Erin O’Toole comes to the Island to Visit

A couple of days after Justin Trudeau’s visit, the Conservative party leader Erin O’Toole was also on Prince Edward Island. The plane arrived around 330pm and I spent some of the afternoon getting prepared for a new first.

Live Filing

My images would be live filed, straight from my camera to the amazing editors at Reuters. There wouldn’t be much of an opportunity to preview them other than what was in my viewfinder. Additionally, I would also have to ensure I was also on top of any and all communications with the editors so they could get the photos out immediately with proper captioning.

I found this to be crazy exciting. After spending the afternoon playing with the settings on my camera settings, I was ready. And excited.

The event was to start at 630pm however I ran up to the Charlottetown Airport prior to anything starting. After snapping a couple of pictures of Erin O’Toole’s plane, I knew I was ready.

Erin O’Toole Arrives

At 633PM, Erin O’Toole arrived in Sherwood at the event location and stepped off the bus to the awaiting crowd.

He spent the time walking through the crowd elbow tapping and greeting people as he went. People were in good spirits with lots of energy.

I stayed on top of the imagery and sending them right from my camera to the editors. Also ensuring I was communicating with the editors through my phone so if they had any questions on captioning, I was answering them right away.

Erin eventually made his way up to the front of the crowd where he gave a speech. Afterward, he went inside the dairy bar where they had made two special ice cream cones named after Erin O’Toole and Doug Currie. As someone who eats ice cream often, I was disappointed I didn’t have a chance to try some but it is par for the course.

I watched as Erin O’Toole was approached by numerous people asking for a signature. He spent the time signing everything. Talking with everyone.

Red Flags

At 7:06PM, a possible situation arose. I wasn’t sure what was happening but it was something I wasn’t used to. Capturing what was happening, I was also concerned with keeping my editors informed in the event something were to happen. If a situation arose, we were prepared. They immediately had imagery.

I had covered the election previously for Reuters in the Maritimes but for me, red flags never went off, until now. None of the other media seemed to notice. Maybe it was a usual occurrence, maybe not. After capturing some more imagery and filing, I sent another brief description of what I was seeing. This was new to me. This was also before any violence started to break out in this election.

Nothing seemed to result in this situation. The RCMP on the other hand remained by the individual’s side for as long as I watched.

The Ending

After making his way back through the crowd, at around 7:15pm Erin got to reboard his bus and hopefully enjoyed his ice cream like everyone should. The visit seemed to have been peaceful and an energetic one.

As for me, Erin boarding his bus pretty much wrapped up my day. I did have to review the captioning of imagery to ensure it was correct.

This was my first time live filling and it was a thrill.

Photos as seen in numerous outlets like The Globe and Mail or the National Post.