Working with Politicians

One of the biggest learning experiences of the Envirovote2019 was working with politicians in the midst of a campaign. While I had had previous experience working with Ramsey Hart in Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, politicians running in one of the most contested ridings in Canada is a whole other story.

The first hurdle was simply contacting politicians. For the NDP and the Liberals, we used personal connections to gain immediate contact with candidates in Metro Vancouver. However, we did not have any contacts with the Green or Conservative parties.  For the Green Party, I was able to speak to party members that were on the UBC campus and was able to gain the contact of a local candidate. Connecting with the Conservative Party was much harder, and in the end, unsuccessful. We reached out through friends with connections, emails through various websites and I even went to a campaign office to try to speak to someone. As much as we would have liked to represent the Conservative Party stance, we were also on a tight schedule, so, after numerous attempts, we chose to simply include the Conservative platforms instead.

The next step was to schedule interviews. I quickly learned that it was easier to be accommodating and accept the times that the politicians or their campaign managers suggested. It was better to be at a campaign office on a Saturday morning at 10:00 am than it was to wait an extra week. By accepting that their schedules were busier than ours, we were able to get all our interviews done in a reasonable time frame.

Finally, I learned how to handle when someone was not pleased or there was a miscommunication. I worked on my diplomacy in tough situations and maintaining a polite tone no matter what was happening. As someone who works in customer service, honing this skill is always useful. These experiences will certainly help me as I move towards a career in the political field.

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