Campaigning

I ran into a neighbour of mine on Friday while we were waiting for our children to be dismissed from school.  They knew I was running for School Board Trustee and came over, said hi and asked how things were going so far.  Once the chit chat was over, she mentioned that one of the other candidates had come to her door the previous evening.  She asked me if I was planning on doing the same thing.

I explained that I was not planning on going door to door to introduce myself to people.  I could see the relief on her face as I said this. 

She explained that when the other candidate had shown up, she had just sat down to dinner with her family and for her, Thursdays are always rushed.  She also has two children that both participate in various programs and dinner was rushed as they tried to get ready for the activities of that night.  The candidate introduced himself and my friend explained that this was a bad time for her as they were in a rush.

The candidate then made the dismissive remark that, to paraphrase, “I guess your children’s education isn’t that important to you then”. 

Who does that?

We are talking about a mother that makes sure she is available to pick her son up from school each and every day, volunteers for field trips whenever she can, and understands the value of her children participating in other activities outside of school. 

Don’t poke the bear.

She related this story to me and I explained this was exactly the sort of situation I wanted to avoid.  I understand that if I went door to door the best chance I have of finding people at home is during the dinner hour.  But I also understand that this is family time. 

In our home, dinner is often more about talking about the day than it is about the food.  We have our two children, my wife, my mother, and me all in one room at the same time.  It doesn’t happen often.  Why would I want someone to interrupt that? 

Why would you want me to interrupt you?

I understand that family time is precious.  I’m not going to take it away from you. 

So how am I going to make sure people know who I am, why I am running, and what I stand for?

Well, there is this blog.  I’m going to update this frequently throughout the campaign and hope that people have a chance to read through it and judge for themselves whether the things I state her resonate with them. 

I would like to organize an all candidates on-line session where interested people can submit questions and all the candidates have the opportunity to answer.  One of the biggest challenges I have encountered so far is getting people together to talk about the issues our public school system faces.  This would enable people to participate in a meaningful discussion from the comfort of their homes.

I’m having difficulty getting this organized but will certainly let people know if, and when I can get it done.   

I have tried to contact all of the parent councils operating at the schools in Ward 17.  Not all of this information is readily available so I have encountered some difficulty here.  If you would like me to come to your parent council meeting, please, pass on my contact information to your parent council and have them reach me.  I’ll make myself available.

Finally, I am working on hosting my own meet the candidate night.  Once this has been finalized I will publish the information here and send it to the parent councils.