Former Tory cabinet minister Flora MacDonald would be delighted that Prime Minister Stephen Harper call the federal election on the day of her funeral. She was a formidable campaigner. In 1961 for Conservative candidate Margaret May Macdonald, widow of the sitting MP, she sometimes gave speeches in place of the shy Margaret since, she told me, nobody in the PEI audience knew the difference.
I was equally shy in my first campaign in Vancouver Centre, horrified that I was expected to accost perfect strangers in shopping malls, so Flora came west to teach me campaign techniques. Dragging me along behind her, she would beam at people and say:”I want you to meet your Conservative candidate in Vancouver Centre.” People beamed back. Everybody knew Flora.
When she went back to her Kingston riding, my volunteers and I went to the busiest street corner in the riding. For my first attempt, I chose an elderly lady with curly grey hair and a cane who was crossing the street. When she reached the curb I stuck out my hand and said bravely:” I’m Pat Carney, your Conservative candidate and I need your vote.”
The benign -looking senior drew back and snapped viciously: “I would rather my hand withered and dropped off before shaking hands with a Conservative” and walked away. Stunned, I put my shunned hand back in my pocket. But I did learn to enjoy campaigning and was elected twice in the riding before retiring. (Adapted from my memoir Trade Secrets, Key Porter)