Picturesque images of the prime minister strolling Kinsol Trestle surrounded by friendly faces contrasted with yelling protesters at a later stop, as Stephen Harper visited Vancouver Island on Tuesday.
Harper shook hands with boy scouts and girl guides at the Shell Aerocentre in North Saanich Tuesday morning soon after arriving by plane, hiked the Kinsol Trestle, and addressed about 400 Conservative party faithful and students at Brentwood College, a private school in Mill Bay.
Protesters gathered at the front entrance to the college, yelling and waving placards criticizing the government’s position on climate change, the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, science, unions and gay people.
RCMP officers formed a line to contain the peaceful protest while security staff tried to avoid a repeat of Monday when two people holding signs urging attention to climate change got within touching distance of the prime minister at a Vancouver hotel. They will not be charged, the RCMP said Tuesday.
The prime minister didn't encounter the protesters at Brentwood College because he arrived through a back entrance, and didn't mention them in his remarks.
VIDEO: Scroll down to see a video shot among the protesters in Mill Bay
As part of strengthened security, RCMP removed two men wearing media badges minutes before Harper took the stage at Brentwood College’s Crooks Hall.
Island RCMP spokesman Darren Lagan said the men were not a threat. Alex Robinson, with the prime minister’s office, said its communication department determined the men were not accredited.
Harper said his official visit in the Cowichan Valley was the first by a sitting prime minister in more than 60 years — since Louis St. Laurent in 1952.
“I don’t know why more prime ministers haven’t come here to the lovely Cowichan Valley,” he said.
Harper praised the government’s economic efforts and criticized the federal NDP’s “dangerous ideas” and the “vacuous thinking” of the Liberals, “which will reverse all the progress we have made.”
“That is why we as Conservatives will use the next two years to keep making our families safe, our economy strong and our country united,” Harper said.
“I urge you to go on using your strengths and talents in the service of something greater than yourselves. Do this, my friends who work for us, because you love your Vancouver Island home, because you love B.C., and because you love Canada.”
Earlier in the day, the prime minister and his wife, Laureen Harper, walked with boy scouts, girl guides and representatives of the Trans Canada Trail on the Kinsol Testle, which is part of the trail.
The government has said it is committed to a fully connected Trans Canada Trail by 2017 for the 150th anniversary of Confederation. Another $150 million is needed, said trail board chairman Paul LaBarge.
On Tuesday, the government highlighted — as part of the 2013 budget — up to $25 million over four years for the trail.
Harper visits the Northwest Territories today.
