I got a strange phone call this afternoon, from a local number I didn’t recognize. I picked up the phone and said hello, and a nervous woman’s voice said, “Hello, I’m calling on behalf of Michelle Hunter, the Conservative candidate in the riding of Wascana. Can she count on your vote on October 14th?”
I was a little taken aback, especially since I hadn’t heard the question clearly, so I asked the caller to clarify if Michelle was asking if I’d vote for her. The woman confirmed that’s what she said, so I gave my honest answer.
“No. You cannot count on that, because Mrs. Hunter didn’t even show up to an all candidates forum I attended at the UofR, and when I emailed her to ask why, I never got a reply.”
“Oh. I’ll let her know that,” the apparently startled woman responded. *click* - she hung up.
Two minutes later my phone rang again and it appeared to be the same number phoning back. Good, I thought, a little worked up now that the woman hadn’t even asked for my phone number to confirm they could get back in touch with me should Michelle actually want to respond to my question (yeah, right!). And this was what I heard in response to my next, “Hello?”:
“Hello, I’m calling on behalf of Michelle Hunter, the Conservative candidate in the riding of Wascana. Can she count on your vote on October 14th?”
“I just told you that I would not be voting Conservative because Michelle didn’t even respond to my email. And you have a problem with your phone system because you just phoned here.” “Oh, okay, thanks.” *click*
*sigh*
In Wascana, the choice is clear. Elect anyone, but Michelle Hunter.
@hotmail.com
![[EFC Blue Ribbon - Free Speech Online]](http://www.efc.ca/images/efcfreet.gif)
Wandering Coyote | 05-Oct-08 at 8:50 pm | Permalink
*snicker snicker*
Jennifer Smith | 05-Oct-08 at 9:04 pm | Permalink
Now, now - have pity on the poor woman. She’s probably working minimum wage for some hired phone solicitation company. Because really, the Conservatives have more money than volunteers.
gopher | 05-Oct-08 at 9:23 pm | Permalink
Your correct. I have not rxd any communication from ANY party, however ABC seems appropriate.
Gopher
Saskboy | 06-Oct-08 at 12:42 am | Permalink
The NDP are paying people to phone canvass. One of them is a blogger, and he makes more that min wage from what I can tell, doing it.
jsg | 06-Oct-08 at 6:22 am | Permalink
Are payments to phone canvassers considered part of election spending and factored into total party election spending?
PC | 06-Oct-08 at 10:32 am | Permalink
I don’t know who the Conservatives get to work their phones, but they really are poor at telephone etiquette. A few months ago (well before the writ was dropped), I received a phone call asking if Andrew Scheer had my support. When I responded that I lived in Palliser, the guy simply hung up on me.
Strong work, guys. Way to win hearts and minds.
Saskboy | 06-Oct-08 at 1:03 pm | Permalink
And the Goodale sign in the photo above, is now missing.
themusicgod1 | 07-Oct-08 at 1:19 am | Permalink
In the Conservatives defence, as a NDP caller, I personally have done the exact same thing as Saskboy describes(well,..I was more polite, but I have called people twice in short order). It’s human/computer err…but it’s a really minor one, annoying at worst. They didn’t have to be rude, but rude is a social construct for the most part so meh.
The NDP is paying 12$/hr(I know, since I am the blogger Saskboy is talking about), I’d imagine the Conservatives have contracted out as that would be more efficient than what we’re doing(although there’s political risk…we *should* be able to trust our fellow employees to act in the bests interests of the NDP, not just short term profit, and it also helps to maintain families, etc etc etc…although it’s not 100% efficient it’s close to socially optimal…whereas contracting out might be more efficient in terms of voters per dollar…but the costs on society would be higher. Which is typical of Conservative approaches, and that’s why I’m guessing they do it).