Ste ttn nk Seba me Re ey Sunday, October 3, 1993 - North Shore News - 3 A look at who spends what and who drives local federal election campaigns IF THE political candidate ‘is the car, then the cam- paign drive is definitely the engine. Cheryl Ziola Contributing Writer At the heart of an election cam- paign are numerous volunteers who staff the campaign office, field floods of phone calls and faxes, arrange the media events, distribute. the lawn signs and brochures,’ and handle the fund- raising. They fuel the campaign engine, | All candidates in the Capilano-Howe Sound riding are on ‘equal ground when it comes to the limit imposed on campaign spending. Federal candidates in the riding must abide by a $57,000 Elections Canada-imposed ceiling on cam- . paign spending, no matter how many donations a. candidate receives . INCUMBENT MP Mary Collins maintains two: campaign. head- ‘quarters.’ The spending limit, calculated prior to an election, is based on a . riding’s size and population. The North Shore News recently ‘interviewed -a cross-section of Capilano-Howe ‘Sound candiclates and ‘their campaign strategis!s to see if the campaign engines’ were -in high gear or whiothci- .they’d stalled. : REFORM ELECT ION MACHINERY The campaign team backing the Capilano-Howe Sound Reform candidate and political newcomer, Herb. Grubel, doesn’t expect to ‘spend $57,000 to get Grubel elected — about $45,000, estimates campaign manager Peter Wearing. He. said the numerous volun- ‘teers — about 150 so far —- and the -berrowed furnishings in the campaign office are keeping the costs down, . “My desk is made of a used plywood: door with makeshift legs,’’ Wearing points out. But Wearing said they can’t escape some costs, such as the phone bills for 15 phones and the office space rent of $1,200 for the top floor of an ‘‘old, rickety building” located in Park Royal shopping centre’s south mall. Additional costs include the fax CALL US: 983-2208 machine and computer inside the office. Wearing notes that Reform candidates such as Grubel rely on individual rather than corporate donations to finance the cam- paign. Advertising, probably the most expensive part of a campaign,. is handled a little differently by Grubel’s campaign team. There are the traditional news- paper ads, lawn signs and brochures to get Grubel’s message out, but Reform volunteers are also dropping off 1,000 video cassettes door-to-door. in the riding of 80,000 people. The videos feature a taped message from Grubel, introducing himself and his platform. The package contains questionnaires to be completed by the voters. Volunteers will then pick up the videos and redistribute them throughout the riding. “This (kind of advertising) costs about the same as two pages in the North Shore News,” Wearing said. Two pages in the News would be absut $5,600, while the videos cost about $3 each. Meanwhile the Reform can- didate himse!f, 59-year-old Grubel, an SFU economics pro- fessor on leave, believes the video strategy to be an efficient and in- expensive way to advertise. He counts on the fact that most people own VCRs. Grubel adds that the video strategy allows him more time to concentrate on public events, such as all-candidate meetings. “Instead of spending a lot of ‘time going door. knocking and getting people off the toilet — or coming with the mouths full or holding a crying baby in their arms or holding back the dogs — you just drop it (video) off. It’s also more courteous,’’ he explains. . LIBERAL ELECTION MACHINERY Richard Wright, the campaign manager for Liberal candidate Audrey: Sojonky, terms the Grit campaign a ‘‘spartan’’ affair. The office has six phones, one fax machine and one computer. The campaign has attracted about 170 volunteers, but Wright expects to have 250 in place closer to election day. A former computer software company owner and United Way * volunteer, Sojonky, 54, is the first to recognize the importance of volunteers. Sojonky pursued her United Way volunteer work in 1980, abandoning the idea of running for re-election at the West Van- couver District 45 School Board after serving two terms. Sojonky’s campaign office, rented for about $1,200 a month and located in an old art gallery, is ‘fa very functional campaign space, certainly no lush board- room office,’ said Wright. The Liberal team advertising strategy is to blitz the riding with newspaper ads. Like the Reform team, the Liberal campaign plans to cash out below the $57,000 limit at around $50,000, Sojonky said. She said the campaign is fi- nanced largely by individual donations and some corporate sponsorship. NEWS photo Cindy Goodman COLUMNIST ALAN Fotheringham (left) was the key speaker at a ‘Liberal Party luncheon at Hollyburn Country Club on August 26 for Capilano-Howe Sound candidate Audrey Sojonicy (right). TORY ELECTION MACHINERY The Progressive Conservative campaign team in charge of re-' electing incumbent Mary Collins has two campaign headquarters: one in West Vancouver and one in Squamish. : Co-campaign manager Dave Bassett said the first office, ac- quired in the desired location of West Vancouver, was too small at about 600 square feet (56 sq.m). “ft’?s not big enough to try and put a lot of volunteers in there. They'd probably start killing each other. We also had a few other minor problems. The toilet didn’t work.’” So they had to rent the Squamish space, which holds the phone room and work office at a combined rent of about $3,000 a month. Maintaining two offices is ex- pensive, but a shortage in avail- able office space left the Collins team with no choice. So far, the number of volun- teers on board the PC bandwagon is around 250, Bassett estimates. Inside the Squamish office are 20 phones, one fax machine and some fold-up tables. Said Bassett of the Elections Canada spending restriction, ‘In one sense that $57,000 sounds Sike a lot of money. But once you factor in office overhead, lawn signs, brochures ~-- it costs a lot of money. Advertising alone costs about $15,000 for newspaper and radio, he said. Coltins, a former businesswomen who has served two terms in government, said she’s finding it difficult to balance her time campaigning in the riding and maintaining her duties as Minister of Health and: Minister Responsible for the Status of . Women. “Ym in the riding most of ihe time, about 75%,”’ she said. : She. campaigns through coffee parties, phone canvassing “and doorknocking in the tiding. — NATURAL LAW ELECTION ~ MACHINERY The lesser-known Natural Law party candidate Ken Morgan is far behind the other parties in recog- nition and in campaign organiza- tion. At the time of this interview, Morgan, 40, a researcher, admit- ted he hadn’t yet paid his $1,000 entrance fee to Elections Canada or acquired a campaign office. His political colleague, North Shore Natural Law party can- didate aud geologist Brad Cooke, 39, said he and Morgan may join cainpaign forces and share an of- fice, previding someone donates an office. *"We’re also looking for some- one to donate the necessary office equipment (phones, fax machines),’’ Cooke said. So far, two part-time volunteers have signed up to assist the fledgling party candidates, who believe if people practise tran- scendental meditation, they can reduce the collective stress in the consciousness of the country. lf donations don’t materialize, Cooke said he and Morgan may shoulder costs of up to $10,000 for the campaign drive. He hopes to obtain advertising through media releases and ail- candidate debates. {f nothing else, Morgan said the Natural Law party will probably - THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: 2 Do you vote for the local candidate, the party, or the party’ s leader? 464 My desk is made of a used plywood door. with makeshift legs. ¥F — Grube! campaign manager Peter Wearing get some exposure during this election. - “We're going to try and run the most economical campaign and still receive some awareness of our _ existence. We have a bit of an uphill battle.” ' NDP ELECTION MACHINERY The low support for the NDP in the public opinion polls is mir- rored in the amcunt .of North Shore donations supporting San- dra Bauer, the NDP candidate for- Capilano-Howe Sound. . At $4,600 thus far, donations’ haven't’ been flooding into cam-_. paign manager Jill! Murray’ soe hands. , ' In. fact, she said her candidaie doesn’t even have a campaign of- fice yet. oo Whether the NDP gets a cam- - paign office or not doesn’t matter in the long run, Murray’ candidly admitted. “We're running a very low-key campaign, because we know” we haven’t :got a chance. She’s*not™ gonna win, Audrey _ Sojonky’s gonna win. So we're running an information campaign.’ ° Rather. than doing a lot of ‘ac- tive campaigning by. doorknocking or phone canvassing, she said: she and Bauer may just offer their services as. government ” om- budsmen. “There’s a lot of legislation coming out that the public doesn’t know about. We’ll make ourselves" available as a resource, make peo- ple aware that social democracy is still alive.’ Despite their dismal hopes of winning, Murray said Bauer may attend a few all-candidate . meetings and make some public appearances. If the NDP campaign team does manage to get an office space at a rent of no higher than $1,000 a month, it will hold two com- puters, only three phone lines — “because we’re not doing a phone canvass’? — and three fax machines. Murray also admitted very few volunteers have come forward to staff any office. But she estimates there may be 300 supporters in the riding who will say ‘‘yes we can help” if asked. Bauer, a full-time nurse at a Squamish long-term care facility, did not return repeated calls from the News.