The former Alaskan governor came to speak and was met with both applause and protest
Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and running-mate of John McCain for the 2008 U.S. presidential election, spoke Saturday night in Calgary. It was her first appearance outside of the United States since resigning as governor in 2009.
Inside the BMO Centre, she was greeted with applause and whistles. However, not all were thrilled to see Palin in Canada.
Sarah Palin took questions from Canadian Senator Pamela Wallin as part of her speech in Calgary last Saturday.
Photo: tinePublic Inc.
“I see these people as figureheads, playing into a professional-wrestling-type atmosphere,” Jassman said. “It looks slick, there’s a whole bunch of lights, but in the end we have no say.”
Esau added: “I’m trying to let people know that they can get more substance out of a kindergarten play. I don’t see why Canadians should be supportive of a pro-war, pro-gun Looney Toon like Sarah Palin.”
Rick Grafton attended the speech motivated more by curiosity than protest.
“This is one of the most confused politicians of all time,” Grafton said. “She slowed down the development of Alaska probably more than any other governor in the history of Alaska. Then for some reason,McCain decided to make her (his running-mate for) vice president.
“I’m just interested how a woman stands for right-wing fiscal conservatives, but she’s against big corporations that make the world run, that people actually work for.”
Grafton said he was fascinated to hear what Palin would have to say, but recognized that he would be the minority in the audience.
“I don’t think I’m going to be in the majority of the crowd -- I’m not here to support Sarah Palin,” he said.
Inside the sold-out Palomino Room where Palin was speaking, the crowd was noticeably more warm and receptive. 1,200 seats were available, and tickets to the event were sold through Ticketmaster at a price of either $149 or $199 a piece.
Palin spoke on several different topics, including the similarities between Alaska and Alberta, her stance on the mainstream media, and her personal views on the direction that the American government is taking. She also touched on the topics of global warming, and the Tea Party movement in the United States, and she spoke at length about the energy strategies for the United States.
Palin’s preparation back stage
Close to 1,200 people stood in the lobby of the Palomino room on the evening of March 6. People chatted, drank wine and flipped through tattered copies of Sarah Palin’s first novel, Going Rogue.
Palin attracted many familiar faces to hear her speak; former premier of Alberta, Ralph Klein, cabinet minister, Stockwell Day, and oil-mogul, Brett Wilson from the Dragon’s Den were all in attendance.
The sold-out event was monitored by five security guards, one supervisor and four guards for Palin.
Stephanie Hansen, a prospective Mount Royal University student, attended the event solo, but said she “loved every minute of it.”
“Sarah Palin is so down to earth and I admire her for being a politician who puts her family values first,” Hansen said. “It was a really good turnout and I would like to see her run for the 2012 elections.”
Before Palin appeared on stage, she stood back stage waiting for her lengthy introduction to end. Her daughter Piper was holding Palin’s speech notes, while her mother adjusted her own hair and then gave her daughter a kiss.
Palin did not appear nervous before her speech and seemed excited as she bounded up the stairs with a smile on her face once her name was announced.
Senator Pamela Wallin called her a “hockey mom with lipstick,” during the question period.
As a reference to Palin being seen with scribbled pen on her hands during prior speeches, Wallin told the audience before the moderated question period that neither of them had written notes on their hands for the session.
Palin responded in a joking manner, “God did the same thing in the Book of Isaiah; he wrote the names of everyone on his hand.”
Overall, Palin’s audience members came in smiling and left smiling.
What’s next for Palin? She is currently shopping for a reality TV show that documents life in Alaska and has been working with producers from popular television shows such as Survivor.
- Pauline Wyntjes
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“It’s time to tap our abundant domestic resources and send them out to hungry markets at home,” Palin said. “And then co-operate with those resources and share them with our friends and our allies, so that we, who are like-minded, can be safer, more secure, and more prosperous. And doing so will make us all less beholden to unfriendly and dangerous regimes. And we will be, I believe, a safer and more peaceful world as a result.”
Remembering her audience, Palin then referenced her interest in the Canadian approach to alternative energy.
“I’ve watched what Canada has done, in terms of being realistic about renewable energy, and combining that with our need to develop conventional sources,” she said. “I’ve been really interested to see how Canada has been successful, taking steps towards renewables.
“I didn’t want any pie-in-the-sky, weird snake-oil ideas about how we were going to tap into renewable sources, because there’s a lot of snake-oil science out there.”
Palin made a few jokes, and referenced the loss of the U.S. men’s hockey team to the Canadians in the recent Vancouver Olympic games, remarking “second place isn’t that bad, I’ve been there a couple of times now,” to the applause of the crowd.
Palin also told a story about how her family used to “hustle on over to the border for health care” when she lived in Skagway, Alaska.
Several times Palin had to pause in her speech to wait for the applause to die down, and enjoyed a partial ovation at the end of her speech and a full standing ovation at the end of the question period. The questions were prepared ahead of time and delivered by Canadian Senator Pamela Wallin.
Bernice Perozni seemed to echo the sentiment of the crowd at large: “I think she’s a very articulate woman. She’s very genuine, very down-to-earth and I think she’d make a very good president of the United States.
“I hope she (runs), but if she doesn’t, I hope she might be vice president. I think we need people that serve people’s needs.”
But Palin was enigmatic about her potential candidacy for the presidential race in 2012: “I don’t know what I’m going to do with 2012, but I certainly want to keep up the messaging.”
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