After that first weekend I was one of the first elected members locally to say that we have to go after the funds, to get the demonstrators to go back home, so that we could get our life back locally. I was pretty clear that we had to go to the source of what was keeping folks in Ottawa.
A number of individuals showed up at my house with pickup trucks and flags, and threatened.... I have a young family at home. Finally, we had to move out. I had to focus, obviously. I had to move my family out of the area so that I could focus on the crisis.
As you're well aware, I was hosting daily meetings with all elected members in both my community and in yours. You were part of many of those. We brought all the stakeholders, including General Manager Ayotte. We had police representation. We had the hotel...tourism, local BIAs, local community associations. I had to focus on the crisis and what I could do as an elected member. I was certainly not naive about the situation; I was quite active on the situation.
It's an uncomfortable position, because I want people to run for office, but when people show up at your house, and you have a young family, you do have a responsibility as a father.