Live blog of the Journal’s editorial board with NDP candidates Ray Martin (Edmonton East), Lewis Cardinal (Edmonton Centre), Linda Duncan (Edmonton-Strathcona).

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/decision-canada/live+blog/4610380/story.html

Edmonton Centre candidates share secrets from the campaign trail
By Elise Stolte, edmontonjournal.com April 11, 2011

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/science+door+knocking+Edmonton/4591721/story.html

Edmonton Centre Liberal candidate Mary MacDonald runs to the next door as she campaigns door to door on April 7, 2011 in Edmonton.

Photograph by: Greg Southam, edmontonjournal.com

EDMONTON — Raj Sherman, driving past by chance, pulled over on 156th Street to give NDP candidate Lewis Cardinal an impromptu lecture on the science of door knocking one evening last week.

Cardinal and a single volunteer had paused between houses. Sherman didn’t like what he saw.

“Lewis, you should be out here with four volunteers, buddy. Or five, you need to leapfrog,” said the former Conservative MLA, now running for leader of the provincial Liberals, leaning out his car window to talk with an old friend.

“U-huh,” said Cardinal, polite, but not buying a bit of it.

“We do take our time,” he admitted, after Sherman drove off. “But I’ve tried the leapfrogging thing before. I couldn’t keep up.

“If you’re in a hurry, they know your mind is already next door.”

Even before the election was called, candidates across the country were turning to the staple of electioneering — door knocking. Most swear you can’t win a seat without it, some tally the number of doorbells rung above 10,000, and a candidate’s style of door-knocking often says a lot about the personalities involved.

While Cardinal walks from house to house, ringing the doorbell himself, Laurie Hawn runs.

Hawn, the Conservative incumbent running against Cardinal in Edmonton Centre, is a former fighter jet pilot who talks as fast as he runs and his door knocking team functions with military precision.

Four volunteers with matching blue Laurie Hawn shopping bags stuffed with flyers speedwalk down both sides of the street when Hawn goes out. Hawn dashes from one side of the street to the other whenever a door opens.

“He has a very fast march,” said volunteer Linda Singh on Thursday afternoon in Westmount, just as a door opened on the other side of the road.

“Laurie,” yelled another volunteer, and Hawn dashed off, jumping over a puddle. He reached the door in time to ask, “Any election issues, federal issues top of mind right now?”

The woman mentioned the economy and the gun registry. Hawn said they were working on both, then asked “Can we count on your support at the end of the day?”

“I think so,” said the woman.

Lawn sign, asked Hawn. The woman declined.

The whole exchange took about one minute and Hawn was off again, leaving a volunteer to confirm the woman’s name and phone number on her clipboard.

Hawn says he can do 100 houses in an hour. There are 80,000 doors in his riding, he says, and at this rate, he should be able to get to a quarter of them before May 2.

“I’ve been looked on as the master door knocker in the area. A lot of other Conservatives have kind of patterned their door knocking after us,” he said, crediting his technique for bringing down former Liberal deputy prime minister Anne McLellan in 2006.

“The only weapon you have is getting your face in front of the voters.”

Door-knocking works because it’s not just about convincing people to vote for the party. It’s about recording potential votes so volunteers can get those voters out on election day.

Supporters will get a phone call, or if the campaign has enough volunteers, someone will stop by the voter’s house just to check if they voted already.

“It’s about identifying your vote,” said McLellan, who held Edmonton Centre for four terms, and can be found now at the Mary MacDonald campaign office, trying to help the local lawyer win back McLellan’s old seat.

MacDonald was also doo -knocking Thursday afternoon, choosing a Conservative stronghold in Elmwood because Sherman, the local MLA, volunteered to knock with her for several hours.

MacDonald’s pace falls between Cardinal’s and Hawn’s. She jogs from house to house, ringing the doorbells herself. She doesn’t have the same volunteer support around her, and she waits just a brief moment before dashing off to the next door. Her stamina comes from running a leg of the death race in Grande Cache last summer.

“Watch these little puddles; they freeze up a bit,” she warned.

Hawn won Edmonton Centre with 49 per cent of the vote last election. Liberal candidate Jim Wachowich trailed with 12,661 votes, 27 per cent of the total.

But MacDonald said she can’t knock any faster. She can’t keep up if several volunteers line up houses for her. She needs to talk with people longer than Hawn does, to convince them to vote for her, not just identify those already leaning her way.

“I have to do both, I’m the underdog,” she said.

Cardinal, a longtime community activist in Edmonton, just laughs when asked why he isn’t jogging.

He tells a story from his recent municipal campaign, when he ran for city councillor in 2007 in Ward 4.

He was out knocking with his campaign manager once when a woman asked him if he had time for tea and pie.

His campaign manager shook her head, but Cardinal said yes.

They had their choice of pies and answered a list of questions from the homeowner.

When they were finished, the woman said she didn’t normally have such spread of pie available. She was from a small church, and the members were coming over that night to decide who to vote for.

“I think it’s going to be you,” she told Cardinal. He recounted her words with a laugh.

“If you take the time with one person, they’ll tell their friends,” he said. “I tell them, take a look at what you have and vote from your heart. If we want principled leaders, you’ve got to vote with your convictions.”

Cardinal lost the 2007 municipal election by a slim margin. He came in third with 18.9 per cent of the vote. Ben Henderson got 19.3 per cent that year and Jane Batty won with 20.8 per cent. Under the old system, Batty and Henderson both became councillors for the central Edmonton ward.

In the federal riding of Edmonton Centre, the NDP came in third in 2008 with 15 per cent of the vote when Donna Martyn ran in 2008.

Last week, Cardinal planned to knock until sundown. He called out one parting shot before turning to ring another doorbell.

“Remember the tortoise and the hare.”

April 11, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NDP PLATFORM GOOD NEWS FOR EDMONTON TRANSIT

“Today’s NDP platform is the first in this election campaign to call for new, long-term investments in Canada´s cities and communities… The NDP plan would replace recently expired federal transit funding by putting more of the taxes Canadians pay at the gas pump into new buses, subways, and commuter rail.”
- Hans Cunningham, President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)

NDP candidates Ray Martin (Edmonton East) and Lewis Cardinal (Edmonton Centre) said Jack Layton’s pledge for new public transit funding will make a positive difference to Edmonton’s plan to expand the LRT network and address other transit priorities.

Martin highlighted three specific initiatives in the NDP platform supporting public transit:

• Enacting a National Public Transit Strategy to maintain and expand public transit across the country, with a clear mechanism for sustainable, predictable and long-term funding.
• Immediately allocating another cent of the existing gas tax to public transit funding.
• Encouraging transit use by providing a tax exemption for employee workplace-based transit passes.

“Allocating another cent of the federal gas tax to public transit would mean an additional $215 million over five years for Edmonton,” said Martin.

“Expanding public transit is key to reducing traffic congestion and improving the environment. These initiatives support the City of Edmonton’s goal of getting more Edmontonians on to public transit,” added Edmonton Centre NDP candidate Lewis Cardinal.

“Under the NDP plan cities like Edmonton will be full partners with the federal government in furthering their public transit priorities,” said Cardinal.

-30-

For more information contact:

John Ashton, Campaign Manager (Ray Martin)
780.913.6518

Brian Stokes, Campaign Manager (Lewis Cardinal)
780.904.1168

Alberta Primetime Interview: Aboriginal Education

All talk, no action, and now more talk. That’s the criticism of Alberta Education after a new plan for the beleaguered Northland School Division was revealed.

The division has been in a state of turmoil after the Education Minister fired the entire board last year due to some of the worst student achievement and attendance results in the province. The province says it has made some progress, but after extensive consultation and a long list of recommendations, critics want to know why the only recommendation accepted is one to do more consultation.

Why haven’t more of the recommendations been accepted? Is more consultation needed? And until real change happens, what’s at stake for kids in these communities?

Joining us for this conversation is Lewis Cardinal, Community Representative on the First Nations, Métis and Inuit Education Partnership Council; and Donna Barrett, Superintendent of Schools for the Northland School Division.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EDMONTON NEW DEMOCRATS SHOW SUPPORT FOR RETIRED AND DISABLED POLICE OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS

Martin and Cardinal say people who served their country and community should keep their retirement funds.

EDMONTON – Edmonton’s New Democrats are voicing their support for retired and disabled RCMP officers and armed forces personnel who are having their pensions clawed back when they begin receiving CPP.

“The Conservatives love to claim that they support the troops and police” said Edmonton East candidate Ray Martin. “But when it comes to giving them a chance to help them retire with dignity, they voted to continue this claw back.”

This spring, Edmonton Conservative M.P.s like Peter Goldring and Laurie Hawn voted against Bill C-201, a bill that would give a full superannuation of the benefits back to retired RCMP officers and armed forces personnel when they begin receiving CPP.

Edmonton-Strathcona M.P. Linda Duncan and other NDP M.P.s voted in favour of the bill.

“Why do the Conservatives feel it’s ok to maintain this reduction to the heroes who have to risk their lives for our country and communities?” said Edmonton Centre candidate Lewis Cardinal. “November 11 is the day we honour our veterans, but we need to support them every day.”

Bill C-201, put forward by Nova Scotia NDP MP Peter Stoffer, was adopted by the House of Commons, but the Conservatives refused to grant a “royal recommendation”. Stoffer has pledged to re-introduce the legislation in the next Parliament.

EDMONTON – The Lewis Cardinal campaign raised over $20,000 during a two month fundraising push by local members.

A challenge from Canada’s NDP encouraged local campaigns to raise money in March and April 2010.  Cardinal’s campaign team in Edmonton Centre added $21,750 to its coffers.

“I’m thrilled with the good results from my team,” said Cardinal.  “It shows that we are going to be a serious force in the campaign.”

Cardinal said his campaign has about $40,000 raised so far, just under half the Edmonton Centre spending limit set by Elections Canada.

“We’re just getting started.  We will be building on this success and making sure we have the resources we need to win.”