Thursday, August 31, 2006

New Brunswick Election is in Gear



As soon as we returned from a 2 week hiatus, we found ourselves immersed in the provincial election. A good friend, William Forrestall is the Conservative candidate in the next riding over. A newbie to candidacy in a restructured riding, Will and a small crew are developing the volunteers needed to run things from the grassroots.

My job title? Grassroots Communications Diva. I picked it out.


I love politics. I love election time. And I love getting into the thick of it all. It's so alluring and adrenaline inducing. It's in my blood........both my parents were always involved in local politics. I also married into a politically involved family as well. My kids don't have a hope in hell of escaping it. Luckily, they seem keen to drop into campaign headquarters and to wave signs and banners.

Yeah............the tactics and planning and organizing and the creativity behind the scenes......great brain food. The only thing I won't do is make phone calls. I hate making phone calls.
So, this week.....................my last week of vacation, I'm drumming up corny slogans for stickers, designing brochures and learning how to use a brochure template, writing copy and press releases...........all the while trying to figure out how to get some free air time and press for Will. It's been 18 years since I wrote a radio ad, but I guess it's like riding a bike........once you know how to do it, those aliterative rhyming tongue trippers just flow out of you.........IF you've found the right angle to use.


This election is going to be close, though I was told tonight that the polling numbers coming ou
t tomorrow show the Progressive Conservative party in the lead at 45%. That's 8 percentage points more than the Liberals. The Premier's numbers are lower at 37%, which isn't surprising. He hasn't shown a great deal of team playing leadership............bit of a technocrat loner guy, our Bernard Lord. But, the Leader of the Liberal party (Shawn Graham) is such a lightweight, that the consensus seems to be that Graham is Lord's trump card.

It's a very short election span. Voting day is September 18th..................just around the corner. So, between now and then, I'll be orchestrating demos, planning a parade of sorts through the local Market on Saturday........THE hang-out for even visiting politicians, but it just happens to be in Will's riding..........coaching Will for speeches and Meet the Candidate nights.........and coming up with some more corny slogans.


The sticker slogan this week? "If there's a Will, there's a Way..........." of course! What fun
!

4 comments:

X said...

I am such a political junkie....and I love covering elections. LOVE. It's the longest day in the world work-wise, but it's just like good sex...there's all this sexual tension in the reaserch, then you get there and you get the foreplay before polls close. When the results start coming in, you are talking to everyone and the energy is up. Once the results come in and you have breaking news it's the climax. Filing reports back at the station is the ciagrette to top it all off.

LOL, you know I don't have a bf when I talk about getting off on politics :P

Good luck to your friend! :)

Scott said...

New Brunswick has elections??? hahahaa.

Scott

Canuckguy said...

The Hated NB Liberal Nursing Home Policy:

If any Liberals read this and you are not a "cast in iron" Liberal, when you go vote this Sept 18, Remember this: The NB provincial Liberals, while in power in 1997, brought in the hated policies that counted fixed and liquid assets into how much nursing home clients had to pay for their care. They cannot be trusted!!!

Though Lord is dismantling that, he would have gotten more brownie points if he had completed the process rather than wait to hand it out as an election plum. But regardless, it was the so-called friend of the people Liberals that screwed the nursing home seniors. It took the persistent struggle of the likes of Veronica Ratchford (of my home town, Bathurst) and some others to push the Liberal policy into the garbage where it belonged

I was sitting on the fence until I just read that it was the Liberals who messed up the Nursing home policy.

awareness said...

Leftfield.
Elections do have a sense of seduction to them............I agree!

Scott.......NB has too many frigging elections and too much government for the size of the place.

Canuckguy........I hear you!!!