Full Slate Campaign

A Party Objective

The Party has set an objective to run a full slate of candidates in the near future, at least by 2015 should the Liberal minority government last that long (or win a by-election in a riding held by another party, Like K-W). We may fall short of this objective if the election is called before the spring of 2013.

• An election called before 2014 would require 107 candidates for a full slate.
• According to Elections Canada's web site, the process of determining new electoral boundaries has begun. The earliest a general election could be called where the new boundaries would take effect is April 2014. Census data indicates that Ontario should have 122 seats after redistricting.

Assumptions

1. At least half of our candidates will be paper candidates, not participating in any campaigning during the election.
2. About 25% of our candidates will be "parachute" candidates, running outside of their home riding. Most (maybe all) of them will be paper candidates.
3. About 30% - 40% of our candidates will need help to get their name on the ballot (collect signatures, witness the candidate's signature, visit the Returning Office). In some cases, this can be done by someone near the riding. In other cases (e.g. northern Ontario) someone may need to travel some distance to do this.
4. About 10% - 15% of candidates will run very active campaigns (knock on doors, distribute 10,000 pamphlets, place 20-30 signs) Maybe 2 in Toronto and Ottawa, and one in each of Hamilton, Barrie, London, K-W, ...
5. To raise money effectively, we will need to show members and supporters how we plan to spend their money. We may want to feature several candidates who plan to be very active and ask for funds and volunteers for their campaigns. Ideally these would be ridings with several members in and near the riding.

Costs

Collecting Signatures

1. Expect most candidates to collect their own signatures
2. Recruit volunteers to collect signatures for candidates in their own or a nearby riding.
3. We will likely have to pay someone to travel to and collect signatures in northern Ontario.

This could be from a Temp Service.

Paolo's Email

I now own 25% of the Bakery I work at and part of our business is a temp agency. I talked to our manger and he has assured me that we can get top notch help for campaign help such as signature collecting and canvassing for as low as $13.50 an hour. That's a lot cheaper than the $20 an hour I was going to pay my campaign workers.

As for areas we can't get to such as the far reaches of Northern Ontario they can take care of that as well because we have 3 buses that we use to transport the workers. So they drive them up and supervise them working so we get our money's worth. Also we can interview the workers before we pick them.

Allen's Reply

It may not be necessary to bus people to "far reaches." If there are temp agencies in population centres in those ridings, that may be a better cheaper solution. If you look at a map, each of those far out ridings is relatively near to a southern population centre. for example - Kenora-Rainy River: has Kenora and Dryden and Winnipeg is 2 hours away by car. There must be a temp agency in Winnipeg.

We have a member in Thunder Bay, I can call him and get his opinion on the best way to approach this.