I accepted a somewhat unexpected invitation to attend the National Campus and Community Radio Conference this week.

Since Caroline left the NCRA board I've been mostly out of the loop, so it was great to see so many old friends and colleagues: Tristis Ward, who took playwriting with Gillian McCain and me at Dalhousie in the mid-1980s; Magnus Thyvold, who used to work at the Victoria station before going to Simon Fraser, and who has finally gotten a license there; and Lori Guest, who worked with me as production coordinator at CFRU-FM Guelph many years ago, and who is now music coordinator there. I was proudest when Lori introduced me as someone who "brought democracy" to our radio station.

The leader of the federal NDP, Alexa McDonough, spoke at this year's community radio awards dinner. When I spoke with her afterwards and she said I looked familiar, I reminded here that I had been a page in the Nova Scotia Provincial Legislature in the early 1980s, when she had been the lone NDP, and the only woman, MLA.

I had been told, before her speech, that some of the conference delegates didn't think much of Alex, preferring someone more "radical" and outspoken. I was reminded of my time in the Legislature, watching those grey men try to shut Alexa up, day after day. The next year, after a provincial election, she appeared with two new NDP MLAs, laying the foundation for her party becoming a major political force in Nova Scotia.

Alexa has been in the trenches, fighting the good fight, since before her naysayers were born. I'll pick her over those part-time media radicals anytime.