I just had a chat with the party's media person, Bradley Hammond, about it. He told me that Xtra reporter Andrea Houston (who has often been seen recording video while covering news stories) is among the list of accredited journalists at this weekend's convention. So Xtra should be able to cover the convention as well as they cover all the events they cover. Houston is a great journalist, after all.
This story however omits the fact that Houston is present and is covering the Liberal convention. She even quotes Gerald Hannon, never a friend of the Liberal Party, as saying, “You would think they would want Xtra to be there,” he says. “Do you detect a whiff of homophobia in there?”
Except of course, Xtra is here. Hopefully I can run into Andrea Houston and find out why that fact isn't clear in her story.
Space is at a premium inside the Mattamy Centre for sure. The arena is currently packed with people and signs between ballots. So I was glad to be a queer blogger accredited to attend, along with 7 other bloggers. It will be an historic day with Ontario's first woman premier elected.
First ballot results were fascinating with Sandra Pupatello leading with 599, Kathleen Wynne with 597, Gerard Kennedy with 281, Harinder Takhar with 235, Charles Sousa 222 and Eric Hoskins with 150.
Hoskins endorsed Wynne. Then before his name could be removed from the ballot, Takhar endorsed Pupatello (but he told his supporters to vote for her.) The second ballot results will be coming out shortly.
Update:
As most have heard by now, 2nd ballot voting was Pupatello 817, Wynne 750, Kennedy 285, Sousa 203, and Takhar 18.
Then Sousa and Kennedy pulled out early and both endorsed Wynne. Sousa's was a surprise. Now we await the final ballot. I'm scrutineering as I write for Pupatello (7:00 pm). We'll see how it goes.
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