No Liberal Love

[bcholmes]

So, uh, my Liberal candidate (Kate Holloway) just came to my door minutes ago. She did a quick bio. I said, politely but directly that I support the NDP and have been disappointed by Dalton's lack of support for Toronto.

Her response was to suggest that funding for Toronto is much better than it was (I thought, but did not say, that the Mike Harris benchmark might not be the one you want to measure yourself against) and that Rosario Marchese is just "a third-party back-bencher" who doesn't go to bat for Toronto.

So I say, "That's interesting. Can you say more about that?"

And she says: "No, I don't have your vote, so I don't want to take the time."

Pretty much sealed the deal for me.

Comments

[secretsoflife.livejournal.com]

wow, that's a great quote. my favourite one from the last campaign was Ianno saying that if Rosario lost he wouldn't know what to do with him, and suggested he be "painted yellow and put out on the kerb as a fire hydrant".

[kat-chan.livejournal.com]

Wow, to be so into your campaign that you can't be arsed to try and explain to someone who has stated commitment to an opponent why it is that you're the better choice. With commitment like that, I'm just sure that she's ready to go to bat for Toronto.

She's a Liberal...she's probably got visions of Ottawa in her head, and only sees the provincial legislature as a step on that ladder.

[astralplane.livejournal.com]

...isn't the point of going door to door as a political candidate to sway people to your side? Why on earth would she only want to talk further with people who already support her, and not with the ones who don't? That makes no sense; even if you said you supported the NDP, how on Earth does she know that you won't vote for them if she gives an amazing reason? I mean, I'm sure there's not a snowball's chance in hell, but still...seems crazy on her part!

[(Anonymous)]

In point, one riding over last election, I normally supported the Greens (our local Green candidate was SUPER involved in the community and would have made an excellent rep for Parkdale), but last election, I voted NDP, simply because the Liberal rep, Sam Bulte, NEEDED TO BE STOPPED. So I support the Greens, but can be talked into voting elsewise when someone can otherwise talk me into it. Leaving someone with a permanent 'this person won't go to bat for *me*' feeling is just stupid. Go politician.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

aigh. thought I hit 'stop' fast enough.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Is that all it takes to stop Sam Bulte -- just his the 'stop' fast enough?

[thespian.livejournal.com]

Well, that and Cory Doctorow blogging against her daily.

[rbowspryte.livejournal.com]

thst's quite the attitude.

[lakme.livejournal.com]

Wow. Did she also say that if you didn't play nice she was taking her toys and going home and telling on you? Ever-so-mature. She'll go far :P

[(Anonymous)]

Taking what you've written at face value...

Obviously, as an NDP supporter, your mind is made up. Any candidate worth their meddle doesn't waste time while canvassing on decided voters. It's a basic campaign rule in any party. It seems that Kate Holloway simply told you the truth. How _NOT_ shocking.

If you truly are capable of leaning to vote a different way, you gave the wrong cue up front by stating that you are an NDP voter who does not support the Liberals.

As a Green Party member, I once tied NDPer Gord Perks up at my door for 10-15 minutes when he was running federally. For all his smarts, he's not always the brightest (he has a temper barely under simmer, by the way) as those precious minutes are ones he could never reclaim, and it likely prevented him from identifying a few more NDP voters.

Mission accomplished!

[For those who don't understand political canvassing, the purpose of it and phone banking is primarily to identify voters and potential voters to later try to get them out on election day. The more time you waste debating on doorsteps, the less voters you identify. At most you should answer a few questions, hand out literature which connects the person to more information, grab some vital stats, and then move on. Voters wanting more information who say so, get a phone bank call later.]

"I thought, but did not say, that the Mike Harris benchmark might not be the one you want to measure yourself against"

The Mike Harris/Ernie Eves benchmark left us with a yearly $6 billion deficit. The NDP benchmark, set when they were in power from in 1991-1995, left us with a whopping $11 billion yearly deficit. Indeed, the benchmarks from the 1970s into the late 1990s were all based upon deficits, so I don't think any of those benchmarks are the ones a reasonable person would want to measure against.

You seem to not have noticed, but we are entering into a new era where local self-sufficiency is going to become quite important.

Catch the news lately? The 'R' word is cropping up again. That's 'R' for recession. The US looks like it's going to tank.

In this environment, and after experiencing that great lesson of history where we saw incompetent NDP overspending gave Ontario a reason to vote Mike Harris in, we have the NDP once again pushing expensive, uncosted proposals to "upload the downloads" primarily in order to help centre-of-the-universe Toronto, because, after all, the rest of the province doesn't seem to matter and fictional NDP money simply falls from trees this time of year.

The NDP has controlled Toronto council for years and have never managed to solve its budget issues, regardless of which provincial party is in power. The time is sadly coming for a right-wing takeover of council, and when that happens, in the same way we saw the NDP provincial government so strongly contribute to the rise of Mike Harris, we'll see this NDP council contribute to the downfall of Toronto.

Demanding that a responsible provincial government constantly bail out a city which now has its own unique power to raise taxes, as wanted by the Toronto NDP and passed into law thanks to Dalton McGuinty's Liberals, is a bit much.

Of course the NDP can come up with any pie-in-the-sky solution it wants: It will not have power after this election and doesn't have to implement its unrealistic platform.

By the way, Marchese was in the Globe Aug 18 hinting that Toronto needs to do more to solve its own problems. As an NDPer saying that, he's talking out both sides of his mouth.

I'm not much for the Liberals myself, but at least they've avoided the fiscal cesspools espoused by default by the NDP, and committed by the conservatives under the guise of belt-tightening. With some money finally in the bank, the time is right for fundamental changes in how we do things. Greens have a lot of good, needed ideas, but only the Liberals have the know-how and clout to do them.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

For those who don't understand political canvassing, the purpose of it and phone banking is primarily to identify voters and potential voters to later try to get them out on election day.

That may be the candidate's purpose, but as a voter it makes me feel a little bit used. What I want are real candidates who are going to engage the electorate and hear what the people they represent are saying. I want candidates who take the things they hear into account when they're in discussions with their parties about what policy should be.

And I don't think I'm alone in wanting that. I think declining voter turnout speaks to an ongoing sense of voter alienation from the electoral process. And if candidates like Kate Holloway are actively contributing to that process, then I choose to call them on that behaviour and hope that they look bad to as many people as possible.

As a Green Party member, I once tied NDPer Gord Perks up at my door for 10-15 minutes when he was running federally. [...] as those precious minutes are ones he could never reclaim, and it likely prevented him from identifying a few more NDP voters.

Well good for you. Sounds like you're a bit of a jerk.

Re: No Liberal Love

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

And she says: "No, I don't have your vote, so I don't want to take the time."

stupid. that's something you can _think_ as a politician, and that might well be how you plan your canvassing, but to outright _say_ it is dumb.

it's not even how one should really plan the canvassing either. one never knows what will conspire during an election; you might feel disappointed in your presently chosen candidate at some point, and then that nice liberal candidate who succinctly yet politely explained her platform might seem like a viable candidate. or heck, you might have sounded much firmer than you are about being in the NDP camp.

she sounds like a twit.

Re: No Liberal Love

[(Anonymous)]

Stupid? Maybe the candidate was merely catching the NDP partisan in the act, and let her know it. I think bcholmes here would be writing something negative no matter what transpired, and the candidate was letting her know she's more than smart enough to figure that out.

Re: No Liberal Love

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

ah, you don't actually _know_ BC.

anonymous coward drive-by comments are a yawn. byebye.