I swear to all that I will keep this brief, it is now 1:25 a.m and I am expected at Paul's office in Fort Rouge at 7 a.m... brief it is!
Friday I went out to plant the rest of my signs, hit Pinawa, Pine Falls, Whitemouth, and many places in between. I had about 15 signs remaining from my first sign planting jaunt so I planted the rest and headed for home. Allow me to digress....
It occurred to me while I was driving down highway 12 on my way to Pine Falls and Powerview that I was in the eye of a perfect moment. My window was wide open, I was on the highway surrounded by Boreal forest and beyond that fields of spouts that would eventually become a sea of wheat. The Tragically Hip blared on the stereo, dial pushed to 11. The sky was as blue as could be, the barometer at about 23... and at the moment, I smiled for no reason inparticular, it was just... perfect.
Anyways.
Today I went door knocking with Dr. Jon, Brent, Melissa and Naomi. Then later, myself, Dr. Jon, Naomi and Brent met Paul on Corydon where we did some glad-handing, response was good, but I'm going to hold my tongue to avoid jinxing our good fortunes.
Tomorrow:
Working from 7 a.m to 8 p.m when the polls close... and then we celebrate 32 days well done, first at the Fort Garry, and then on to the Rodfather's estate, should be a fitting end to a hectic month.
'Til then.
- C.
P.S: Although I'm obligated to say "Vote Liberal" for whoever your candidate might be, if it's not your party, then pick another, just get out there and do it.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Adventures in Sign-Planting
With E-Day six days away I figured it was about time I got some of my signs in the ground. No, really. Actually my signs just came in on Tuesday, I can only imagine there were some kind of problems with the printing... yeah, that was totally it.
Myself and very close personal friend Jason Liebert hit the Eastman area today with a vengeance. We started by picking up my signs at party HQ on Broadway. From there we took to the road... no, wait, scratch that, we stopped at the 59'er for breakfast first... it was tasty. From there we hit straight up highway 59 to the Beausejour turn off at 44. I was without riding maps so we started planting signs as soon as I saw the first Tory sign of my opponent. From there we peppered the highway at major intersections, planted a few in Garson, got lost in Tyndall for a bit and continued up to Beausejour.
My grandmother was in the city today so she wasn't home when I planted my sign on her lawn, but Jason took of a picture of me in the process so I can show her those if she so desires. From there we went up to the Junction of 44 and put a few there then headed out Lac Du Bonnet way. Stopping at Seddon's corner for gas and a red bull, we continued up towards Lac Du planting signs at Milner Ridge (pics coming soon) and off towards the Pinawa turn off.
We stopped in at Glenn's store, Christy's and had a bit of a chat with him before continuing up a little ways to place a few signs where ever we saw the opposing party's signs. My reasoning is if they put the sign there, it must be a good, highly trafficked place, and judging by the cars going by, they were. I had an interesting chat with a gentleman just as we were leaving Christy's. He told me he has voted Conservative all his life but not this time, he doesn't like Hugh... this seems to be a common sentiment province-wide as according to the most recent polls the Grits are tied with the PC's, but well behind the NDP.
On the way home we hit a few spots on 317, right by Robyn's drive-in. According to Jason this intersection is heavily trafficked by cottage-goers... let's hope it's not just people on their way to the cabin but riding residents as well.
Overall I planted about 35 of the 50 signs they gave me. Tomorrow I'm off to the most northern part of the riding, up by Pinawa and Pine Falls, as well I'm going to make a stop in Whitemouth as well. According to the polling station results from last election, about 80 Liberal votes came from the Whitemouth area, it seems like a good place to campaign. Still looking for volunteers to keep me company on the road, RSVP by 11p.m tonight, ship leaves around 10a.m Thursday morning. I'll keep you posted.
'Til then.
- C.
Myself and very close personal friend Jason Liebert hit the Eastman area today with a vengeance. We started by picking up my signs at party HQ on Broadway. From there we took to the road... no, wait, scratch that, we stopped at the 59'er for breakfast first... it was tasty. From there we hit straight up highway 59 to the Beausejour turn off at 44. I was without riding maps so we started planting signs as soon as I saw the first Tory sign of my opponent. From there we peppered the highway at major intersections, planted a few in Garson, got lost in Tyndall for a bit and continued up to Beausejour.
My grandmother was in the city today so she wasn't home when I planted my sign on her lawn, but Jason took of a picture of me in the process so I can show her those if she so desires. From there we went up to the Junction of 44 and put a few there then headed out Lac Du Bonnet way. Stopping at Seddon's corner for gas and a red bull, we continued up towards Lac Du planting signs at Milner Ridge (pics coming soon) and off towards the Pinawa turn off.
We stopped in at Glenn's store, Christy's and had a bit of a chat with him before continuing up a little ways to place a few signs where ever we saw the opposing party's signs. My reasoning is if they put the sign there, it must be a good, highly trafficked place, and judging by the cars going by, they were. I had an interesting chat with a gentleman just as we were leaving Christy's. He told me he has voted Conservative all his life but not this time, he doesn't like Hugh... this seems to be a common sentiment province-wide as according to the most recent polls the Grits are tied with the PC's, but well behind the NDP.
On the way home we hit a few spots on 317, right by Robyn's drive-in. According to Jason this intersection is heavily trafficked by cottage-goers... let's hope it's not just people on their way to the cabin but riding residents as well.
Overall I planted about 35 of the 50 signs they gave me. Tomorrow I'm off to the most northern part of the riding, up by Pinawa and Pine Falls, as well I'm going to make a stop in Whitemouth as well. According to the polling station results from last election, about 80 Liberal votes came from the Whitemouth area, it seems like a good place to campaign. Still looking for volunteers to keep me company on the road, RSVP by 11p.m tonight, ship leaves around 10a.m Thursday morning. I'll keep you posted.
'Til then.
- C.
The Home Stretch
Well this is it. One week until E-day. At this point next week I'll be with my fellow Liberals celebrating our official party status once again (here's hoping). There is not much to report on my front. I have been fielding calls from long time Conservatives telling me that they have never voted Liberal in their lives but they are sick of Doer and the PC hasn't done a damn thing for them. The most pressing issue is health care, something which a party with 4 physicians running knows something about.
My signs finally came in today so tomorrow me and Jason will go plant them all over North Eastern Manitoba. Finally I'll have my name out there beyond the press. Apparently I'll be fined if I don't take them down a week after E-Day so I need to write down where I place them all to avoid that.
Today I spent the evening downtown on Smith Street canvassing an apartment building with strong results. The building used to poll around 60% NDP... from our findings today we found that it's now about 60% Liberal... the Paul Hesse machine keeps on rolling. After that we went to the Toad on Osbourne for the first of two Lounge Nights that Paul has this week. He invites constituents out to join him for a beer where they can talk about issues that they are concerned about in a casual and relaxed setting, a real man of the people he is. Paul also put up two videos on Youtube, which you can check out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrqkaIKPz64
and here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGnt1YIIJ1E
The videos were shot and edited by Paul's communications liaison, Doug MacArthur.
That's all for now, I'm sure I'll have sign-planting tales tomorrow.
'Til then.
- C.
My signs finally came in today so tomorrow me and Jason will go plant them all over North Eastern Manitoba. Finally I'll have my name out there beyond the press. Apparently I'll be fined if I don't take them down a week after E-Day so I need to write down where I place them all to avoid that.
Today I spent the evening downtown on Smith Street canvassing an apartment building with strong results. The building used to poll around 60% NDP... from our findings today we found that it's now about 60% Liberal... the Paul Hesse machine keeps on rolling. After that we went to the Toad on Osbourne for the first of two Lounge Nights that Paul has this week. He invites constituents out to join him for a beer where they can talk about issues that they are concerned about in a casual and relaxed setting, a real man of the people he is. Paul also put up two videos on Youtube, which you can check out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrqkaIKPz64
and here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGnt1YIIJ1E
The videos were shot and edited by Paul's communications liaison, Doug MacArthur.
That's all for now, I'm sure I'll have sign-planting tales tomorrow.
'Til then.
- C.
Monday, May 7, 2007
ACCEPTED!
Hey everyone,
forgive my lack of updates, the campaign trail has kept me plenty busy. I think at last I left you I had spent a night door-knocking in Fort Rouge with Brent and the gang. I'm going to try to make this short and sweet for all involved because much as transpired between now and then. On Thursday morning I was expected at Dr. Gerrard's office on Broadway for a huge announcement on how to keep young people in Manitoba. I didn't make it.
Around 9:30 a.m. I got a phone call to get down to the St. Boniface Hospital where my Grandmother had been in Palliative care for the last month or so. I knew this wasn't good. And I was right, she had passed away earlier that morning. The campaign was put on hold from that point. I called Sam Dixon, told him the situation and that I didn't know how this would impact this campaign. He told me not to worry about it, tend to the family business. Several hours later I would receive a phone call from my agent Georgina saying her and Naomi Gerrard (Jon's wife) had been in Beausejour all day and would be dropping off nearly 120 signatures from constituents, this put me at 151 signatures, more than enough to hand in to my returning officer.
The next day I drove out to Beausejour to drop off the signatures at the returning office. I spent the day in town with my last surviving grandmother waiting for the R.O office to call but they never did. All the signatures have to be verified by Elections Manitoba and sometimes that is an overnight job so I left Beausejour around 5:30 and headed back to the city.
When I got home there were some family and friends over consoling my mother and such. I was pretty tuckered out so I pretty much just had a few beers and went to bed, I had to work in the morning.
It was a typical Saturday. Went to work, people were driving slow the whole way there, you know, the usual. As an added twist my tire had a slow leak in it so I had to go to the service station and fill it up, I would have to fill it up again once more before the end of the day. Around lunch I went out to check my cell phone which I leave in the car while I'm at work and saw that I had two messages. One was from Rhonda, the other was from my dad saying that my signatures had been approved and I was now an official candidate in the 2007 Manitoba Provincial election, and that I had to go pick up a package from the Returning Officer which had voter's lists and all that good stuff. I have arrived.
Saturday night I went over to Brett's to watch a disappointing boxing fight then came home and turned in early. The next day I was headed to Ste. Rose. The next morning I arrived at the office on Broadway a few minutes after nine. After getting our stuff together, myself, Georgina, and Naomi hit the road to Neepawa. We got there around 11:30 and promptly hit the streets to collect signatures for my good friend Janelle, who had to work that day. There we were, standing in a downpour outside of a Safeway in Neepawa for three hours until we got all the names we needed. We dropped 140 names off at the returning office, hit the Chicken Shack for lunch then headed home. When I got home I was exhausted but didn't sleep. Instead I just dimed the new Nine Inch Nails record... again. I took the rest of the night off to watch the Sopranos with the boys.
I woke up this morning with the full intention of sending out press releases to all the community newspapers in my riding but when I opened my email I saw that they had come to me. I had two email interview requests and a voicemail asking for a telephone interview. I did the two email interviews first sticking firmly to the main issues: Health care, Lake Winnipeg, Rural Education, Responsibility, and Infrastructure, I think they went quite well. Apparently I was mentioned in the Pinawa paper today as well which is nice, good to get that exposure.
That's the up to date facts ladies and gents, 'till next time.
- C.
forgive my lack of updates, the campaign trail has kept me plenty busy. I think at last I left you I had spent a night door-knocking in Fort Rouge with Brent and the gang. I'm going to try to make this short and sweet for all involved because much as transpired between now and then. On Thursday morning I was expected at Dr. Gerrard's office on Broadway for a huge announcement on how to keep young people in Manitoba. I didn't make it.
Around 9:30 a.m. I got a phone call to get down to the St. Boniface Hospital where my Grandmother had been in Palliative care for the last month or so. I knew this wasn't good. And I was right, she had passed away earlier that morning. The campaign was put on hold from that point. I called Sam Dixon, told him the situation and that I didn't know how this would impact this campaign. He told me not to worry about it, tend to the family business. Several hours later I would receive a phone call from my agent Georgina saying her and Naomi Gerrard (Jon's wife) had been in Beausejour all day and would be dropping off nearly 120 signatures from constituents, this put me at 151 signatures, more than enough to hand in to my returning officer.
The next day I drove out to Beausejour to drop off the signatures at the returning office. I spent the day in town with my last surviving grandmother waiting for the R.O office to call but they never did. All the signatures have to be verified by Elections Manitoba and sometimes that is an overnight job so I left Beausejour around 5:30 and headed back to the city.
When I got home there were some family and friends over consoling my mother and such. I was pretty tuckered out so I pretty much just had a few beers and went to bed, I had to work in the morning.
It was a typical Saturday. Went to work, people were driving slow the whole way there, you know, the usual. As an added twist my tire had a slow leak in it so I had to go to the service station and fill it up, I would have to fill it up again once more before the end of the day. Around lunch I went out to check my cell phone which I leave in the car while I'm at work and saw that I had two messages. One was from Rhonda, the other was from my dad saying that my signatures had been approved and I was now an official candidate in the 2007 Manitoba Provincial election, and that I had to go pick up a package from the Returning Officer which had voter's lists and all that good stuff. I have arrived.
Saturday night I went over to Brett's to watch a disappointing boxing fight then came home and turned in early. The next day I was headed to Ste. Rose. The next morning I arrived at the office on Broadway a few minutes after nine. After getting our stuff together, myself, Georgina, and Naomi hit the road to Neepawa. We got there around 11:30 and promptly hit the streets to collect signatures for my good friend Janelle, who had to work that day. There we were, standing in a downpour outside of a Safeway in Neepawa for three hours until we got all the names we needed. We dropped 140 names off at the returning office, hit the Chicken Shack for lunch then headed home. When I got home I was exhausted but didn't sleep. Instead I just dimed the new Nine Inch Nails record... again. I took the rest of the night off to watch the Sopranos with the boys.
I woke up this morning with the full intention of sending out press releases to all the community newspapers in my riding but when I opened my email I saw that they had come to me. I had two email interview requests and a voicemail asking for a telephone interview. I did the two email interviews first sticking firmly to the main issues: Health care, Lake Winnipeg, Rural Education, Responsibility, and Infrastructure, I think they went quite well. Apparently I was mentioned in the Pinawa paper today as well which is nice, good to get that exposure.
That's the up to date facts ladies and gents, 'till next time.
- C.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
.. and Onward!
Hello,
As promised I'm keeping all of you out there up to date in my quest for political office in the upcoming provincial election. When I left you last I was anxious to pound the pavement and get started on my nomination signatures. So, yesterday morning me and Johnny Mazur hit Beausejour to get those forms filled out which would make me an official candidate in the election. We started going door-to-door and we filled our first page of 15 names with little problem; it took a little less than 45 minutes, we figured at this rate we'd be done by late afternoon, which would be optimal because I had to be at Paul Hesse's campaign office at 5:30 to do some door-knocking in Fort Rouge.
From there, the trail went cold, lots of non-answers and even more "Thanks but no thanks." The problem running in a riding that is populated with Tory and NDP supporters who are not only staunch in their views but also elderly is that they think by signing this form they are endorsing me and the Liberal party, which is not the case at all. All the form says is that I'm allowed to run, all these people are doing is standing up for my democratic right to seek office. Oh well. So at the end of the day I got home from Beausejour with 29 signatures, a far cry from 100, but not bad for a rookie on his first time out. I later remarked to Jon, "after knocking on strangers' doors for an afternoon, striking up a conversation with a cutie at the bar will be no problem."
So I dropped Jon off at about 4:30, ran home quickly to freshen up a tad then headed downtown. The traffic was dreadful so I arrived at Paul's office at Stradbrook and Osbourne at about 5:15. Fellow Cre-Com running mates Janelle and Mike where there, as was Brent of course, and as an added bonus, the Rev. John Towns was joining us, as was Tim the Pharmacist. A few minutes after I arrived Nelly Gonzales from Global showed up and did a spot with Paul, I think that might be on the news tonight if it wasn't on last night at 10:30. Dr. Gerrard was there, he met us young thunder cats for the first time and seemed pretty excited.
From the campaign office we started pounding the pavement all down Corydon in little Italy. We hit apartment blocks mostly to pretty good response. There were a few half naked stoners and stuff like that but that is to be expected when your trawling one of the hippest areas in town, I really want to live in one of those pads. After we had finished our block we (as in, Brent, myself, Mike, John, and Tim) headed to Bar Italia for a few refreshing pints on the patio. Talking strategy and dishing dirt, it was all very official.
We made our way back to Paul's office. Tim, Mike, and John stopped for Gelatis on the way back but I figured beer and frozen dairy products that taste like fruit wouldn't be a great mix so I decided to pass. When we got back to Paul's most of the volunteers who had been canvassing that night had returned. There was beer so of course we indulged. At this point I been up since 9 a.m and walking for most of the day. The time was about 8:30. Paul shot off to a show at the West End to canvass there, that man is a machine. Brent fired off a few press releases to Bartley Kives as he is our new assigned reporter after the old one with a bow tie got hit by a car in front of Stella's Bakery yesterday.
With the original five sitting around we shot more shit, hung out and drank beer. We found a bag of pretzel's and got into those. At this point this surreal sense of accomplishment was washing over me, sure I was tired as hell and my feet hurt and my undershirt was drenched, but hell, I was having a great time doing it. I learned more yesterday about the inner workings of a campaign then I would have in a three-year degree program, I can tell you that.
We broke from Paul's headquarters at about midnight, Brent and I walked to my car while John, Mike, and Tim were headed to some karaoke place across the street for a few songs with one of Mike's friends.
Upon finally arriving home after 15 or so hours out of it either walking or driving, I immediately got on my computer sending emails and other query's to potential people who I could get to sign my nomination papers in Beausejour and Lac Du Bonnet. Today was going to be great, today I was going to finish getting the signatures and be ready to get out there and do some campaigning for my own office bid.
It's been hard, and I'm losing money on a daily basis, but what the hell, I'm having fun and getting amazing experience. ... and Onward!
- C.
**On another note, these blogs WILL have an audience, Mike, Brent, and Janelle will be the first seminar class for the first year Cre-Comm's next year so I'll have the complete play-by-play.
As promised I'm keeping all of you out there up to date in my quest for political office in the upcoming provincial election. When I left you last I was anxious to pound the pavement and get started on my nomination signatures. So, yesterday morning me and Johnny Mazur hit Beausejour to get those forms filled out which would make me an official candidate in the election. We started going door-to-door and we filled our first page of 15 names with little problem; it took a little less than 45 minutes, we figured at this rate we'd be done by late afternoon, which would be optimal because I had to be at Paul Hesse's campaign office at 5:30 to do some door-knocking in Fort Rouge.
From there, the trail went cold, lots of non-answers and even more "Thanks but no thanks." The problem running in a riding that is populated with Tory and NDP supporters who are not only staunch in their views but also elderly is that they think by signing this form they are endorsing me and the Liberal party, which is not the case at all. All the form says is that I'm allowed to run, all these people are doing is standing up for my democratic right to seek office. Oh well. So at the end of the day I got home from Beausejour with 29 signatures, a far cry from 100, but not bad for a rookie on his first time out. I later remarked to Jon, "after knocking on strangers' doors for an afternoon, striking up a conversation with a cutie at the bar will be no problem."
So I dropped Jon off at about 4:30, ran home quickly to freshen up a tad then headed downtown. The traffic was dreadful so I arrived at Paul's office at Stradbrook and Osbourne at about 5:15. Fellow Cre-Com running mates Janelle and Mike where there, as was Brent of course, and as an added bonus, the Rev. John Towns was joining us, as was Tim the Pharmacist. A few minutes after I arrived Nelly Gonzales from Global showed up and did a spot with Paul, I think that might be on the news tonight if it wasn't on last night at 10:30. Dr. Gerrard was there, he met us young thunder cats for the first time and seemed pretty excited.
From the campaign office we started pounding the pavement all down Corydon in little Italy. We hit apartment blocks mostly to pretty good response. There were a few half naked stoners and stuff like that but that is to be expected when your trawling one of the hippest areas in town, I really want to live in one of those pads. After we had finished our block we (as in, Brent, myself, Mike, John, and Tim) headed to Bar Italia for a few refreshing pints on the patio. Talking strategy and dishing dirt, it was all very official.
We made our way back to Paul's office. Tim, Mike, and John stopped for Gelatis on the way back but I figured beer and frozen dairy products that taste like fruit wouldn't be a great mix so I decided to pass. When we got back to Paul's most of the volunteers who had been canvassing that night had returned. There was beer so of course we indulged. At this point I been up since 9 a.m and walking for most of the day. The time was about 8:30. Paul shot off to a show at the West End to canvass there, that man is a machine. Brent fired off a few press releases to Bartley Kives as he is our new assigned reporter after the old one with a bow tie got hit by a car in front of Stella's Bakery yesterday.
With the original five sitting around we shot more shit, hung out and drank beer. We found a bag of pretzel's and got into those. At this point this surreal sense of accomplishment was washing over me, sure I was tired as hell and my feet hurt and my undershirt was drenched, but hell, I was having a great time doing it. I learned more yesterday about the inner workings of a campaign then I would have in a three-year degree program, I can tell you that.
We broke from Paul's headquarters at about midnight, Brent and I walked to my car while John, Mike, and Tim were headed to some karaoke place across the street for a few songs with one of Mike's friends.
Upon finally arriving home after 15 or so hours out of it either walking or driving, I immediately got on my computer sending emails and other query's to potential people who I could get to sign my nomination papers in Beausejour and Lac Du Bonnet. Today was going to be great, today I was going to finish getting the signatures and be ready to get out there and do some campaigning for my own office bid.
It's been hard, and I'm losing money on a daily basis, but what the hell, I'm having fun and getting amazing experience. ... and Onward!
- C.
**On another note, these blogs WILL have an audience, Mike, Brent, and Janelle will be the first seminar class for the first year Cre-Comm's next year so I'll have the complete play-by-play.
Monday, April 30, 2007
The Beginning...
Well with the advent of spring came an election call from Premier Doer. He dropped the writ and the day was set for May 22nd. All parties came out fighting hard. We had Hugh McFadyen looking like a drunken frat boy on the front page of the Free Press flanked by Doer with his goofy grin and a very distinguished looking Dr. Gerrard.
My close person friend, Mr. Brent Neill is a stately, young Liberal since way back with a fire in his belly. He remarked to my good friend and classmate Micheal Sherby (and several others, who I will touch on later), that the Liberals would probably be in need of people to bombard the media outlets with press releases and the like, a roll I would be aptly suited for given my Public Relations training from the always radiant Anne Bennett. I fired off a quick resume and that was that, I expected to hear from them within the week. This took place last Wednesday. After a few days with no response I had almost forgotten about it and was thinking of calling Sysco to see if I could get in on a few more shifts a week, you know, gainful summer employment.
The following day I received a phone call from the aforementioned Brent Neill asking if I would be interested in running for the Liberals in the riding of The Pas, an NDP stronghold. I mulled it over, Chris Gmiterek, a politician? I thought to myself... I'd be stupid not to do this! I hastily agreed and later that day found myself headed down to Liberal party headquarters on Broadway. On arrival I met a few of the staffers there and talked with Georgina, one of the bigwigs. I mentioned in passing that I had family routes in Beausejour and the surrounding areas, this resulted in my riding being switched from The Pas to Lac Du Bonnet. Yes, the dream was realized, Chris Gmiterek was on his way to running for political office.
I signed a few forms and was given the run down of the riding, and the process of making myself an official candidate by getting the support of over 100 residents of the riding, which hopefully won't prove to be so difficult given my family name. The next day there was a courier delivering Elections Manitoba documents to my house, talking about auditors and campaign finances... they spelt my name Guiteret... I hope that's not how it appears on my signs or ultimately, the ballot. I took most of the weekend off to regroup but yesterday I met with Sam, another Liberal staffer who was worked on campaigns since he was 12. He gave us our riding voters list and got into the finer points of campaign finances and the like. Also at the meeting was Roland, an older gentleman looking to run in the Souris riding I believe, the aforementioned Micheal Sherby, who is running in the Morris riding, Janelle Mailhot, another classmate of mine, running in St. Rose, and Brent, who was there for moral support.
This about takes me up to present time. I still require a head shot for my brochure as well as a resume that I need to forward to Sam so they can write my bio. Also on board the campaign train is Dr. T. Shane Gibson. A doctor of divinity, Shane will be running in a yet-to-be-named Southern Manitoba riding. Tomorrow I plan to go buy a nice pair of slacks and I nice shirt in which to hit the campaign trail. On Wednesday I hope to get out to Beausejour to collect signatures which will make me a legitimate candidate. I may get a lot of doors slammed in my face but I suppose that is the downside to running in a riding where the NDP and Tories jockey for position every four years while the Liberals collect somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 votes. If I can double last years count on name alone I will be proud.
On another note, when a few of my instructors at Red River heard that we were all running in the election the comments ran a gamut from "This is awesome, I'm so proud," to "This is the last cheque I'm ever cutting for the Liberals," to "I've lost faith in democracy."
The Liberals have a solid platform this time around, it has a lot of clear, ration ideas that will benefit the province. With people growing tired of the NDP, and the Tories being very... un-Tory like as of late, we might just be in line to pick up a few more seats and get back our official party status. Stay Tuned.
- C.
My close person friend, Mr. Brent Neill is a stately, young Liberal since way back with a fire in his belly. He remarked to my good friend and classmate Micheal Sherby (and several others, who I will touch on later), that the Liberals would probably be in need of people to bombard the media outlets with press releases and the like, a roll I would be aptly suited for given my Public Relations training from the always radiant Anne Bennett. I fired off a quick resume and that was that, I expected to hear from them within the week. This took place last Wednesday. After a few days with no response I had almost forgotten about it and was thinking of calling Sysco to see if I could get in on a few more shifts a week, you know, gainful summer employment.
The following day I received a phone call from the aforementioned Brent Neill asking if I would be interested in running for the Liberals in the riding of The Pas, an NDP stronghold. I mulled it over, Chris Gmiterek, a politician? I thought to myself... I'd be stupid not to do this! I hastily agreed and later that day found myself headed down to Liberal party headquarters on Broadway. On arrival I met a few of the staffers there and talked with Georgina, one of the bigwigs. I mentioned in passing that I had family routes in Beausejour and the surrounding areas, this resulted in my riding being switched from The Pas to Lac Du Bonnet. Yes, the dream was realized, Chris Gmiterek was on his way to running for political office.
I signed a few forms and was given the run down of the riding, and the process of making myself an official candidate by getting the support of over 100 residents of the riding, which hopefully won't prove to be so difficult given my family name. The next day there was a courier delivering Elections Manitoba documents to my house, talking about auditors and campaign finances... they spelt my name Guiteret... I hope that's not how it appears on my signs or ultimately, the ballot. I took most of the weekend off to regroup but yesterday I met with Sam, another Liberal staffer who was worked on campaigns since he was 12. He gave us our riding voters list and got into the finer points of campaign finances and the like. Also at the meeting was Roland, an older gentleman looking to run in the Souris riding I believe, the aforementioned Micheal Sherby, who is running in the Morris riding, Janelle Mailhot, another classmate of mine, running in St. Rose, and Brent, who was there for moral support.
This about takes me up to present time. I still require a head shot for my brochure as well as a resume that I need to forward to Sam so they can write my bio. Also on board the campaign train is Dr. T. Shane Gibson. A doctor of divinity, Shane will be running in a yet-to-be-named Southern Manitoba riding. Tomorrow I plan to go buy a nice pair of slacks and I nice shirt in which to hit the campaign trail. On Wednesday I hope to get out to Beausejour to collect signatures which will make me a legitimate candidate. I may get a lot of doors slammed in my face but I suppose that is the downside to running in a riding where the NDP and Tories jockey for position every four years while the Liberals collect somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 votes. If I can double last years count on name alone I will be proud.
On another note, when a few of my instructors at Red River heard that we were all running in the election the comments ran a gamut from "This is awesome, I'm so proud," to "This is the last cheque I'm ever cutting for the Liberals," to "I've lost faith in democracy."
The Liberals have a solid platform this time around, it has a lot of clear, ration ideas that will benefit the province. With people growing tired of the NDP, and the Tories being very... un-Tory like as of late, we might just be in line to pick up a few more seats and get back our official party status. Stay Tuned.
- C.
The Smell of Delicious Elections
Well, as most of you have heard, I'm in contention to be the Liberal candidate for the Lac Du Bonnet riding in the 2007 Manitoba Provincial election. I've decided to document this foray into politics in blog form. This is the first of many. Tomorrow, when I have more time, I will bring everyone up to speed on what has happened so far and how this whole thing came into being. Until then.
- C.
- C.
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