Parks and Recreation 4/16/09 Episode "Canvassing" Recap  4/17/09

Leslie plans for an upcoming town hall meeting about her proposal to turn a construction pit into a park. She invites her mother Marlene (Pamela Reed), an official with the county school system, but she does not appear supportive and tells Leslie she may be too busy to attend. Leslie holds a subcommittee meeting with Tom, interested citizen Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), intern April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza) and planner Mark Brendanawicz (Paul Schneider). Mark warns her it might be too early for a meeting with the public, who could opt to vote the proposal down if they are unhappy with it. But Leslie expresses confidence in the meeting and says the group will be doing neighborhood canvassing to try to win support.

The canvassing is largely unsuccessful. Most of the supporters of the park say they will not be able to attend the meeting; Mark, April and Tom speak with one seemingly interested resident, who they realize is a sex offender. Leslie suggests phrasing the question, "Wouldn't you rather have a park than a storage facility for nuclear waste?", while Tom leaves the canvassing group to call prospective contractors about the park project, speaking like a hustler and hinting at accepting bribes and making corrupt deals. Several people they canvas express a lack of support for the park, like resident Kate Speevak (Lennon Parham), who vows to attend the public meeting and voice her disapproval after a frustrated Leslie says, "You don't care about your kids if you don't support this park." The canvassing ends with an angry Leslie finding Mark and April playing video games with Ann's boyfriend, Andy (Chris Pratt).

Leslie tries to get her boss Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) to postpone the town hall meeting, but Ron says he cannot because the town manager (Phil Reeves) has "fast-tracked" the project. As the meeting begins, Leslie notices her mother has attended after all, along with many of the people critical of the project. Led by Kate Speevak, the crowd says they do not support the proposal and are angry an environmental study has not been conducted. Leslie tries to pretend April is a supportive resident, but one of the audience members recognize her from the canvassing.

When Ron tells Leslie to try to place a positive spin on the meeting and prevent a vote from occurring, Leslie tries to filibuster the meeting. Kate pushes for a vote, but Leslie says she will not hold one until she's heard from each audience member individually. They criticize and yell at Leslie until 9 p.m., when she announces time is up and ends the meeting. Marlene, who privately described the meeting as a "train-wreck", nevertheless expresses her pride for Leslie with a smile. Although frustrated with the meeting itself, Leslie says she is happy to have hosted her first subcommittee meeting. When one leaving resident (Eric Edelstein) says, "Hey park lady, you suck", Leslie says with pride, "Hear that? He called me 'park lady.'"

"Canvassing" is the second episode of the first season of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on April 16, 2009. The episode was written by Rachel Axler and directed by Seth Gordon. In the episode, Leslie and her staff canvas the neighborhood to seek supporting for an upcoming town meeting on their park proposal, but find they end up drawing more critics than allies.

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