Vancouver rally calls for a 'Real Deal' in Copenhagen

A photo recap of Vancouver's RealDeal candlelight vigil held Saturday as part of the TckTckTck worldwide day of action on climate change

It was a beautiful Vancouver day and evening for the RealDeal vigil, our city's answer to the worldwide day of action on climate change as world leaders gather in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Conference (Cop15). We usually get lots of rain at this time of the year, but the sky was blue and the sidewalks were dry.

When I arrived at the demonstration at the Vancouver Art Gallery, there just a few people there. I was at first disappointed, considering this was a global gathering of like-minded people, and wondered if perhaps Vancouver was sitting too pretty amongst the water and the mountains to understand the importance of the climate change issue.

But by 4:30 p.m., more people had gathered and candles were slowly being lit one by one, until we had a choir full of people gathered. Now I was inspired, seeing so many beautiful, thoughtful people coming together—family, youth and people of all ages singing the "12 days of Copenhagen" together!

After listening to young people talk about their future and lighting our candles, we started our walk from the Vancouver Art Gallery to the Vancouver Public Library. By now there were probably around 150-plus people walking.

It was an exciting time as we walked on Granville Street amongst the bright city lights with our candles in hand, chanting "what we want" anthems to the sky.

Overall it was went very well: we raised some awareness locally and became part of the global vigils, which included more than 3,000 such events in 139 countries. While I wished there'd been more promotions locally, I was glad that I attended the event.

Here are some photos from our local event to share with all the other Real Deal vigils around the world: