Every time I open this website, I’m faced with the Campaign News section with only a single blog post, published August 6th: “Week One: The First Official-Unofficial Campaign Event”. Clearly, the goal was to keep writing regularly. Oh you sweet summer child.
Its days now until Election Day. The online, phone in and in-person advanced polls are finished. All that is left is for those who prefer to mark an X on a ballot to do their thing. According to the official HRM website, as of Oct. 16, 2024 at 7 p.m. (the end of alternative/advance voting), 25.2% of eligible residents cast their vote. Voter turnout in municipal elections is generally pretty low, averaging around 36% in the last three municipal elections. If the trend continues, that means that about a third of the people who will vote, will have already voted. Fingers crossed that we buck the trend, and people come out in hordes to perform their democratic duty on Saturday, because the more people that vote, the better we all are for it, but I digress.
This blog is a pre-election day debrief of running a campaign as a complete novice with no political affiliations. Admittedly, there are some personal connections built through years of advocacy, but no party machine to guide us along.
Campaigning is a full-time job
No wonder incumbents (even those across different jurisdictions) tend to out-perform newbies. Campaigning effectively is a full-time job and having a 9 to 5 where your job is at least in part, going out to meet people and attend events is a huge advantage. Finishing up your workday and then immediately starting your second (campaign) workday is exhausting. Worth it, but holy smokes, it’s a lot. There is no incumbent in district 8 this go around, so I’m sure most fellow candidates can relate.
Candidates Forum: We Tried
The clock was ticking down, and people were asking if there was going to be a debate/forum for all the candidates in the district. It was clear that it wasn’t in the works independently, so we tried to make it happen. We visited to North Memorial Library to try to book their auditorium space for the event, hoping that would entice another community group to host so that we could keep things fair, independent and at arm’s length. We were willing to do the groundwork for organizing but wanted to be sure that all candidates were represented fairly. We reached out to several community groups, but never heard back- we 100% understand, community groups have more on their plates than they should these days. Likewise, the library, although they sincerely tried to make it work, are over-programmed and couldn’t accommodate the ask. We tried though; we really did.
People Just Want to Feel Heard
Turns out, Steve’s favorite part of this whole thing is knocking on doors. He loves talking to people about their concerns and aspirations for Halifax. Overall, the people of the North End that we spoke to are empathetic, engaged and worried about their neighbours. There are legitimate concerns and grievances, but people don’t feel like they are being listened to. In public housing communities and buildings, especially, residents told us that they don’t feel that they are being heard. Steve listens. He makes time for anyone who wants to talk at the doors, and has a phone number available for anyone who wants to talk later. It’s important that people are able to voice their concerns and opinions and have someone that will listen to them.
Survey Time
This one’s on us, because we underestimated the amount of surveys sent, and the amount of research time that would be dedicated. They are important, so they ate up all of the kid-is-in-bed-probably-should-be-writing-a-blog time.
Campaign Signs
Steve’s signs are awesome, and people have been awesome about putting them out. Until last week, he didn’t have any signs on public property, but when we’d go to the doors, people would say that they noticed his signs.
Funny story about signs: when Steve did eventually put out signs on public land, he placed two in the median between Robie st & Massachusetts ave. The next day, one of those signs were missing. We have no idea what happened, but assuming there was no ill-intent because the other one, and the signs of other candidates were untouched. Guessing that someone just really liked the look & took it home. I hope if that’s the case that they are enjoying it.
Facebook Advertising
Steve had a few issues trying to get logged in and get verified for Facebook advertising. He’s just been coasting by for years using always logged-in phones. Turns out, in order to run ads, you need to actually type in your password. Not going to go into details of the lengths taken to change the password, but at the 11th hour, here we are, with shiny new ads.
Family Time
Our kid picked up a bug in mid-September (not covid, after multiple RATs) that is still hanging on a month later; one concerning enough to send us to the IWK to check for pneumonia. Thankfully, we got a report of clear lungs, but the fallout has had a significant impact on our little family of three. They were too sick to go to school for most of the later part of September and still not eating or sleeping until last week. Our family lives away so when our kid is unwell, we don’t have a village to fall back on. Balancing the hard deadlines of an election with a sick kid threw a bit of a wrench into the plans. Since they’ve been feeling better, they have had to take a backseat for our attention as we try to get door knocking. To make it up to them, we’ve got a solid plan of hanging out, watching anime and going nowhere the day after election day. TBH I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what we all need at this point.
The Campaign as a Whole
All in all, Steve ran a campaign that he can be proud of, and that I’m proud to have been part of. His message was clear and he took the time to connect with people. He invested in a campaign phone number, and made himself available when phone calls/ texts came in. He answered emails honestly- even, and especially the racist and bigoted ones that expected a middle-aged white guy to be on their side. Holy moly were they mistaken. Steve is not the kind of person that will tell just you what you want to hear. Racists, bigots, homo/transphobes should just move on, you’ll find no quarter here.
He genuinely cares about the North End and the people of Halifax, and I think that comes through stronger than ever when people are interacting with him one on one. I’ve watched him change the minds of people who were so disenfranchised with the whole democratic process that they felt there was no point to voting at all.
One thing that I can promise is, that if the votes don’t work out in his favour, whoever is the councillor for district 8 better get used to hearing his voice.
Steve ran a clean campaign, focused on the people of the North End, and I hope that the voters recognize that. Regardless of the outcome, he can be proud of all that he’s accomplished during his campaign run.
Happy Voting!