOLATE. Who knew? The real reason we stay on alert is because the potential for trouble is always around the corner. After the August 2000 incident when a man threw a pie into Jean Chrétien’s face in Charlottetown, there’s always a chance it could happen again. And who would want to miss that? In Chicoutimi, a woman charges Dumont for not caring enough about teenagers. In Louiseville, Duplessis orphans stand outside a printing press to confront the ADQ leader. Then in Terrebonne, a black student questions Dumont on his stance on ‘reasonable accommodation.’ And finally, last weekend in Quebec City, people who fought unsuccessfully
to keep the 75-year old zoo open want to have their say. There’s always
a chance a politician will say the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong
time. And we have to be there. March 1 Oh, the wonders and the horrors of technology. It’s been just over a week since the campaign started – and this trip has yielded many surprising, frustrating and wondrous moments. First, the logistics. There are three buses. The caravan includes ADQ leader Mario Dumont’s bus (plastered with his photos), followed by the TV reporters’ bus, and finally the radio and written press bus. Our desks are like condensed micro-offices spread across two bus seats. There are desk lamps, pen holders and power bars to plug in cell phones, computers and Blackberries. There’s a microwave, toaster and coffee-maker at the back. Fridges too! And case you’re wondering, there’s water, pop and yes, beer in the fridges. There’s also a wireless internet connection. It’s supposed to help us transmit practically instantaneous reports from the bus. Sound recorded one minute in La Baie in the Saguenay, can be broadcast shortly after throughout the province or the country. Unfortunately for me, that didn’t happen for three days last week. Turns out there were 10 of us trying to log on to that wireless connection at the same time. Picture 10 football players elbowing their way into a space the size of a bedroom closet. Finicky computer software, intermittent signals and an occasionally uncooperative laptop can also be blamed. I wasn’t the only one experiencing technical difficulties this past week. In St-Raymond-de-Portneuf, a delightful classical tune started to play over the loudspeakers during a speech. It stopped after about a minute, but not before the crowd of reporters pulled some mock waltzing moves with eyebrows raised, muffling their chuckles. Then there was the day we were travelling from Louiseville (west of Trois-Rivières) to Repentigny (outside Montreal). Despite the bus’ state-of-the-art GPS system, we ended up heading north, instead of west. A good old fashioned paper map helped guide us back to the right path. But it’s amazing what does work. I did (after many long frustrating phone calls with computer experts) finally manage to send a story. And frankly, on a bus travelling rural roads all over Quebec, at 80 or 100 kilometres an hour, it’s amazing you can grab a signal out of the air that allows you to browse web pages to find the latest information on the next candidate you’re about to meet. We also have travelling sound systems and technicians to broadcast politicians’ voices into speakers and into our recording machines. What’s also amazing, is that everything works outside, in minus 25 degree Celsius weather. Add to that, we save 1,500 pages of paper each day by having a press review available to us on a data storage device the size of a keychain. So yay, technology, thou art my friend. For the time being, anyway, until you fail me again.
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About The Author »
Catou
MacKinnon started her career as a newspaper gal, reporting from Bathurst
where she covered aboriginal issues, the fisheries, murder and drug conspiracy
trials, lived first-hand the sublime joy of an Acadian Tintamarre... with
a little hockey thrown in for good measure. She discovered the joys of radio when she joined CBC Radio in 2000. She was the New Brunswick correspondent for Maritime Noon before leaving for 'la belle province' in 2004.'
She is based in Quebec City, reporting from the ADQ bus for this 2007 campaign.
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