Well, that was one long winter campaign. But working together we
pulled off a great performance.
Right from the beginning, we set the
pace and agenda, starting with our moderation on signage initiative and then
never gave the lead up, issue after issue, event after event, until finally
towards the end of the campaign we were officially endorsed by the Whig Standard
Editorial Board as the best choice of M.P. for Kingston & The Islands.
I have to tell you it later occurred me that I was probably lucky the
newspaper’s endorsement had not shown a close up picture of my balding head and
an endorsement headline below the picture reading -Whig for Walton!!
The
endorsement confirmed what I believed, that win or lose tonight, we can be very
proud of the effort we all made and the strategic position this puts us in for
the next election or re-election.
I would like to start by thanking Mark
of Sol Latino and all the staff here for opening up the restaurant for our
celebration. What an approriate place for a political party that has a sunflower
as its defining image, more direct solar power energy as one of its goals, and
thinks a “tango” is a better image for English - French relations than a patient
in a dentist chair, mind you a few more dancing lessons wouldn’t hurt the
federation.
Like all effective campaigns, this was a truly a team effort
- and what a great team we are!
Using only dedicated volunteers we
distributed 30,000 election cards door-to-door throughout Kingston & the
Islands. Among this group was our youngest volunteer Ben Mogl-MacLean -aged 13-
who found time between school and homework to tirelessly go door-to-door
advancing the Green vision. Thank-you Ben, none of us will be surprised to see
you among our official Green candidates in the not too distant future.
Then there is Wilfred Sorensen, a long time member of our executive who
would distribute pamphlets every morning during his exercise runs. Not only
that, he was also the Sign Campaign Co-ordinator of this campaign, and with his
very competent group of zone captains, they got lawn signs to supporters
everywhere. In fact, quite a few people told me that seeing the large number of
supporters with Green Party signs on their lawns was the most noteworthy part of
the campaign for them.
It is said that in a wise and sustainable society
its older men and woman plant trees whose shade they will never experience. Well
not only does Wilfred plant hundreds of trees every year on his rural property,
he is also planting the seeds of a profound political change that will value and
protect those trees and his grandchildren. Thank-you Wilfred.
Some of
the other over-achievers in pamphlet distribution are people like Stuart Pike,
who was a colleague of mine at the Kingston Environmental Action Project (KEAP).
In the course of the decade we volunteered there together Stuart spoke in over a
hundred Kingston area schools about his love for the environment and what we
could do to protect it. I am certain that some of the Kingston & The Islands
voters turning to our Party today are some of the young boys and girls he
inspired 15 years ago.
Then there is Dennis Burr who was a one man
distribution phenomenon. A longer campaign and he could have done the whole City
by himself! Thank-you Dennis for your exceptional contribution to the Green
cause in this community.
Then there are the volunteers who
are masters of multi-tasking like Kevin Maloney and Graham Lodge who have so
very ably covered the downtown and Meadowbrook neighbourhoods respectively with
both the cards and lawn signs. Thank-you for your continued dedication to building up our little
Green party election after election.
Another exceptional multi-tasker was
Luis Holzbach, who was one of the two key people who got our campaign office up
and running and looking so good. He was also there most nights for the late
shift. He also canvassed and helped put up signs and very discreetly suggested
that perhaps some of my jokes in my speeches were not as funny as I thought they
were!
Then there is Vesla Olimer, who also worked with me when I ran in
the 2003 Provincial campaign. She single-handedly covered half the apartments
and condominiums in Kingston. I can tell you honestly I worked extra hard to do
my best in the All-Candidates Debates because of the dedication of people like
Vesla. I was not going to let her down. Thank-you Vesla.
There are so
many more people to thank who went beyond the call of volunteer duty. Amazing
people like:
Jill Lava, Rebecca Beshara, Lynn Drake and her young
assistants, Gerry Wyatt, Anne Haggerty, Penny Page, Dick and Shirley Myers,
Robert Matheson, Mike Chapman, Alan Whitbread, Glen Sorensen, Leann Cunningham
and many more. Thank-you
Our
print promotion was also very professional and effective in this election. For
this I want to thank graphic artist Peggy Collins. She is incredibly talented
and produced exceptional artwork for us that greatly increased our credibility
and the effectiveness of our text. She gave our words the visual framework they
needed to be taken seriously. Thank-you Peggy.
For the great radio ads
that connected so well with so many people I have to especially thank our media
co-ordinater Bonita Summers. Her no nonsense approach and deeply creative input
made them happen when they might well have languished. And thank-you also Bonita
for the contacts you made and Press Releases you sent out during the campaign.
I have to mention now the
Queen’s Green’s - the independant campus political club at the universtiy. Well,
they rocked! Almost everyday they were out tabling, and distributing cards to
students, writing articles and even debating the other political clubs. They
were by far the most active and effective of the campus political clubs. I would
like to especially acknowledge the leadership of Tara Tran and Jared Giesbrecht
in making the Queen’s Greens so effective in this election. But they were not
alone and many more students were directly involved including exceptional
volunteers like Gwen May, Winnie Chan, Ryan Germain, Liz Spang and many others. A
very big thanks to all of you for taking the time from your studies to advance
the Green message on campus.
I also want to acknowledge and thank Betty Anne and David Field for
the get-to-know-your- candidate coffee party on Wolfe Island. Their organization and effort
was substantial and it really paid off for us, not just on the Island but in the
press. Hopefully this will mean that the Islands are never again ignored by
federal candidates.
And my last formal public talk was at a busy coffee
party organized by the Guy Thorne on Saturday. It was a very stimulating
conversation and a great way to end that aspect of campaigning. I would like to
thank the Thorne’s for their efforts organizing that event and for their support
in general.
Turning to our award winning Campaign Office all I can
say is that Claudia Wade made it happen and made it work. Without her taking the
lead we would not even have had a Campaign office. Claudia went far beyond the
call of duty, coming in on weekends even when our office was not supposed to be
open. She was the central contact and continuity person and she excelled at the
job. In fact it a pity to close the office it was starting to look so good and
work so well. Thank-you Claudia for your enthousiasm and professionalism.
Regardless of how we do tonight you have played a big part in making us look
credible.
I want to also acknowledge George Clark’s many
contributions. George is also on our exec. team and has supported the Kingston
Greens very generously for a long time now. He is also our resident issue
analyst and gives us timely comparative analysis of all the other parties and
their platforms. Thank-you for your insightful work George and your continuing
support.
Turning now to another exec. member and our official secretary, Jude Larkin -
our “go to” person if something critical needs to be done
quickly and correctly. She began this campaign by co-ordinating the nomination process and managed to
get 164 signatures to make us the first Green Party EDA to register in all of Ontario. It
is not surprising then that she was the one we asked to lead our GOTV (Get
out the vote) campaign. Every election our GOTV gets better and better as
we learn more about the mechanics of electoral politics. Thank-you Jude for
your commitment and follow-through. It was comforting to all of us knowing that you were in charge of those
responsibilities.
In the 7
All-Candidates Debates, I was very ably assisted in preparations and de-briefing’s by Andrew
MacCann, who was not only an excellent coach he was also particularily talented
in the door-to-door canvassing we did together - including once during a snowstorm! Thank-you Andrew for
the amazing support and enthusiasm you showed in this campaign.
I would also like to acknowledge the very
timely assistance of Lory Kaufmann in the design and ordering of the lawn signs
we put up private property. His assistance and expertise in this area was
much appreciated and helped us start strong.. Thank-you Lory for your
long-term support of the Green Party.
I
want to specifically also thank my family for the support they gave me in this
election. It was a strain on them and I could not have run if they had not
picked up the slack. My mother Liliane not only translated large amounts of text
for us into French but also was the enhanced child-care support that allowed me
to engage more in the campaign. My sister Anne also helped tremendously with
translation and helped in the staffing of the Campaign Office during the
election. Thank-you Waltons!
Jennifer my wife and my two sons have
also been incredible despite the fact that this extra long election occurred
right through Christmas and the holidays. My eldest even went door-to-door with
me a few times and seemed to particularily enjoy putting in lawn signs.
I could not have done this without their support and encouragement.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the incredible contribution
of the dynamic husband and wife team of Morgan Wade and Nancy Salay who were
also the co-managers of this campaign. Where does one start in thanking them?
They have been centrally important to building up the Kingston & The
Islands Green Party and putting us into a position to mount an effective
campaign. Morgan is not only our innovative campaign web-master he is also
the Official Agent and Treasurer. And he excels in all those roles.
If he were to leave we would need at least three volunteers to fill his
shoes.
Nancy holds everything together - even when she does not think she is doing so - her maturity and judgement keeps us focused on finding solutions and not arguing with each other - as independant minded Greens are sometimes known to do. I know she will be relieved that this campaign is over because of her teaching load at Queen’s. I deeply appreciate the contribution she made and the credibility she gave us in this campaign. So to both you I say a very big thank-you and I hope now you will be able to get some well-deserved sleep.