Last Thursday I traveled to Ottawa (about a 5 hour road trip from Toronto) with my daughter and the rest of her school choir as well as several parents. This choir was having the privilege of performing in the national Yom Hashoah ceremony on the steps of the Parliament Building, along with Canadian dignitaries, international ambassadors and numerous survivors, who would be having the privilege of laying wreaths in memory of countless numbers who'd died in the Holocaust.
The choir children, grades 3-6, were excited by this honor and had started official countdowns to their Ottawa trip. The previous evening, they'd performed at the main Toronto Yom Hashoah ceremony, an annual event.
Giddy with excitement, my daughter had continually told us, "Stephen Harper, the prime minister, might be introducing us."
Needless to say, Prime Minister Harper was not there on Thursday, apparently off on other official national business.
When we left Ottawa, I called my husband to tell him we were on our way and to expect us around midnight; my youngest had picked up the extension, but my husband told him to get off so that we could talk. A few moments after I'd hung up with Ron, the cell phone rang. I thought my husband was calling me back...
Me: "Hello?"
Noam: "Hi, Eema."
Me: "Hi, Noam."
Noam: "Where are you?"
Me: "In Ottawa. We're on our way back to Toronto. We're on the highway."
Noam: "What did you do there?"
Me: "I went to see Adina and the choir sing at the parliament building."
Noam: "Was Stephen Harper there?"
Me: "No he wasn't."
Noam: "Why not? Where was he?"
This recently-turned-eight-year-old expected me to know the prime minister's agenda! I didn't expect him to know who our country's prime minister was!
I relayed the story to my mother. She relayed it to my father. My father is relaying it to everyone!
You can catch a glimpse of the choir in this short news video bit:
http://www.achannel.ca/ottawa/news_56560.aspx
