Gordon Lightfoot Visits Occupy Toronto as 'Concerned' Parent to Support Daughter

Canadian folk icon Gordon Lightfoot made a surprise appearance Tuesday afternoon at Toronto's St. James Park following news that the City of Toronto was planning to evict Occupy Toronto protestors from the location later this evening.

"I'm here at the invitation of my daughter to come and see the site," Lightfoot, the man behind such hits as 'If You Could Read My Mind,' told CTV News, with his daughter Meredith beside him. "So I came down and here I am.

"I can only hope that something of some sort can be accomplished from it," he added. "I don't exactly know what that would be. I'm not really much into the political aspect of things. You know, I'm sort of like a normal person, you know."

Lightfoot's daughter -- with the exception of one week due to pneumonia -- has been at the site since its beginning. "Wherever we are, we are a movement and it has nothing to do with location," she told the TV station. She also added her reason for joining the protest was to "do something about the condition of our country."

As for the protestors being asked to leave on the heels of the NYC raid, Lightfoot said he wasn't surprised. "I've heard that they want to get the sprinkler system to close down for the winter in here, I don't blame them. I'm just concerned about my daughter's welfare. She's strong; I'm actually quite proud of her because she's been here ever since the thing began. She's very stoic. She's smart."

Though he insists he's "not much into the political aspect of things," Lightfoot did express concern for younger generations in this current political and economic climate. "I don't really know what anybody is going to do about it," he said. "The bottom line is that there are too many young people and not enough jobs to go around."

Lightfoot was recently the subject of 'Writing Gordon Lightfoot,' a book written by former Rheostatics musician Dave Bidini concerning Lightfoot and the 1972 Mariposa music festival on Toronto Island.



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