It is how it is

We have a lot more NDP in BC today which is great. Gordo won by a 1.5 kilovotes in his riding. It was Lorne Mayencourt who squeaked back in by just 550 (damn, I did phone canvassing for Vancouver Burrard too!) Our own Karen Rockwell lost by about 3 thousand, but Mike Farnworth (NDP) is back in PoCo and it looks like Diane Thorne (NDP) probably won in Coquitlam, although it's very close. Harry Bloy just barely beat Bart Healy, the NDP candidate who wins the prize for standing by the side of the road and waving the most in any campaign.

Now I know what inside and outside scrutineers do, and I've experienced the adrenalin of 8am-10pm running, running, running to get the vote out. At the beginning of the day my volunteer partner and I had 4 voting places for roving inside scrutineering. These were reduced to two by mid-afternoon as more volunteers arrived. Early in the day we drove to the doorsteps of committed supporters in Anmore and Northeast Coquitlam and dropped of "vote reminders." Later in the day we called in from the polling place to the campaign office with the sequence numbers of voters who had shown up at the poll. Volunteers at the office phoned voters who hadn't gone to the poll to remind them to vote, offer rides, etc. I had not idea how much work goes into making sure people vote on election day. After the polls closed I watched the vote counts and ballot-balancing. It was very interesting and somewhat surreal. In the course of the day I saw 11 ducklings in a trailer park, a bucket put out for clean-up day that was labelled CAT (food), a man who argued with me about whether dropping of the vote reminders on election day was legal, an 18-year old election poll worker all starry-eyed about voting, experienced campaign manager and volunteers working with laser intensity, my friend Cathy staying calm and mentoring me through an almost overwhelming day, elections officers sitting on pillows they brought from home to cushion folding chairs (was that part of the training?), piles of sandwiches, apples, donuts and coffee for volunteers to grab and run at lunch time, a florist shop waking up early at 9am to take an order for a bouquet for Karen and lots and lots of people voting. And I saw a dozen of Karen's friends and supporters standing around a tv in the office at 10pm when the results were sure. After hugs and reassurances they turned out the lights and headed over to the party. What a day, what a day.

Port Moody Westwood was predicted to be the safest riding for the Liberals in the Tri-Cities area. But I hoped. We all did. I guess that's the upside of this little part of the big election story. We all hoped. Hope is the spark that starts many good things. It's still there. Next time. Next time.

question: why the heck not?

mompoet - eternal optimist and constant learner