Holidays 2024: Seaforth's Keeley enjoys Christmas whenever and wherever
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
It makes total sense that Angela Keeley loves Christmas; it’s the one time a year when the true spirit of the season gives a gentle goose to the general population, which boosts their festive energy to a level that almost matches the extreme energy Keeley exudes all day, every day. Almost, but not quite.
Now, don’t go thinking that this rare bird’s energy is in any way excessive - Keeley has been gifted with the exact amount of spirit she needs to get it all done, every single day. Currently, Keeley is not only the Riding Association President of the Huron-Bruce New Democratic Party (NDP), she’s also the group’s LGTBQ2+ committee representative. She works for the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance, and even though she now resides in Seaforth with her husband Matt, Ang remains loyal to her hometown’s cultural hub: the Kingsbridge Centre. She also volunteers at the Goderich Little Theatre, and every summer you can find her at the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival, where she does everything from parking cars to giving speeches. In her spare time, Keeley makes weird stuffed animals out of scrap materials.
But no matter how many irons she has in the fire, Keeley always finds a little time for Christmas. It may take until mid-January, but she’ll find it. She always does. Whenever possible, she heads to Kingsbridge for Christmas Eve. “We’ve always done Christmas Eve at Kingsbridge, always, always, always. We’d be going to the Christmas Eve mass, and then we would go to Mimie’s and we’d be up until 12, maybe, sometimes. And that was always great fun! But then the next morning everybody was very tired, but we’d still go to Christmas morning mass!” she exclaimed. “I love singing in the choir on Christmas. The Kingsbridge Choir always does a Christmas pageant and everything, and singing in that choir is always wonderful! But it doesn’t always work out, timing-wise. If we do get to sing a song at Christmas, I think my favourite song is when we do ‘Gifts for the World’. It’s a beautiful song… but if I had to pick a different Christmas carol, I personally like ‘Good King Wenceslas’. It’s a great march. It’s just a really fast song - it’s almost as fast as I talk, which is lovely.”
In 2025, Keeley plans to use her platform to draw attention to the rural issues that matter most to her. “Coming up in the new year, I’ll be going to the NDP Provincial Council in Toronto, which will be exciting. It’ll be a chance for me to talk about what’s going on in Huron County and Bruce County and bring rural to the forefront of some of those conversations again at a provincial level, which is very exciting.”
She believes that Canadians are starting to feel a bit worn out by the constant tug-of-war between Liberals and Conservatives. “We have such a diverse political atmosphere in Canada, but we like to pretend we only have two parties… I think the NDP is always strongest when we are the official opposition. It means we have the ability to make deals with whoever is leading the country in a way that we can push for more social supports, better restrictions on things that would potentially really hurt other people, like, you know, when you’re talking about housing, when you’re talking about food, when you’re talking about benefits.”
Keeley has spent her last few Christmases working with the Huron-Perth Healthcare Alliance to provide transitional housing for those in need. The annual experience is a far cry from the big family Christmas parties of her youth, and it’s been giving her a fresh perspective on the holidays. “If we have clients on Christmas, we try to make it special. The hospital will do a turkey dinner that we can go and pick up for them so they have something nice. And we’ll put up a Christmas tree and buy small gifts for the clients that are there. Nothing too personal - we don’t know our clients that well. But, you know, we get them like a box of chocolates, or nice mitts, a nice hat, that kind of stuff. The thing is: Christmas isn’t happy for everybody. Sometimes Christmas is one of the hardest times of the year. We have far more crisis calls over the holidays than we do any other time of the year. It brings up some sad memories, some bad memories. Some people feel more lonely at Christmas,” she lamented.
This year, Keeley thinks she’s finally figured out the real reason for the season, and she’d like to share that reason with the world. “Christmas should be the one time a year where you want to try and make a difference in somebody’s life and you feel that urge. Ask what you could do this year to make a difference for somebody. It doesn’t have to be church-associated. Could you just maybe offer to shovel somebody else’s sidewalk? Look at somebody and say, ‘I can have empathy for you.’ Reach out a hand! Is there something you could do that just shows a bit more of human compassion? This Christmas, why not ask what you can do for your fellow man?”