Volunteers make political campaigns successful for Candidates

Campaign workers were at it right up until the last minute, and that included holiday Monday. Bill Panizovski was out putting up signs for Lui Temelkovski in Markham. A political campaign needs a good candidate to be successful.

But the best candidate in the world is going to have trouble drawing votes without the backing of dedicated campaign workers.

And that has been the case in Oak Ridges — Markham during the recent federal campaign.

Matthew Ellis has been managing the Conservative campaign of Paul Calandra. This is his second time in that role, and he said he's been working in campaigns since 1997.

Over the years, Ellis said he's noticed there are some parts of campaigning that don't seem to change.

"The general idea's the same," he remarked. "Knocking on doors wins the election."

He added technology has led to some changes, but the core of the effort remains the same.

Ellis said the campaign had a core of about 50 volunteers, with roughly 100 signed up to work election day, and as of the middle of last week, he said they were still coming in to offer their assistance.

There were a lot of Calandra signs hammered into the ground in this campaign. Ellis said there were a little more than 1,500 on private properties, and roughly another 1,000 at the sides of arterial roads.

He also observed campaign volunteers work very hard and are concentrating on this area. Consequently, it's hard for them to know sometimes what's going on elsewhere.

"It seems pretty typical, only this time it looks like we're winning," he commented.

But the people running the campaign for Liberal incumbent Lui Temelkovski might have something to say about that.

Bill Attwell is back at the helm of the Temelkovski campaign, as he has been in his two previous successful runs.

He said he had lost count of the number of volunteers they had helping out on the campaign, but said it had to be at least 200, and maybe as many as 250.

"They're doing everything," he declared, including manning phones, handling mailings, putting in signs, canvassing, etc.

Attwell added there was a lot of confidence in the campaign. "It's at least as good as '04 or '06, if not better," he said.

One new factor Attwell noticed in this campaign was Temelkovski's higher profile. He was getting invited to a lot more events than was the case in the last election. "That's the really interesting factor in this campaign," he commented.

Attwell also said the campaign was drawing some strong endorsements. Markham Mayor Frank Scarpetti came out in favour a couple of weeks ago, and Attwell said Steve Armes, who ran for the Green party in Oak Ridges — Markham in the last election has also endorsed Temelkovski. He added members of other parties have been stepping forward too.

In the last week of the campaign, Attwell said many Conservatives seemed to be having concerns about Prime Minister Stephen Harper. but he said there was also a fear that the new Democrats and Green part could draw off some of Temelkovski's support.

"No one's getting cocky," he said. "We're out there working very hard."

Richard Taylor's Green campaign isn't quite as large as the other two, but he said he's got a core volunteer group of about five, with some other people who have been helping out in various capacities.

They include Sue Leaning, who is his campaign manager, and

Candidates

Taylor's wife Marni Schecter, who has been director of communications. "She coached and critiqued every public appearance I had," he remarked. "She created the public

."He added his wife did all this while holding down the chores of being a mother. "I never really understood, 'Behind every good man,'" he observed.

Others in the campaign have included Julie Schweizer ("Julie has done everything," he said), Pete Leanings and Maria Klinakis, who has done a lot of sign work.

"This whole group of them have been a group who have got up with me at 4:30 in the morning," he said, as they have gone to places like the GO stating to hand out campaign material.

Taylor also said he's benefitted from the extensive campaign experience of Adrienne Galway.

Others have stepped up to help, including Taylor's son James.

Other campaign helpers Taylor cited were Domico Liu, who translated a lot of Web site material into Chinese; Mara Gunner, who would go out late at night and help put up signs; Gill Sitarenios, who also helped out with the signs; and Stephan Furlan, a 14-yearold youth who kept track of all the sign requests. "He wanted to get involved, and we fond a way for him to be involved," Taylor stated.

He also cited the work of Sabrina Niu, who accompanied them to the stations in the mornings; Yvonne Su, who was concentrating on reaching the youth vote; and Fatime Naji, who conducted a lot of on-line research on al sorts of topics.

Taylor said it took a while to get the campaign really operating.

"We were really flying without a safety net to get going," he remarked. "That's a lot to ask in the short period of time we had a campaign for."

He said it was "a great, loyal group."

"A pretty fabulous bunch, and I owe them a lot," he added.

New Democrat Andy Arifin said he was helped out in the campaign by members of his family, who assisted with driving and dropping off material.

He added he received help from Janice Hagan, who carried the NDP colours in Oak Ridges — Markham in last year's provincial campaign, and her family.

As well, he said he's been getting some help from the local riding association.

"It's basically I'm the campaign manager," he said.

He also cited the work of Sabrina Niu, who accompanied them to the stations in the mornings; Yvonne Su, who was concentrating on reaching the youth vote; and Fatime Naji, who conducted a lot of on-line research on al sorts of topics.

Taylor said it took a while to get the campaign really operating.

"We were really flying without a safety net to get going," he remarked. "That's a lot to ask in the short period of time we had a campaign for."

He said it was "a great, loyal group."