About 100 people turned out Tuesday night to shout down Prime Minister Stephen Harper during a campaign stop in Saskatoon.
The crowd chanted, “Stephen has to go! Hey, hey!” throughout the evening.
Plainclothes RCMP officers stood between the protestors and the warehouse entrance.
A handful of uniformed Saskatoon City policeman joined the Mounties as they kept the crowd from getting close to where Harper was speaking inside a warehouse.
A Harper supporter who identified herself as Sigrid wasn’t happy with the uninvited crowd.
“And I just find it just really irritating that people keep coming out to comment and to protest,” said Sigrid. “And it’s always ‘stop Harper,’ ‘stop fracking,’ and you know fracking is going to save us.”
University of Saskatchewan instructor Priscilla Settee is on the other side of the spectrum.
“Well people are really very sick and tired of the oppressive government of Stephen Harper,” she said. “Well we’ve seen what Canada has stood for just slowly, or not even that slowly, rapidly just disintegrating where all types of social support networks have just been eliminated.”
At one point Harper’s campaign workers set up speakers at the gate’s entrance playing loud music in an attempt to drown out the chanting.
Betty Pewapisconias says a lot of her friends and fellow students at the University of Saskatchewan plan to vote.
“I really, really encourage people to vote and vote Harper out,” she said. “People of colour have been treated as if they don’t matter. It’s a really big step for First Nations people to vote and I think we’re ready to take that step.”
Harper will be in Saskatoon Wednesday to continue campaigning.