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Visiting the Liberal Campaign Headquarters & poll #3 for our riding

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I volunteered for the NDP Party during the 1968 election. Aside from that, the only campaign headquarters I’ve stepped inside was Elizabeth May’s Salt Spring Island office in 2019. So when in the midst of doing errands in Campbell River, I found myself with more than an hour to spare, it seemed like a fun idea to visit a campaign headquarters. Somebody told me the ‘red guys’ are behind Save On Foods, which is how I ended up at Jennifer Lash’s headquarters.

I did not find out about that yet another poll has been conducted in our riding until I returned home. Like poll #2, it shows the Liberals having taken over the second place slot. After contacting 318 voters in North Island Powell River between April 20 and 21, Spadina Strategies reported that 37% intended to vote for the Conservatives, 30% Liberal, 25% NDP, 5% Green and 2% were undecided. 

Big Mouth Billy Bass – Roy L Hales photo

The projection website Poliwave is reporting a shift in voter intention. On April 18, they stated the #2 party in our riding was the NDP.  Their latest projection, published on Wednesday April 23, showed the Conservatives at 45%, the Liberals trailing at 29%, the NDP at 20% and the Green’s at 5%.

This is not what I intended to report, when I dropped in at the Liberal Party’s Campbell River office on Friday. Jennifer Lash was away, knocking on doors, but there were five people gathered in the entrance when I arrived. A young woman immediately detached herself from their conversation. She was one of the four staffers from Ottawa who are working on the Liberal campaign. Sarah Manney gave me permission  to walk around the office taking pictures and interviewing people. I started with her.

Sarah Manley – Roy L Hales photo

 Sarah Manney: “Well, I’m Sarah, I’m the campaign manager. I was working in Ottawa, but grew up in Comox. My family’s in Nanaimo. When I found out that Jen was running, I knew her in Ottawa and I said, ‘this is the candidate I’ve always dreamed of for my hometown.’ What better person could I ask for to represent the people I grew up with.’ So it was just a dream to be able to come work for her and try to make that a reality here in North Island Powell River.”

“My whole family’s been knocking on doors. We have Jen’s family. We have at least five times the number of volunteers that we’ve ever had in this riding. It’s amazing just to see the energy. The other day someone remarked, ‘I’ve never seen so many Liberals in one place.’ It was just this magical feeling like we’ve all waited for this moment to have someone like Jen to rally around.”

Jennifer and Wendy Lash (centre) with three volunteers outside the Liberal campaign office in Campbell River – courtesy Facebook

The next person I interviewed looked a lot like Jennifer Lash, for good reason.

“My name is Wendy Lash. I am Jennifer’s sister.” 

Cortes Currents: How did you end up working for her in a campaign office? 

Wendy had not been expecting that question, but after a few hesitant seconds she suddenly sounded like an old pro. 

“Well, how can you not support somebody when they’re living their purpose? Jen has had a fabulous career of doing good for many people and many things in Canada, but right now –  this is an important time for us! She’s bravely taken this on and she’s doing a fabulous job. When we heard that she was going to be doing this,  as a family, we knew we needed to support her. So we booked our tickets and we’ve come from Ontario.  We are thrilled to be here and in action.”

Cortes Currents: Whereabouts in Ontario are you from? 

Wendy Lash: “My husband and I are from Barrie.  Our sister Catherine is coming from Toronto. Jen’s kids  are coming back from Ontario and they’re also here with us.”

Cortes Currents: Are they all on the campaign? 

Wendy Lash: “They’re all on the campaign and working hard.”  

Jennifer Lash in Campbell River – Facebook

Then I recorded the music used in the opening and closing of the audio version of this story.  A fish wall figurine called ‘Big Mouth Billy Bass’ plays every time one of the Liberal volunteers makes another 100 phone calls. 

Sarah Manney: “ We love it because Jen’s kids are commercial fishermen and obviously aquaculture is such an important part of the riding.   It’s just a little way that we like to keep the volunteers engaged over here.”

No sooner had I turned off my recorder than I heard a loud exclamation from the other side of the room. I managed to catch the end of it. 

Wendy Lash: “ …  I’m like, wow, this is cool!” 

I thrust my recorder in her direction: Say that again. 

She took a moment to assemble her thoughts, then replied in a much calmer voice, “I’ve always been proud to say I’m Jennifer Lash’s sister, but right now I’m so proud to say I’m Jennifer Lash’s sister and she’s doing a fabulous job.” 

I wanted to interview one of the volunteers working the phones. Sarah led me upstairs to what looked like an empty lunch room. There weren’t any people, it turns out they were knocking on doors. There weren’t even any phones, because it turns out they use their cell phones.

 Cortes Currents: Where are all the telephone people?

Sarah Manley: “They are everywhere. We’ve got folks up in Sointula making hundreds of calls. We’ve got three offices across the riding, in Powell River, Comox, and Campbell River, but because we’re such a big riding, we are distributed and agile. This is not like any campaign that you see in a big city. We’re everywhere and we’ve got just amazing volunteers who’ve been driving up and down the island, putting up signs and making phone calls and knocking on doors.” 

Some Liberal campaign workers – courtesy Facebook

Cortes Currents: Do you happen to know how many volunteers there are? 

Sarah Manley: “I think there are 150 who have signed up at some point. We’ve got at least 40 or 50 who are active on a weekly basis, but there’s a lot that aren’t counted in our system because they’re folks who have been driving around, putting up signs, delivering things and maybe not taking credit for the work they’re doing. That’s more than I’ve ever seen in this riding.” 

I had been away from Cortes since Thursday and was aware that the Conservative candidate, Aaron Gunn had not shown up to the all candidate meetings in Comox, Powell River or Alert Bay. 

The Campbell River meeting  was supposedly cancelled because the RCMP informed the Campbell River Chamber of Commerce, who were hosting the events, that there were public safety concerns. However Cst. Maury Tyre told Rochelle Baker of the National Observer “That was not a suggestion made by the RCMP.”   

 So did Gunn turn up to the last two events? 

Sarah Manley: “Unfortunately the Conservative candidate was not at the debate on Quadra Island.” 

When I returned home I found an email from a Quadra Island resident* who stated, “Aaron Gunn was not at the all candidates event last night. I believe he had notified the organizers a few days prior that his schedule wouldn’t allow it. There was a great turnout to the Quadra community centre. One of the candidates mentioned to me afterward that this may have been the most well-attended of all the all-candidate events.” 

 Sarah Manley: “There was a Port Hardy debate as well.  We also didn’t see a whole slate of candidates there. It just makes you wonder, if someone isn’t showing up for debates – are they going to show up for the riding as an MP?” 

Tf you take the margin of error into account, the Conservatives have between 31% -43% and the LIberals 24%-36% – courtesy Facebook

Cortes Current: Is there anything you would want to say to people who’d be listening to this tomorrow morning.

 Sarah Manley: “Thank you to everyone who has opened their homes and their hearts. I think Jen said it very well at a debate the other week that she anticipated a campaign being ruthless, but instead it’s a lot of kindness.  We just see the community healing, one door at a time. I hope that the conversations we’ve started in this election go beyond April 28th.” 

Links of Interest:

Top image credit: from the left- Wendy Lash, Sarah Manley and Anne Davey at the Liberal campaign headquarters on Friday, Arpil 25 – Roy L Hales photo

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2 thoughts on “Visiting the Liberal Campaign Headquarters & poll #3 for our riding”

  1. The Spadina poll is very different from the 338 one-the latter continually has the NDP in second place.
    How random is random I wonder..
    How to vote strategically now?

  2. That’s a tough one Eileen. We have three polls, all done within two days of each other and two projections.

    The Mainstreet and Spadina polls, plus Poliwave’s projection all place the Liberals second and also indicate Liberals are within the margin of error. I.E.- if add the margin of error in your calculations the Liberals could actually be in the lead. Example, if you add the margin of error into Spadina’s calculations the Liberals are somewhere between 24-36% and the Conservatives between 31-43%. While these numbers suggest the Liberals could be first, the probability is they are second. That said, they could be within shooting distance of overtaking the Conservatives.

    The Research co poll and 338Canada projection place the NDP second, but they are outside the margin of error. Research’s results suggest the Conservatives have 40-50% and the NDP between 13-23%. They have further to go.

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