Promise Made, Promise Kept!

Over the course of fifty six days and nights, I rarely posted so much as a thought about the federal election. In fact, post-Christmas, I was MIA. I was busy. I was focused. I was on the ground.

I was working for Team Baird under the acute leadership of Campaign Manager Chris Froggatt and Deputy Campaign Manager Cara Salci who had both left Queen's Park to drive John Baird's push to represent the constituents of Ottawa West-Nepean, a 17-year Liberal stronghold.

After suffering a crushing narrow defeat with Sean Casey's campaign in 2004, my wife and I promised ourselves that we'd not only work harder within the riding association but that we'd never again wake up the morning after an election, wondering what more we could have done. Indeed, we gave it our all in '04 and post-mortem analysis could easily provide the Liberal fear, smear and civil servant whisper campaigns as a viable scapegoat, but we all should've been ready for such activity.

That being said, I'm sure there was little we could do to fend off the fear attacks. Paul Martin shrewdly dissolved parliament when his polling was high enough to shut down the Public Accounts investigation into Adscam and catch the Conservative Party flat-footed without a ratified policy document. Indeed, what policy initiatives and platform planks that came about in 2004 were merely soft-core offerings based on our post-merger Agreement in Principle.

Fast-forward to March, 2005. We leave Montreal on the Sunday satisfied that after local and regional hair-pulling policy sessions, the National Convention exhibited tremendous wisdom in putting forth a very workable policy document for all Canadians to examine.

Throughout the summer of 2005, Stephen Harper quietly went about his barbecue tour, travelling from coast to coast, talking and listening to Canadians. The shift, while I'm certain it was beginning, was not reflected in public opinion polls and certainly not played up in the mainstream media. No, indeed, for two reasons. Much of the msm is Liberal biased and history will tell you that governments are almost always lost - not won. We would have to hope for the media to play up existing examples of Liberal scandal and incompetence more or hope for a new bombshell.

Throughout the writ period we received a series of little nuggets of assistance to that end, while Nationally and locally, we ran virtually flawless campaigns. The Conservative Party, just turning two years old, was showing signs of unexpected maturity and discipline. Unexpected from the Liberals, that is. We knew differently, however, and with quiet confidence, we forged ahead. While the National messages dealt with Accountability, Health Care, Taxes, Child Care and Gun Crime, the Baird message addressed those priorities from the local perspective, including the continued fight for the Queensway-Carleton Hospital, violent crime in Ottawa West-Nepean plus issues that concern seniors (an important demographic here).

All of us on the campaign team embarked on a post-holiday full court press down the final stretch, installing signs, working debates, performing lit-drops in 20cm snow storms and canvass blitzes with the candidate. The last lit blitz went right through the final weekend and, despite the devious efforts from our competition through reverse canvassing and sign vandalism and theft, our message was getting through: It's time for a change.

While Mrs. Woody and I served largely in a communications role(she was Media Relations and I handled the website and email lists), we weren't above helping wherever there was a need. It was an attitude shared by every core volunteer on the team. Election day saw each one of us going even stronger, covering off polls, running back to the office to identify voter efficiency at regular intervals and, finally, pushing to get out the remainder of our support.

It was sometime after 10:30, CTV News declared John Baird elected in Ottawa West-Nepean. I wasn't aware at the time. I was still in the back office with several others taking results over the phone from our scrutineers still in the field. We didn't let up until Chris was satisfied the numbers would hold and that victory was secure.

It was a promise made and a promise kept. It was a commitment, not only to ourselves but our mandate as directors of our EDA. It was also our belief in a man that will not only make a difference in our community, but who'll be a positive force in government. And that, my friend, is why we do it.

Congratulations to John Baird, the next Member of Parliament for Ottawa West-Nepean.

And heartfelt thanks to every member of Team Baird. If I started listing names, I'd only screw up by missing someone and they're all too important, too valuable and too loved for me to do that.

Still standing......

NOTE: Originally posted 1/26/2006 on Woody's Blog