It was a homecoming love-in as David Suzuki returned to southern Ontario's Leamington, where as a child he and his family settled after their release from B.C.'s wartime internment camps.

A threatening snowstorm this morning cancelled Leamington's school busses, yet our intrepid driver Mickey drove through undaunted. The show went on with a surprisingly full house at David's alma mater, Leamington District Secondary School. Vice-Principal Lepp enthusiastically welcomed the Suzuki Foundation tour gang, as well as students from David's old elementary, Mills Street School, who'd braved the storm to hear his message.

Twenty years ago, Lisa Jeffrey, then President of Leamington High's Student Council, had given the welcome when David Suzuki came to speak. Inspired by his talk, Lisa went on to become the admired science and environment teacher at LDSS, and today she once more gave the welcoming address reminding us how far we've come in those two decades in recycling, CFCs, and litter-less lunches. At the end of David's talk, citizens brought up their current concerns: malaria, greenhouse runoff, and erosion of the birder's paradise, Point Pelee National Park, etc. As all signed their ballots for the environment and enthusiastically bade the DSF gang farewell, Mickey guided the Suzuki Express (laden with Chinese food) out onto the highway, headed for Guelph.

Every venue is intriguingly different. Guelph offered the best meal of the trip, a slow-food local organic Valentine treat at l'Artisanale, complete with a violin player. VERY nice!

Tonight's main event was held in a church, with an adult crowd and an environmental fair featuring recycling, river cleanup and other habitat restoration, rooftop water harvesting, pesticides and more. Our host, Dan Evans of the "Bookshelf" bookstore, ran through an extensive list of successful Guelph area battles, the crowd joining in enthusiastically. MC Jason added a new finger-snapping feature to his intro, and soon David was onstage. Funny how each audience laughs at different spots, though the Rick Mercer comment is always a hit.

David usually recognizes some old comrade in the audience. Last night in Windsor it was Rick Coronado; tonight it was fearless Ann Hansen in a clown hat you couldn't miss. The open mic was interesting, focusing on economics: a prof of agricultural economics deplored his discipline's relegation of the environment to the status of "externality.'

The ballots came in thick and fast and everyone wanted a tour button (featuring David in a 70s afro). Teardown was a piece of cake and soon the bus, always an object of curiosity, pulled away from the church door and headed for Toronto and bed (and a morning departure of 6:20 a.m...)

--Tara Cullis, President of the David Suzuki Foundation