Thinking back to the last federal election in 2006 (when I was also the Green candidate in Toronto Centre), I can remember the moment when I identified my very first supporter. My brother and I (my campaign was very dependent on friends and family in very material ways) had been knocking on doors for an hour, asking every person we met if they “considered themselves a Green supporter.” When someone finally said yes after all that time, my brother did not play it cool. “Oh wow,” he said, “that’s great!” When this person also agreed to take a lawn sign, we could barely believe we weren’t dreaming. And yet, that campaign was still a record-breaking one, and earned a result 47% higher than the previous election.
It’s hard to describe how profoundly different this campaign is. Aside from the fact that we have a full time campaign office (which, when it opened, was one of only two full time campaign offices in the riding) with two full-time staff members and several more full-time volunteers, I never go more than a few doors without meeting an enthusiastic Green supporter. I’ve been out canvassing for 11 days in a row now, and the mood feels a lot like it did when I canvassed in the historic Green campaigns of London North Centre or Bruce Grey Owen Sound.
So, thanks so much to everyone I’ve talked to and who’s now checking out this site like you said you would. Please don’t hesitate to drop us a line if you have any questions or would like to get involved. We’d love to hear from you.
I should give a special thanks to Sharon and Ingrid, who have done more than their fair share of of heavy lifting when it comes to keeping me company these past few weeks. It was also great to see Victoria Cate (Young Greens Council Member and Elizabeth May’s daughter) last weekend and canvass with her for about an hour before she had to catch the train back to Ottawa.
Finally, the buzz is also measurably higher in the blogosphere. A number of other people have been blogging about this by-election campaign. Here’s a (non-exhaustive) roundup:
- Mitchel Raphael of Maclean’s has some photos of the first Candidates debate
- Barbora Grochalova writes about helping on the campaign and our Greens Gone Wild reading week program
- Jason Hammond would like you (and the Liberals) to know that Electors are not Vote Mules and asks you to come visit our office
- Jim Harris has highlighted a few aspects of our campaign, including our strong fundraising success
- Jacob, who used to watch me play improvised music at a show called Catch 23, gives a quick shout-out
- James Calder of The Progressive Right asks you nicely to vote for me
- Chicagoist (yes, in Chicago) is amused by the Toronto Centre fixation with Barack Obama
- Glenn and Kenn (it’s a double-N thing) remember our campaign office opening party (fondly)
- Jordon (aka GreenDude) provides his top five reasons to vote for Chris Tindal
- JimBobby Sez is excited to take a train trip to Toronto Centre to help us out