Why volunteering in an election is actually fun

This a follow up to volunteering in a Green campaign. I like to warn people, potential volunteers, that I live for politics. The ones that aren’t totally put off often ask why.  My very simple answer is that its fun and it lets me connect with my community on a level that I don’t usually have a chance to do.

When I first started working on political campaigns over 20 years ago I did it because I burned with a passion for politics. Like a lot of people just out of school I wanted to make a difference in my community and I thought the best way to do that was to get the people elected that I felt could make a difference. All of us who engage in the political process want that same thing. Having recently come to the Greens from one of the old line parties I have reconnected with that passion.

But what makes it fun you might ask. Working on election campaigns is about connecting with your community and hoping to make a difference. It’s about meeting people in your neighborhood and talking to them. Trust me, they are more interesting than you can imagine and they all have opinions worth hearing.

Going door to door canvassing for your candidate is not just about getting your candidate the vote, its about connecting with your neighbors and finding out what they need from politics and from the parties that lead them.

Asking someone if they will put a sign up is not just about your candidate its about your neighbors showing what they think about how they want their world to be and how they think that can come about. It’s about each of you, the canvassers and the electors, showing they care about their communities and displaying their hope for the future.

This year at some point we’ll be going door to door again to get our candidate, Charles Battershill, on to the minds of everyone in the riding and bring the message from the Green Party of Canada and our federal leader Elizabeth May into the minds of our neighbors.