 Federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and his tour bus made a stop at Much Music on Queen St, Toronto. (MICHAEL PEAKE/QMI Agency)
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TORONTO - Iggy got jiggy at MuchMusic.
Federal Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff staged a conga line with several local MPs and a Caribana calypso queen, and danced several feet onto his tour bus Thursday afternoon in front of the landmark CTV building at Queen and John streets.
The stop at MuchMusic was one of a dozen places scheduled on the three-day Liberal Express circuit in the GTA.
Ignatieff paused for 10 minutes to answer questions from a 17-year-old interviewer in an attempt to engage younger voters.
"We have to make sure qualified young people have jobs," he said, when asked what challenges face young Canadians.
"Wherever we go, we try to reach out to young people. We're going coast to coast and going to the high schools, colleges and universities. That's key."
Ignatieff then requested to see the video "Wavin' Flag" by Rexdale-raised musician K'naan.
"There's this young Canadian guy who has become a global star, K'naan, with the World Cup, and I'm a big soccer fan and he made us really proud," Ignatieff said. "Wavin' Flag, that's the one I want to hear."
Roughly a dozen people in their 20s sporting red and white Liberal Party T-shirts, waited at the curb chanting "Michael, Michael," as the tour bus pulled up.
Soon after the Q&A, Ignatieff began dancing to the beat of steel drums with Tara Woods, who won the title of Calypso Monarch 2010.
Within moments, it elevated into a full-on conga dance as the MPs made a beeline for the bus, which was headed to York Hill District Park in Thornhill for a Liberal barbecue.
"I guess we want to show that Caribana has support in all areas, not just culturally, but politically as well," said Woods, who also goes by the stage name Macomere Fifi. "Calypso is something that makes everyone want to move, so it's not odd that he wants to move as well. It's a great thing."
jenny.yuen@sunmedia.ca
