BC Green Party Campaign 2009: Day 4

It's been something of a whirlwind so far. As I mentioned earlier, the usual vetting and "ease-in" for a candidate was more or less fast-tracked for me given my extensive previous experience in the party and the tight deadline for getting candidates on the ballot. Within the first few hours of my acceptance, I received about three phone calls from organisers within the party and by the next day, two of the three other Green candidates on the North shore had contacted me with offers to help me get the signatures I needed to get on the ballot.

For the uninitiated, here's how it works. Anyone can run for political office, but (s)he must first do the following:

1. They must collect 75 valid signatures of nomination from voters in the riding.

   This is usually handled by setting up in a public place with a few volunteers, cheery faces, coffee and some clipboards. Everyone fans out and asks people to sign their name, address and signature to support a candidate's right to be on the ballot. The results are then collected and sent to Elections BC, who checks the addresses to assure that they are in fact in the riding. For this reason, smart candidates collect 100+ signatures, just in case some of the addresses are disqualified.

2. If they intend to run under a party's banner, they must be vetted and approved by that party.

   This is entirely an internal concern for the party and each party handles it differently. Normally though it involves interviews and background checks etc. to make sure that the candidate selected is the best choice to represent the party.

3. Lastly, they need $250 for the administration involved. If you're running with a big party, they usually help you with that, but since the greens can't really afford it, I've paid for this out of my own pocket.

As mentioned above, #2 wasn't an issue, but #1 was going to be a problem. After all, I'm what they call a parachute candidate (a candidate running on a ballot for a riding in which (s)he doesn't actually reside). I didn't have any friends who live in North Vancouver-Seymour, so it wasn't like I could just round up names from my social circle. No, the signatures had to come from complete strangers, people I was hoping to represent after the election in May.

The experience was rather humbling actually. When you start out on something like this, it's both scary and exciting, but when a little old lady shakes your hand with such faith and admiration, you stop for a second and take a mental step back: "I'm so glad you're runing here" she said, "the other parties don't understand, we need to do something about the environment and they just keep bickering".

I smile, thank her for her support and hand her my business card -- I'm sort of in a state of shock really: I knew well that this whole campaign was going to be scary and stressful, but the idea of taking on the responsibility of representing this woman and thousands of others like her in the Legislative Assembly... this is a lot bigger than I thought going in. But it's Good work, important work and no one else was doing it. ...and I really am honoured to be doing it.

As it turns out, the signature acquisition wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. The Green Party has a lot of support all over the province and having set up outside the local library and mall, we racked up 125 signatures in about three hours. I offer huge thanks to my brother Matthew and my neighbour Cat for coming out to help me at such an ungodly hour, and a special thanks goes to Michelle Corcos, Green candidate for North Vancouver-Lonsdale who showed up with a trunkfull of leaflets and signage as well as her nine-month-old to show us how it's done and help collect as well.

So far though, the whole process has been really, really exciting (though tiring). I've received such amazing support from Michelle Corcos and Ryan Windsor, two candidates on the North Shore in how to do... well everything. and the campaign is likely to get even more crazy now that they're talking about a collective fundraising effort. I'll continue to post here as things develop though :-)