Past hope, past cure, past help. Some readers might recognize those six words for what they are, words spoken by Juliet in Shakespeare’s play about her and Romeo.
This past week, they could have been spoken by any number of political candidates, defeated and otherwise, and no doubt many campaign workers as well.
Election campaigns are hard work.
From Day One until literally the last minute, candidate and workers alike are going all out, living on nerve, coffee, the Colonel’s chicken and other fast food.
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There is an extreme letdown the morning of election day.
Suddenly, there is nothing to do, no more phone calls to make, no more doors to knock on, no more hands to shake.
Once voting is done, a long day waits.
It is a time of introspection, of wondering, what if I had worked a little bit harder, returned that one phone call earlier, knocked on just a few more doors, hadn’t quit early last Tuesday night.
Election ’95 is over in Saskatchewan, and I hope that, win or lose, the people involved have come out of it with some good memories.
I fought my first election campaign in southern Saskatchewan in 1974 and one way or another I’ve been involved in every Saskatchewan campaign, federal or provincial, since.
I’ve garnered a few memories along the way, of candidates and leaders, but also of behind-the-scenes workers, the kind every campaign thrives on but also the ones who in the final analysis get little credit.
They are the ones who lick the stamps and line up poll workers for election day, who make the coffee and serve the cookies and drive the candidate from place to place.
I remember one woman, ill with a chronic illness, facing painful treatment the next day, who drove a car full of party faithful to a coffee party because she thought she should.
I remember a farmer who, in a late fall election, got off his combine to drive 30 miles to town to deliver a cheque to the candidate because he thought he should.
It has always been my contention that if you want to know who is going to win any given election, don’t look at the candidate or the party platform. Look at the people behind the candidate.
They are the ones who in the final analysis win or lose the election for a candidate. Thompson’s Law of Elections states that it is the best-run campaign which will win in the long run.
