Junior's legacy to his father (en francais)

Campaign Stories #6

To start off, for all the pundits, pollsters, NDP supporters and everyone else who ever said that a Conservative could never win in Windsor Tecumseh:

Democraticspace.org moves Windsor-Tecumseh into the "Too close to call" category.

The past years work by the Campaign Team is starting to pay. Strategy and planning sessions held over the last 12 months produced a solid plan that we continue to execute. Tweaks and adjustments have been made, but the core plan remains. An old military axiom of the 6 P's has been a guiding principle - Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Special ballot turnout in this election increased to over 1300 votes from 486 and the advance polls look to be on track to reach 6000, up from 4000 in 2004.

It was interesting that none of the other parties had scrutineers at the polls yesterday. The Liberals I can understand, considering the hapless state of their campaign, but the NDP? A friend of mine drove by the NDP office at 8pm and the lights were all off and no one was home, 5pm for the Liberals. We left our office at 12:30 this morning, and there was still one person left finishing up some work.

Friday we hosted numerous 'Coffee Hours' close to advance poll locations. Supporters hosted these events and Rick would stop by each one to speak with everyone and when he left, everyone headed off to the Advance Poll to vote. Saturday was a Pancake Breakfast central to three Advance Polls. Turnout was great and you could feel the excitement. Day by day, poll by poll, one person at a time.

Rick just went over the 18,000 mark in his door knocking and the team has made over 45,000 phone calls. It's really simple - campaigns are won with hard work, lots of it. One of the best compliments was received in the Windsor Star this week in a riding profile article.

... admitted one Liberal insider, one of the hardest-working candidates that person has seen. Fuschi has been campaigning since last spring, knocking on doors long before some candidates in this area had even decided to run.

Windsor Star, January 11th, 2006

This week will be furious with activity. One last push for the advance polls and then we shift into GOTV mode. If all goes well, another 5 to 6,000 phone calls will be made this week, numerous rides and lots more door knocking. End result - Rick Fuschi MP, the first Conservative elected in Windsor-Tecumseh since the Hon Raymond D. Morand in 1930. An interesting sub-note, Raymond Morand was defeated by Paul Martin Sr. in 1935.

It would only be fitting to take back this riding from a government lead by Junior.

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