About a dozen Democrats engaged in discussion and postcard writing to members of Congress at an August 12 pop-up summer resistance event in Toronto’s High Park. Democrats Abroad (DA) banners alerted park strollers to DA’s active presence in the city’s west end. The event was one of three DA summer pop-ups in the Toronto area.
These events are important because Americans abroad want to be contacted so that they can show their resistance to hurtful initiatives such as the effort to repeal Obamacare, according to Danielle Stampley, vice-chair of DA’s Toronto chapter. DA Canada membership spiked after the 2016 election, and there is strong new interest in DA Canada’s women’s caucus and LGBTQ caucus. DA needs to keep raising its level of visibility through gatherings like the High Park pop-up.
Participants in the pop-up wrote postcards to their members of Congress about issues such as health care and peace making. Some wrote in support of a bill that would restrict the president’s first use of nuclear weapons, which was introduced this year by Senator Edward Markey (Mass.) and Representative Ted Lieu (Calif.). The bill, known as HR669, would require a declaration of war by Congress before the use of nuclear weapons.
By Virginia Smith, member at large on the Toronto board