I'm in Victoria, B.C. where I had a morning speaking engagement. I was free of that by about 1:30 pm and managed to make it to the Canadians Against a Prorogued Parliament (CAPP) rally here about an hour into it. When I got there, at Centennial Square under bright sunshine on a warm day, there was still, by my count, about 400 there listening to speakers (Organizers I spoke to said there were 1,000 at the start but I cannot verify that number). I wasn't officially covering these rallies but Canwest reporters were covering this rally and dozens of similar rallies across the country, all of them initially organized via Facebook.

Earlier this week, I had wondered here if a hastily-organized CAPP-like rally in Toronto at an event Prime Minister Stephen Harper was attending was a not-so-successful test of translating online activism into rubber-hits-the-road activism.

Based on initial reports, some from independent sources, some from partisan sources, it would be difficult to call this day of rallies a failed test. In fact, thousands at events across the country have shown up.

Headline roundup:

Canwest: Thousands turn out at rallies to protest proroguing of Parliament :Frustration with the Harper government’s decision to prorogue Parliament spilled from the Internet onto the streets Saturday, as thousands of demonstrators gathered at rallies across Canada . . .

Toronto Star: Across Canada, protests urge reopening Parliament: About 3,000 people turned up at the doorstep of Parliament Hill today to protest against its shutdown by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Canadian Press: Thousands across the country protest proroguing of Parliament: Thousands of people of varying political stripes clogged city streets across the country on Saturday as they called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to reopen Parliament and get back to work.

Some links, pix, and pointers:

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