Election Season is Here Again!
Ten years ago, I had a dream of serving Kitchener Centre as NDP Member of Parliament. Now? That dream is all but gone.
Election season is hard for me. After leaving graduate school, I more-or-less threw myself into politics. The 2008 election, which happened just after I graduated, got married, and suffered a market crash, returned a minority Conservative government. That meant the NDP riding association needed to be ready to go at a moments notice. We worked so hard in the run-up to the 2011 election, running community events, attending nearly every local summer festival, and just generally building a movement. We worked hard, but we also had fun. My campaign team in 2011 was honestly the greatest group of people ever - all those people that supported me, the 21,000 people who voted for me, I'll forever be grateful.
I'd planned to run it back again. I had a long-term plan. After I left my job in Guelph in 2012, we moved back to Kitchener Centre from Elmira so that I could be sure to live in the riding again. Our riding association had grown, in part due to Cameron Dearlove's provincial run in the fall of 2011. I was so excited about the opportunity to run for office again - not only did I have a real and genuine desire to serve the people of Kitchener, but I loved the cut and thrust of electoral politics. I wasn't good at all of it - I still hate the phone, though I don't grumble quite as much as I used to - but there were other things I was great at, like interacting with the public.
I remember the thing that got me out of the hospital. Tom Mulcair was coming to Waterloo for a candidate nomination meeting and mini-rally on May 28, 2015. I circled that date on the calendar from my hospital bed - come hell or high water, I was going to make it to that event. And I did - they let me out of the hospital one day before the meeting. I'll never forget the Get Well message from MPs Paul Dewar and Tony Martin, as well as a faxed note from Mulcair himself. Those notes and that meeting got me through to the other side of the hospital bed.
Don't get me wrong - I LOVE to support my local Kitchener Centre NDP candidate - this year the formidable Beisan Zubi is up to the challenge, and I’m looking forward to making some calls and knocking on some doors for her, though, as always, I'm at the mercy of my body. But part of me goes into a sort of personal mourning each federal election, and I haven't yet been able to shake it.
I really wanted to be the NDP Member of Parliament for Kitchener Centre, and I genuinely thought that I would be good at the job. Call me a mediocre vvhite man if you must, but I genuinely thought I was a good fit for the role, and well suited to serving my community in Ottawa. Unfortunately dream that has been put on ice, in perpetuity. All of that said, just because I am thrilled to support each current candidate, part of me will always wonder 'what if.'
One of the most important ways that I have found manage my own thoughts and emotions during an election campaign is to take a Facebook break for the duration of the entire campaign. Keyboard warriors are often a hindrance to campaigns rather than a help anyway, and I know that I can get, well, invested in my argument. Indeed, if you find yourself spending time, energy and emotional currency in online arguments during an election campaign, you know that it’s probably time to go volunteer for your local NDP candidate.
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