Jason McComb departs St. Thomas city hall shortly after 8:30 on Nov. 12, 2013.

Homeless advocate Jason McComb descended the steps at city hall shortly after 8:30 Tuesday morning to begin his walk across the province to Ottawa to draw attention to the plight of the less fortunate in general and, in particular, those veterans who have been abandoned by the country they served.

He’ll put in 10- or 11-hour days trekking eastward with stops along the way, including Ingersoll tonight and then on to Kitchener and Hamilton, in an effort to shatter the stigma of the homeless.

It’s a daunting undertaking at a time of year when the weather can be most unwelcoming, as was the case overnight Monday.

“I’m going to rough it, like when I first became homeless,” Jason told City Scope last week. “I didn’t know what to expect. It might be a little dangerous, but so was ending up homeless.”

When he arrives in Ottawa, Jason aims to talk to anyone who will listen to his pitch on protecting society’s lost souls. And, we’ve just found out MP Joe Preston will hook up with Jason when he does arrive in the capital.

“Things like preventing homelessness among seniors. I look out for absolutely everybody. I love the push for affordable housing, but let’s take care of the current homeless . . . the here and now.”

We’ll track Jason’s progress across the province, in the meantime you can find more on Jason’s walk here.

UPDATE AS OF 7:30 P.M. TUESDAY, NOV 12:

Jason has been hampered by snow squalls all day and the threat of continued snow late into the evening. He is spending Tuesday night in east London and will head for Woodstock early Wednesday morning. He is cold, but in good spirits and undaunted after a challenging start to his Ottawa trek.

[twitter-follow screen_name=’ianscityscope’]