|
since I was 15 ... and that was the year Pierre Trudeau became Prime Minister. That was a loooong time ago.
All but that first time, it's been for the New Democratic Party of Canada. We invented banging on doors for political candidates.
If your party does it like we do it, the canvassers often have to be reminded of something very important.
The purpose of the canvass isn't really to change people's minds. That is simply not going to happen.
The purpose of the canvass is to identify people who, if they vote, will vote for your candidate(s).
And then, on election day, your party sends people out to beg, cajole, shame and drive them to the polls to vote. And in any kind of a close election, *that* can make the winning difference. In a municipal election here some years ago, my friend won by an average of 1.5 votes per poll. I thought -- hmm; that was the visually impaired older woman I drove to the advance poll when I happened to be canvassing her building on advancing voting day, and the woman with the baby whose car seat we strapped into the back of my Suzuki (I sat in the car with the baby while she voted) so I could drive her to the polling station in a snowstorm 15 minutes before it closed.
You really just are not going to change people's minds in 2 or 5 minutes on the doorstep. The best you can hope for is to find people who are soft -- who probably would not vote if not prodded, and who have good reason to vote for your party, but who would vote Democrat if they did vote or who might see that they should if you help them a bit, and who can then be got out to vote. But don't be unrealistically optimistic; people will often claim they're going to vote for your candidate just to get rid of you, and then will take great offence if someone tries to get them to actually do it.
If they watched the debate, this is an opening. Often, people watch, and see some of what the media says, but don't talk about it. If you can identify something that one of your candidates said that seems relevant to them and their lives, mention it. "What did you think about what Kerry / Edwards had to say about" ... health care, maybe? Hopefully, something other than the war or the national deficit, or anything else that seems big and remote and incomprehensible.
I had about my best year in 1984, when Ed Broadbent, then the leader of the NDP, put on a terrific performance in our leaders' debate. For two weeks, all I had to say was "Did you see Ed in the debate? What did you think about what he had to say about ...?" (to a woman with a baby: the national childcare program, e.g.), and people would be talking politics with me, and asking me for information about our platform. We were Xeroxing off party policy info sheets as fast as we could feed the paper in. I know that probably 25% of the votes we got in that constituency came directly from Ed's performance and from talking it up on the doorstep, and from the fact that the election in question was one in which ordinary people had been enabled to feel engaged. But this is unusual, and just isn't to be expected by the door-knocking political army as a regular occurrence.
The worst was in 1988, when asking ordinary people I'd dragged up off their couches "So, what do you think about free trade?" had the same effect as telling them there was about to be a pop algebra quiz.
People do appreciate attention. If your candidate knocks on their door personally, they might be more likely to vote for him/her. I've encountered numerous people who said they'd be voting for another candidate simply because s/he appeared on their front porch and our party's hadn't made it by.
For the canvasser, maintaining a sweet countenance and an attitude of genuine interest in the voter, no matter how piglike the voter is, is about the only option. You are glad they take such an interest in politics and the election, and you appreciate the opportunity to provide someone like them with information about your candidate.
Then you hand over the leaflet, and make tracks to another door where your time isn't being wasted. Because that's all that arguing with adversaries on doorsteps is (and us clever folks argue amiably with the opposing candidates' canvassers precisely to waste their time).
And then you all get out on election day and drag those voters to the polls.
|