Today I spent 11 hours judging High School debating competitions.  It was amazing!  The young people had travelled from all across Canada and the standard was exceptionally high - a couple I saw were far better than any lawyer or politician I have ever seen and even those with lower scores were amazing. (One young man from Sacred Heart/Fountain Academy that I met at the training cannot attend tomorrow because Princeton are flying him there for an interview - well he did win the world championships in Qatar recently!) I just hope that some of these young people put their skills to use through social justice projects such as volunteer advocacy.  Caraid helped out in the morning as a Chairperson, thoroughly enjoyed herself and was very popular.  But I have a proposal: this house believes that it is wrong to teach our children how to argue more effectively than we can!

Sorry I don't have any of the photos of the day - in my British mindset I had assumed that it would not be allowed, when in fact it was.  I am amazed at the common sense approach to such things that still prevails in this country - I've now helped out on a couple of school field trips and at this event and there is no requirement for any kind of police or background checks. 

Looking forward to a more relaxing day tomorrow!