The kitchen table is littered tonight. On one end Dorothy has her Voter’s Guide production line going – first collating, then stapling, then inserting the canvass cards designed to stand up tall and poke out of mailboxes. She bundles them in twenties with thick elastic, then packs them in boxes for the front seat of my truck..
Right now there are close to 40 bundles sitting there ready for me to scoop in the morning, as I head out to two new polls in north Oakville, bolstered by some welcome volunteers. Should be an OK day, with the temperature soaring to about the freezing point, and I will be curious to see how people are, now that an election call is no longer in question.
At the other end of the table – my end – is the production line for a fund-raising letter. This one is aimed at small business owners in the riding, and to get it out takes eight separate steps. Generate labels from edited lists, print return envelopes, print the letter and donation forms, apply the labels to new envelopes, fold all the letters and forms, stuff them into the labeled envelopes, seal them and then apply stamps.
Of course, I have run out of paper before I ran out of envelopes to stuff, so there will be a detour to Staples in the morning on the way to my door-knocking. Actually, I am in Staples now just about every day. Tonight I called Kayla there in the copy center to get a few thousand more canvass brochures printed, and tomorrow I’ll also be dropping off the latest edition of the Voter’s Guide. The people in that store are supportive, helpful and resourceful. Spending a pot full of money there doesn’t hurt, either.
All of this is to underscore the obvious point that being a political candidate is far from glamorous. Stuffing, stapling, trucking boxes of printing around, knocking on strangers’ doors, driving huge distances without expenses, hammering signs, designing brochures, yucking up reporters who couldn’t care less – it’s all part of every day. Job on hold, salary vaporized, professional status uncertain, yeah, it’s the candidate’s life. Some days it is energizing and engaging. Some days it sucks. Every day is hard work, and takes some kind of new, little sacrifice.
Anyway, enough words. The table is a mess and Dorothy’s asleep now. If I can get it clear by breakfast, she might staple for me a while more.
Do you plan to vote in the coming federal election?
Yes 2341 votes (91 %)
No 225 votes (9 %)
Total Votes: 2566
The Toronto Star guy just got off the line, calling me to update the Halton riding profile he started working on last May, when it looked like an election was a sure thing. Then came Belinda.
Today, it is a sure thing. Non-confidence motion tabled this morning, Debate scheduled. Vote Monday. Election Tuesday. Polling day – best guess – Sunday, January 23rd. So, today was spent finishing writing a canvass brochure, doing a business fund-raising letter, signing up some new volunteers, exchanging fourteen hundred emails with Esther and booking newspaper ads. Meanwhile Dorothy was helping me again, stapling her heart out, getting materials ready for the coming weekend canvass blitz.
Suddenly, after walking bock after block after block on my own, I have helpers! Lots of them! It is a welcome thing, and these folks are going to make the cold and tedium of a winter campaign a heck of a lot more bearable.
Right now it is minus eight, on it’s way to a windchill of minus 20 tonight, with blowing snow and three inches on the ground. I am sure this would be no obstacle at all for campaigners in North Bay, but it ain’t too pleasant to me. I was out door-knocking for a couple of hours again last night, and the cold was hard to put up with. Plus, I wiped out on a few stoops when homeowners were trying to save hydro by keeping their properties in perfect blackness. My bruised knees today bear witness to the soaring cost of electricity.
In any case, between now and the third week in January the weather will doubtlessly get worse, as the political climate gets steamier. The Star guy reminded me that back in May I pronounced the chief issues in Halton to be economic ones, not those related to government scandal and corruption. Today, I’d have to agree with myself – in fact, all the canvassing I’ve done convinces me that family finances are where this campaign will begin and end.
Interest rates, mortgage rates and lines of credit are going up. Energy costs of all kinds, along with property taxes, are chewing into household budgets. Staggering new amounts of government spending are destined to keep the Bank of Canada raising the cost of money. Anger is seething over the unfair tax treatment of single income families, while seniors are not likely soon to forget the hell Ralph Goodale put them through over income trusts.
Many middle-class families in Halton, where real estate is among the most expensive in Canada, are house-rich and savings-poor. They are folks who will not receive much in the way of tax breaks from the Liberals, who are shoveling money into the pockets of low-income earners, aboriginals, immigrants and others. And while this spending may be just and reasonable , there’s the clear sense the middle class homeowner, facing his or her own serious pressures, is being left to twist in the wind.
Today, Immigration Minister Joe Volpe spent another $700 million. So far this week, the Liberals have announced $10 billion in new spending. Last week it was $30 billion in tax cuts, According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, other new spending totals $16.4 billion.
In an ironic statement he made, about the last time I talked to the Star reporter in May, Finance Minister Ralph Goodale said: “A pre-election spending spree is just asking for an absolute formula for deficit.â€
That was then. This is now. Since then, Ralph has brought in three budgets – the first one not bad; the second an NDP spending orgy, the third a libertarian tax-slasher. And then, in the 12 days since, the Liberal administration has spent more money than any government in the history of Canada in a similar period.
Will the voters in Halton draw a line between a government out of control, and the rate on their mortgages? Will they see the Liberals to be doing whatever it takes, whatever the cost, just to retain power? Will they reject an MP they have largely not seen since the last election, who has not knocked on a single door, and who blankets their homes with literature anchored with Liberal Party logos? Will they see this man as a partisan who’s selling his party’s message to them, instead of representing them to the government? Will they embrace me? Will they accept the new Conservatives as centrist, principled moderates offering a credible alterative? Or will the Liberal campaign of fear succeed in casting us as Reform mutants with a hidden agenda?
Stay tuned. Film at eleven.
