Posting by phone from the Stephen Harper Rally in Surrey, BC

I’m at the Stephen Harper Rally in Surrey tonight at the Sheraton Landmark in Guilford. Candidate Harvey Grigg’s daughte Shauna should be e-mailing some photos to Alice to post from tonight.

Stephen was escorted in and shook hands with everyone about a quarter after 6:00. He recognized me from the website and said hello.

Jim Holt, a worker on Germont Grewal’s campaign, gave me a conservative t-shirt and we had a chat together, reminiscing about past campaigns. Said he checked the website a little while ago and it was looking good. They always get a kick at the way I skewer the Liberals on it.

I got a hug and a hello from Candidate Alice Wong, who is running in Richmond, and said to say hi to Alice (my wife). Looks like she might take out Raymond Chan, the Liberal candidate.

God I’m just dying here, I’m wearing two shirts with the conservative t-shirt on top of my Golf Shirt. It’s quite warm in the ballroom.

I talked to James Moore and Germont Grewal and both said their campaigns are going well. Everyone is really pumped up at the possibility of taking government this time. Polls are looking good; we’ll be minority government at the worst.

Stephen Harper was really positive tonight, and he had a great speech. Everything is really positive about the chance of winning government here. You can just feel the electricity in the room.

Oh, there goes the Stephen Harper bus now. Maybe out to the airport to take Stephen to the next event.

Yesterday I was having lunch downtown at a little Chinese restaurant on Denman Street. Two young couples in their early 20’s sat down at the table next to me, very young, possibly university students. They got talking about the election, and the youngest girl there said she was thinking of voting Conservative, because she just couldn’t vote for the Liberals with all their corruption and thievery. And they proceeded to talk about health care. She was convinced that the Conservative Party would be able to fix health care.

Her only concern was some of the wing nut faction in the party. She was wondering why they spout off their views, when it isn’t their party policy. But she felt she could trust Stephen Harper a lot more than Paul Martin, and that was why she was going to vote Conservative.

We’ve got one more day of campaigning, and then Monday we will be out scrutineering and getting out the vote. It's really important if you want change to get the vote out.

Back at the Night Market

We were just down in Chinatown again, spent about 2 hours in at the night market again and got a really positive response from the people we talked to. A lot of people said they are voting for Harvey, several people said they were switching their vote from NDP.

They are voting conservative because of the crime issue, they want their community safe. In Chinatown they have private security companies that look after the merchant area, but just outside of that is the residential area with needles and condoms littering where children are playing. The residents are very concerned about that. Harvey has been listening, and has said we have to clean that up and we have to do better.

The campaign team went out to lunch today at Penny's Restauruant on East Hastings, and we gave out brochures while we were there. Got a lot of positive comments from the owner and customers. I really liked the lemon chicken and scallop chop suey.

A woman came in to the office on wednesday when I was manning the desk and she plunked down a $100 donation. She said she is really happy with our campaign. We're getting a lot of passerbys coming in and making positive comments about Harvey's campaign.

Gotta go now, Joe wants to close the office.

Working for Vancouver East

I got down to Vancouver on Tuesday 15th and am working for Vancouver East, helping the campaign for Candidate Harvey Grigg for the Conservatives. No access to a computer, so having difficulty posting to my blog, resorting to dictating to Alice over the phone.

Indications are in East Vancouver that the Liberal vote is collapsing and going to our Candidate, and the Chinese vote is swinging our way. Harvey Grigg received a really good reception from the Chinese Community during the Chinese Market this week on Keefer street in Chinatown.

Our main competition, Libby Davies for the NDP, has admitted publically that we are solidly in 2nd place and gaining. Even the Liberal candidate has acknowledged this.

We just put 40,000 flyers in the mail today. I am going to have to go soon because they are closing the Campaign office.

Usually they feed volunteers well during a campaign, but i'm losing weight. Last night they ordered pizza for the volunteers, but right after the pizza arrived another 10 people showed up. Finally got a chance for some kentucky fried today.

We have a dedicated group out here supporting Harvey, and morale is high!

Deciding to go down to help in Vancouver

I've decided to go down to Vancouver and help with the Federal Election. My Fishing Charter season doesn't start until July ( www.jimsfishing.com ), so I can help out in this election.

I have been volunteering for first the Reform Party, then the Canadian Alliance Party, and now the new Conservative Party, and I have been publishing www.lookupalliance.com since early 2000 before the last Federal Election.

I would really regret it if I couldn't help out this election, where for the first time looks like we have a good shot at forming the government under the leadership of Stephen Harper. Alice (my wife) will have to respond to the charter inquiries by phone and e-mail back in Tahsis while I am in Vancouver.
Things will be hectic, but I will post as frequently as I am able, either by e-mail or phone.