The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
On The Campaign Trail There are many types of election campaigning, the purpose of which is to get voters to come out and elect you or your candidate. Why people want to run for some offices is another story, but as long as there is a chance to get elected there will be people putting their names on the ballot. For example, in this year's municipal election in Gimli, 14 people contested four council seats and three ran for mayor with not a single incumbent elected to either position. So much for the idea that incumbency rules. Many campaigners distribute a brochure or two, extolling the virtues of their candidate, put ads in the local paper, go to all-candidates meetings, phone a few supporters, and leave it at that. I worked with one Winnipeg school trustee who did nothing but send in a picture and resume to the local paper in each campaign, with his total cost being that of a stamp. Amazingly, he won several times. In the past, as Gordon Churchill told me eons ago, most candidates would do as mentioned above, have a phoning committee, a headquarters, maybe some billboards and leave it up to the voters to decide who got elected. Of course in federal and provincial campaigns, leadership and policy played a major role in enticing the public. Gordon also said these tactics changed as other parties followed the lead of the CCF, later the NDP, who started and perfected the art of door-to door canvassing, identifying the vote and then trying to get their vote out on election day. Campaigning now usually means all of the above. Candidates also must build up a "war chest" by getting donations because lawn signs, brochures and the like cost lots of money. It is not necessary or possible to spend millions, as happens in some American elections, but it is necessary to get your name out Ð and positively Ð to the voters. Tactics Mimicked Municipal campaigns in Winnipeg mimic the tactics of federal and provincial contests. Candidates go door to door, ask for support, set up phoning committees, and even paying for expensive billboards. I worked the doors this past campaign for an old friend and longtime city councillor. We passed out brochures and telephone cards to voters at hundreds and hundreds of homes to solicit support. Those who said yes were also phoned on election day to get them out. The wards in the city are huge and impossible to totally canvas unless you have dozens of workers. The streets and houses never end, but the exercise gained from all that walking is good for fitness (my candidate and I lost over ten pounds each). You also get to meet many different kinds of people and see the various houses and properties. Most people are "western friendly" and the canvassing is hardly a dreadful experience. On bad weather days, we hit the condos and apartment blocks. About two years ago, the provincial government amended the Election Act to allow candidates and their agents entry to go to the doors Ð they cannot be denied entry to the buildings, and supporters are allowed to put up signs in their windows and on their balconies. A lot of tenants don't know about this, and we were occasionally questioned about our right to be there. Apartment dwellers are noted for low vote turnouts, so many candidates ignore them or only visit them in bad weather. How did we do? We lost the election to a young candidate who ran an active campaign with the theme of "it's time for a change." His political faith is the same as ours, so it was strictly a personal election. This same fate met three other incumbents, who were defeated by active campaigners, including one who was a high-profile PC youth leader. As one defeated candidate said, the idea of term limits for councilors was taken care of by the voters! School trustee candidates were much more hidden in their campaigning. Little wonder! The big complaints we heard at the door were the exorbitant school taxes, which the school divisions levy against home and condo owners. This is made necessary by the lack of provincial funding for education in our province. In one large school division, provincial support as a percentage of operating revenue has decreased from 72.95 per cent in 1985 to 54.5 per cent in 2006. We found trustees to be unpopular, which is unfair. Remember, in the last election, the PCs promised to take school taxes off homes and farms. Watch for the new PC leader to emphasize this policy in the next election. Roger's Right Corner runs Wednesdays.
