V.P.-Turned- Environmentalist Al Gore Creates Frenzy At U. Of T.
Posted February 21, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
He’s a former Vice-President of the United States.
His movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”, is up for an Oscar.
And he’s the poster boy for the environment – printed on recycled paper of course.
All of which is making Al Gore a hot ticket in Toronto.
The American politician turned environmentalist came to the U. of T. Wednesday night for a long awaited speech, and there were throngs of fans to greet him.
So were ticket scalpers, who are seeing a different type of green. Reports indicate more than 20,000 people were trying to get their hands on a ducat for the event. But there’s only room for 1,500 of them inside.
What tickets there were originally cost $20. They sold out almost immediately.
“We had about 23,000 hits on our website, which of course collapsed the website because we couldn’t sustain it,” muses the U. of T.’s Ingrid Stefanovic. “So there’s been a huge enthusiasm for the event.”
And not just huge but expensive. The demand was so high that on the Internet auction site Craig’s List, people were offering up to $500 for a single pass.
And that was too much for one man to resist. “I was going to give it to my colleague for 20 bucks, and I told him, hey, I’m a student,” the unnamed audience member relates. “Someone else is giving me $200. He says ‘okay, go ahead and sell it for $200.'”
“It’s like a boy band or something coming to town because people just are clamouring to see Al Gore,” laughs Catherine Febria. “It’s kind of funny.”
Cameras weren’t allowed inside, but those who paid to listern to him speak were impressed.
“He was powerful,” said one fan. “It was from the heart. It was unbelievable.”
Gore sees the Great White North as a key cog in the environmental solution, but he’s not happy with the Conservatives’ plan to quash the Kyoto protocols.
“Canada, in the past, has always been known for its leadership,” he assesses shortly after arriving at the campus. “And I think now is a time when some people put a question mark after Canada on this.”
Gore can only wish U.S. voters were as intense and interested in him during the 2000 U.S. election, which he lost to George W. Bush. That put an end to his political career and launched him on a new environmental path.
And judging by Wednesday’s response, many are apparently eager to follow him wherever it leads.
To see unedited video of Gore, click here.
