Nothing wrong with making friends and influencing people

By Ivan Morgan

I love walking into a set of offices and immediately knowing they are perfect. There’s no time to waste. You only need them for the next few weeks. Lots of parking? Yup. Good location? Check. Back rooms? There is a feel you get when the place is right. Cut a cheque and get moving.
Desks, chairs, tables, phones, internet access… already ordered but now we have an address. Running a political campaign is a lot of fun. It’s also a lot of hard work. I have run a few. I have participated in many. I have worked on political campaigns since I was six. It’s in my veins.
I have a decades old personal tradition. Just as the campaign is starting, I like to sit in the campaign office after hours, in the dark, late in the evening, and imagine the many characters who will soon overrun this space. I sit in the quiet and think of the days to come. What will it be like? I prepare to expect the unexpected. The planning, the arguments, the fights, the hugs, the laughter and the tears. That’s the first part of my tradition.
Go volunteer on a political campaign. There’s one on the go now and two more to come. It doesn’t matter which party, pick the one you like the most. Campaigns are unlike anything else you are ever likely to experience. While only a few short weeks long, you can make friends that can last a lifetime and collect memories that will last just as long. Not sure what you can offer? No worries – they’ll figure that out. As the old saying goes, 85 per cent of success is simply showing up.
If it’s done right, running a campaign is crazy busy from the get-go; getting all the gear in and installed while finding the people to do the work. The people… ahh the people. Campaigns get folks from every walk of life crammed together working for the cause. There’s nothing quite like it.
Politics is about people. Getting people to convince other people to vote for your people. Doors must be knocked on, homes have to be called, flyers need to be designed, printed and delivered. There are signs to be knocked together and placed all over the riding. It all should have been done yesterday. I was a sign manager once on a federal campaign. One of the greatest compliments I ever received was from a CBC commentator (back when folks listened to that station) almost 30 years ago. “Signs! The only feller who’s got more signs up than (my candidate) is that fella STOP!”
If you volunteer to knock on doors don’t worry about people being unpleasant. I have been knocking on doors in various capacities for almost 60 years. I can count the rude people I’ve encountered on my fingers. The worst you will get is a curt reply or – and this only started happening over the last 20 years – no one answering the door. Knocking on doors remains my favourite (only?) part of politics. Want to know about the real issues – not the nonsense the parties cook up to distract you? Knock on 100 doors.
Done properly a political campaign is intense. So much to do. So little time. So many people all wanting different things.
I’ve been on winning campaigns and on losing ones. When its all over, to finish my political tradition, I like to sit again in the dark empty offices and remember. While dark and still, the office echoes with the highs and the lows, the laughter and the anger, the joys and the tears of the last few short weeks. It seems so odd to me that what days ago were rooms packed with hard working, passionate people are now empty, dark and quiet.
It starts with a bare set of rooms. Now that’s what it is again.
But oh the in between…
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com