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Journey to Queens Park. Naidoo-Harris, (New) MPP

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June 25, 2014

Journey to Queens Park. Naidoo-Harris, (New) MPP

By Indira Naidoo Harris, MPP Halton

My road to a winning election for MPP of Halton began decades ago in a country thousands of miles away from Halton. I was born in Durban, South Africa under the Apartheid. I spent my early years in a country that did not give everyone the right to vote or have a say in their political future. It was a system of oppression. A system that the policy makers of that country devised to ensure that they would have complete political control over a nation. This oppressive system that didn’t allow everyone to participate in the political process played a major role in forming my political ideas and set me on a path to find my political voice and become the MPP for Halton.

My family was able to escape the harsh system of Apartheid in South Africa and fled to Canada. They wanted to build a better life for their children. Canada offered us freedom, justice and opportunity. It offered us a future and the possibility to turn our dreams into reality. I seized that opportunity and became a local and national broadcast journalist and eventually decided to run for political office.

Now, you don’t hear it when first you decide to run. You don’t hear it when you run. But after your first campaign, if you lose, you hear it from everyone. “No one wins their first campaign.” My good friend and mentor, former MPP Walt Elliot lost his first election, then lost his second election, before eventually becoming MPP for Halton North in 1987. Even Kathleen Wynne lost her first campaign, for School Trustee in Toronto. So, what is it that makes subsequent campaigns more successful? For me, it came down to experience, time, money and a positive campaign message.

No matter how well prepared you are, there is nothing like campaigning to learn about campaigning. There is nothing like first-hand experience. Take our sign strategy. Our sign guys first time out had lots of heart but little experience. They went out with staple guns and sledge hammers. Some of the stakes were crooked. Not all of them were deep enough. And it took more time than it should have to put them up. But they looked okay, for a few days. Then a big wind-storm came up and blew most of our signs off their stakes. The team spent the next few days trying to find the signs and put them up correctly: with pounders and zip-ties. There were more problems, though. Once we had those signs back up they were subjected to vandalism and dozens disappeared overnight.

In our 2014 campaign, we knew how to put up our signs and have them stay. We also kept many in reserve to ensure we were ready for slashed and disappearing signs. Finally we also tried something new. In 2014 we put up signs that had my picture on them. We decided that since I was a former television news anchor a picture of me on the sign should be featured prominently to ensure voters recognized me. It worked!

Time is equally important, in two ways. Firstly, it gives you room to build on the experience. It gives you the opportunity to explore issues with voters, at the door, on the street, in the markets, at events, month after month after year. With those conversations comes the confidence that you have the pulse of the riding. I had lived in Halton for twenty years before my first campaign, but I learned more about my neighbours in the two years between elections, than I had in the previous twenty. As a result of those conversations, I built a more riding-centred campaign. I was mostly just a Liberal in my first campaign. I was a Halton Liberal in my second campaign. The other benefit of time is familiarity. You get to know the people, but they get to know you as well. In the time between elections, I went to every fair, every gala, every charity event, every holiday celebration I came across. Increasingly, I was invited to speak at them, and people came to know who I am and what I stand for on a more personal level.

Running a successful campaign also takes money. You have to have the necessary funds to rent the right office space, design and buy signs, take out ads, print up the candidates cards, send out the flyers, and feed volunteers. In my first election, our riding association started off in the hole, and we managed to come out of the election in the black. But we never had the resources we needed.

In the time between my two campaigns, I had the chance to fundraise for the riding association. In 2014 our budget was twice what we had in 2011. It allowed me the kind of visibility that we couldn’t afford in 2011.

Finally, campaigns are won and lost because of the message and voice behind them. Our 2011 campaign had all the right initiatives but I didn’t project a strong enough personality and voice for those ideas. In 2014 I had more confidence and was a stronger, wiser and more positive voice. Our campaign was run with the right message and positive ideas. We worked hard to give our campaign a “feel” that reflected who I am and who Kathleen Wynne is. We brought a strong, positive vibe to everything we did. The signs with my smiling face helped. During the last weeks of the campaign, I would be greeted with high fives from passersby, motorists would honk their horns, children would run up to me and throw their arms around me, teenagers and young adults wanted to pose for selfies with me. There was an undeniable buzz in the air. That positive energy drove us to a our win.

In 2014, experience, time, money, and a positive message came together, under the umbrella of Kathleen Wynne’s provincial campaign, and I was fortunate enough to become the MPP of Halton. My path to finding my political voice may have started in Apartheid South Africa, and it brought me through the democratic process we have in Ontario, Canada. I will always be thankful my parents chose Canada as the place to build our dreams!

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