It is like admitting your age. Should you admit to having been involved in more than 80 election campaigns?
You might as well. The explanation is that in Toronto, where the ridings are so close together, the political activist is rarely involved in just one campaign in a general election. There was a time as campaign manager in the second largest riding in Canada when a good deal of time was also devoted to helping the novice campaign manager in the adjacent riding—the largest riding in Canada (we won both).
With special expertise in preparing literature for political candidates there were quite a few general elections over the years where the task was to write and design literature for as many as a dozen candidates. The key to doing the job was in already knowing the candidates and having an easy working relationship with the various campaign managers. There was also the advantage at the time of being head of communications for the Ontario Liberal Party.
In municipal elections, the layering of candidates at various levels made it very easy to work with a number of candidates in a municipality. In several municipal campaigns, there was also some fun work as far away as the London area of Ontario. Awkward media problems were a specialty. In St. Thomas, an advertising solution for a mayoral candidate coincidently won a national newspaper award.
Every federal and provincial campaign included an opportunity for the ethnic media to meet and interview the party leader. Feting these people made good sense and they always responded well to the invitations. The sad thing was that after the election, it was a person from one ethnic group or other that was appointed to look after the needs of this media group. It never occurred to the party, when in power, to have a sixth generation Canadian—who respected them all—looking after the ethnic media contact needs.
Leaders’ tours through federal and provincial elections were a very demanding part of the campaigns and the local organizational needs were never left entirely to the host riding. Having a local organizer who knew the people, the streets and the venue was always considered essential as long as it was someone the leader’s people knew and trusted. As a local function organizer for Prime Minister Trudeau in Toronto throughout most of his years in office, this election time role was particularly demanding.
One of the most appreciated roles for local party organizers was the training provided to riding workers to teach them about the why’s, wherefore’s, useful tips and the fun of canvassing for political candidates. Whether it was 10 or 40 people at a time in the local candidate’s headquarters, these were always fun sessions. At one time, federal party campaign chief Senator Keith Davey and I worked up a joint program for out of town that we briefly took on the road. We did the show for audiences of many hundreds at a time in school auditoriums.
But the point of this is to explain that at my young age(!) I have probably been involved in many political campaigns over the years. There were times the involvement was in depth and there were many times I was just as a visiting specialist. I always enjoyed it.
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