HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-09-02, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1987. PAGE 5.
Getting out the vo te
Hundreds of volunteers at work trying to recruit
your vote for their candidate for Sept. 10
Gerda Peters [standing] is an integral part of her husband Nico’s
campaign for the Conservative party in the Sept. 10 provincial
election. Here she works with volunteer Ruth Bond in the campaign
headquarters in Clinton.
BY KEITH ROULSTON
It will take you only seconds,
next Thursday, to mark your ballot
for the candidates of your choice in
Huron riding in the provincial
election but the three parties
involved have put thousands of
volunteer hours in to trying to make
sure you put your X beside the right
name.
The resources of the three
parties vary but the goal remains
the same, to try to change the
minds of as many people as
possible and to get as many of their
own supporters out to the polls
come September 10 as possible.
Both the Liberals and the
Conservatives say a good year
round party organization helps the
party be in shape when an election
is called. The Progressive Conser-
vtives in Huron have always had an
extremely well organized riding
association, says Dr. Tom Jasper,
campaign chairman for the Con
servatives. The Huron association
isoneofthebest in the province
even though, Dr. Jasper laughs, it
stilllosesalot (Jack Riddell has
represented southern Huron for 14
years and Murray Gaunt and
Murray Elston have held northern
Huron even longer for the Liber
als.)
Joe Hogan of Exeter, president
cf the Huron Riding Liberal
Association and campaign chair
man for his party says the ongoing
organization that helps with every
thing from Jack Riddell’s annual
barbecue to social and fundraising
events helps keep the party in
shape for an election campaign.
That party organization will
mean 600-700 people will be
involved in one way or another in
the Conservative campaign, Dr.
Jasper said. Mr. Hogan didn’t
have the exact numbers but said
that by the end of election day,
hundreds of people would also
have helped try to get their
candidate elected.
Which brings one of the major
differences with the New Demo
cratic Party campaign. Tony Mc-
Quail of West Wawanosh town
ship, a former candidate himself,
who is campaign chairman for Paul
Klopp’s campaign for the NDP
says that his party doesn’t have a
vast workforce in terms of either
people or the amount of free time
they can give.
The NDP operates on the
philosophy that working people
should be involved in politics, he
says, and working people don’t
have a lot of free time to give. His
party has to live with those
limitations, he says. He estimates
that in all about 100 people will be
involved atone point or another
through the campaign although a
core of about 15 people run the
campaign.
One similarity between the three
parties is that all felt they were well
prepared when Premier David
Peterson eventually called an
election.
The Liberals, of course, had the
easiest task getting started. Once
Murray Elston had decided that
with riding redistribution he would
move north to contest Bruce, there
wasn’t much suspense about who
wouldbethe Liberal candidate.
Jack Riddell was the first candidate
nominated of all the party repre
sentatives. The Liberals held their
nomination meeting March 5.
The Liberals position meant they
by-passed one important hurdle in
election preparation: finding a
candidate. One of the first commit
tees that swings into action when
an election approaches is the
candidate search committee. Dr.
Jasper says the Conservative
voting structure for its nomination
meeting helps the whole election
strategy. The election is held
among delegates from each of the
more than 100 polls in their riding
with three representatives from
each poll, one of them being the
poll captain. Each poll turned out
its full slate for the nomination
meeting held on April 14, he said,
because of a race for the nomina
tion. He maintains there would
have been a race for the nomination
except that Mr. Peters came on so
strong that others decided not to
contest the nomination. In the end,
all three parties elected their
candidates by acclamation.
The New Democrats elected
Paul Klopp as their candidate at a
meeting on May 3 in Clinton.
Once the candidate is nominated
the party organization is dedicated
more to electing the candidate. As
Dr. Jasper says, the Progressive
Conservative Riding Association
becomes the Nico Peters Cam
paign organization.
The two large-membership par
ties organize somewhat similarly
with a pyramid structure based on
a poll-by-poll organization. Each
poll has a captain. Each municipal
ity has a municipal chairman and so
on to the riding campaign commit
tee.
The two large parties also have
the benefit ofbeing able to hand
out some plums to workers. The
government party, under election
regulations, gets to name the
deputy, returning officer for each
poll and one of the two enumera
tors. The official opposition gets to
name the poll clerk and the second
enumerator. In many cases, the
enumerator becomes the party’s
scrutineer on election day. The
scrutineer is a volunteer job as the
official agent for the candidate in
each poll, making sure only those
legally allowed to vote can vote.
The campaign structure has the
benefit of bringing the views of the
grassroots before the candidate,
Joe Hogan says. The candidate
attends meetings of the municipal
chairmen and the poll captains and
these can be quite candid, he says.
Party workers are open, behind
closed doors, to say they don’t
think their candidate should have
done this or they don’t think the
party should be doing that. The
Liberals, with an incumbent mem
ber who is also a cabinet minister
have the luxury, he says, of getting
feedback the other way, getting a
view from the member as to how
caucus feels about this or that
issue.
The structure of the campaign
organization is essential because
unlike the province-wide cam
paign where the emphasis seems
to be on events staged for the
media, the local campaign is built
on hard slogging, a door-to-door
struggletoconvince voters that
their candidate is the best one. The
huge size of the Huron riding adds
to the task the parties face. As Jim
Fitzgerald, executive assistant to
Mr. Riddell said, you could put all
the ridings in Toronto in the corner
of the Huron riding west of
Highway 4 and north of Highway 8.
Campaign tips on strategy that
come down from party headquar
ters in Toronto may not make sense
when applied locally.
One of the first tasks in the
campaign is to get signs for the
candidates out. The Liberals won
that race this year because they
had some signs left over from the
last election. Riddell signs were
out in key locations on the day the
election was announced.
Signs are one of the areas where
the party youth wing can help out,
Mr. Hogan says. The Young
Liberals often get pretty excited
about putting up the signs he says,
and getting plenty of signs up gives
an impression that the whole
campaign team is on its toes.
The enthusiasm of the young
Conservatives has been demon
strated by not only the number of
signs around the county but by the
sign-waving contingent of young
people who took over the front rows
of the auditorium in Londesboro at
the all-candidates meeting last
week.
The NDP, through necessity
and/or philosophy, doesn’t go in
for signs in a big way. Tony
McQuail estimates that by the end
of the campaign his team will have
used only 50 signs. He worries
about the environmental aspect of
signs that may litter the roadsides.
The NDP has tried to get signs up at
the edge of the larger communities
but that’s about the extent of the
sign population for the New
Democrats. Mr. McQuail feels
there are better ways to use the
limited resources of his party.
The amount of newspaper, radio
and television advertising the
party carries out is governed by the
provisions of the elections expens
es act and by the bank account of
With a winning team from the past the Liberal Campaign
headquarters in Clinton is a well-staffed operation. Nancy Parker
[answering phone] is the office manager while Peggy Menzies
[standing, left] is the campaign day chairperson and Anna Stirling one
of many volunteers helping in the campaign. Hundreds of volunteers
will be involved.
the party. Advertising is no longer
as extravagant as it was several
years ago. The New Democrats,
with the smallest budget, have put
all their eggs in one basket,
producing a four-page newspaper
which will be distributed to every
home in the riding. Normal
advertising, Mr. McQuail says,
doesn’t allow enough space to
discuss the issues. The flyers gives
his party a chance to state its
position on a number of issues.
Smaller brochures as well as
newspaper and other advertising
are part of the campaigns for the
Liberals and Conservatives. Their
signs, both road-side signs and
lawn signs, are much more plenti
ful and elaborate.
The best selling job of course is
to get the candidate out to meet the
people. It's not always easy given
the size of the riding. For the NDP,
Mr. McQuail says, it is especially
hard because Mr. Klopp is afarmer
who has his commitments to his
own farm work and to help his
neighbours, commitments, Mr.
McQuail says, the party feels he
should keep.
The Liberals would seem to have
it best having a candidate that’s a
full-time politician but the fact Mr.
Riddell is a cabinet minister can be
both an advantage and a disadvan
tage. As a minister he has weekly
cabinet meetings to attend and
he’s also expected to visit other
ridings to help boost the cam
paigns of other Liberals.
Places where large numbers of
voters gather are welcomed by
candidates and that’s again when
the wide organization of his party
can help, Dr. Jasper says. Local
poll captains can let party head
quarters know about important
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