Canada’s federal election 2008

Winter is my country.

I’ve just completed a 4-men-army (well, for the election part) job of presenting a candidate in a conservative riding for the NPD in the last canadian election (kinda like going democrat in texas). I’m a libertarian so it was not because i’m a believer, i’ve done this for friends, it was quite a ride.

What i will remember of this adventure is how much good organization can make or break almost anything. Here’s a list of things i think are important from my experience.

For big politic parties:

• Get your main office straight. It took 3 shots and 3 weeks to be able to cash in the campaign money. Checks with wrong name, then good name but send at a wrong address, etc. Election is all about speed, this felt like 1952.

• Internal communication, we had some journalists who contacted main office and we never even received the memo. So our candidate looked like she does not answer media’s questions. Is it that hard to at least transfer emails?

• Everyone knew we had 0% chance of winning. But something you don’t do is tell everyone “Hey come work at X place far away because there’s more chance to win there”. Believers are not like machines, you don’t move them around at your will and expect the same results.

• Why during elections we see 10 349 512 345 ads of everyone bitching everyone, but after the vote, not a single ad to say thank you to voters? Politics is about long term and building trust and commitment. Voters are not something to throw away once they are “used”.

For local ridings:

• Local organization is the key. You got to have them a long time before the moment you really need them. And for that, you have to trust them, give them the previews, make them fell part of something. Those who feel like a number in a big machine leave really fast. Those that feel like a part of something will stick around like glue. They are the one that stays at the post-vote night even if you lose. Have a team of these guys, and you can beat the crap out of any big organization who does not have that commitment.

• Be there before the election, and be there after. You have to be someone BEFORE the race, and you have to still be someone after, ever if this time it fails. Meet people, give speeches, don’t wait for the election, build trust long before that.

• I don’t know in other countries, but here you must have a list of 100 voters signatures of the riding to be a valid candidate. There’s two usual ways to do it. For big parties, they take 100 members and make them sign, for the small parties they go around in a mall and get 100 persons to sign. Instead, why not use this opportunity to go around important leaders of the community and ask them to sign? Totally useless from a logistic point of view, but you show that you care and that you value those persons. Then watch them run around telling everyone about that party that came to personally ask them to sign and enjoy.