Greetings to CHP members across the country. We have returned from our scouting expedition. The land we saw is a good land, flowing with milk and honey. Oh yes, we did notice some tall fellows over there who told us to go home. We decided that—with a little education—they could be turned into decent neighbours so we didn’t disturb them too much.

The expedition was the first foray of the Christian Heritage Party into provincial politics. Donald A. Roberts and I had the privilege of representing CHP-BC in the 2013 election and—although neither of us was given a mandate (this time) to represent our ridings in Victoria—we were pleased to be able to present a platform based on moral, common-sense principles free of the controlling influences of big government, big unions, big business, and big media.

For those who may not know, CHP-BC held its first AGM on April 6, just prior to the “dropping of the writ” in BC’s long-awaited election. (BC elections are held every four years in May). As the province went into full election mode, Don Roberts and I began getting signatures and filling out forms to become registered CHP-BC candidates.

While Premier Christy Clark’s BC Liberals have not been very popular and were expected to lose to a resurging NDP, in the end, BC voters pulled back from the prospect of an even-more-socialist government and gave the BC Liberals another four years. This is seen as a shout-out to big business. It certainly was not a principled return to public morality and family values as the Liberals have not shown any inclination to reverse the troublesome trends of recent years: their 2005 Corren Agreement, the refusal to divulge abortion statistics, the descent into habitual deficit spending, etc.

But we, the first provincial CHP candidates, have come back from our journey with a good report and we’d like to share that with you:

• Based on election night returns, we achieved—respectively—6.01% in Stikine (a part of the Skeena-Bulkley Valley federal district) and 1.57% in Prince George-Valemount, (where CHP has been virtually unknown). CHP-BC now has a better idea of the “lay of the land” and can begin preparing for the next election.
• CHP-BC, in the ridings where we ran, achieved a higher average % than 14 other small parties, placing us in fifth place, although some independents achieved higher numbers than we did. (Thanks to Geoffey Capp for the post-election analysis). In spite of greater media coverage and a high-profile leader, the BC Conservatives also failed to gain a seat, so we were in good company. In my riding I trailed the third-place BC Con candidate by only 14 votes. This is subject to change at the Final Count on May 27 when absentee ballots, etc. will be tallied and added.
• We were blessed to have received campaign contributions from members in other BC ridings where CHP-BC did not have candidates and even some help from outside BC (which is currently permitted by BC election law). Thank you to everyone who assisted in this way as well as those who prayed and contacted us to offer encouragement! We really appreciate your sharing this experience with us and making it possible to run a credible campaign.
• This allowed me—in Stikine—to run very affordable TV and radio ads as well as newspaper ads and to mail out 6,000 brochures to households in the district. Name brand recognition was high in Stikine both for me and the CHP and that helped get our message out to more people.
• Both Donald Roberts and I were well treated by the northern media. Newspapers, radio, local television, and online magazines contacted both of us for interviews and we were able to respond to a number of questionnaires from issue-advocacy groups. We each had opportunities in all-candidate debates and received favourable comments.
• I had the additional benefit of having Stephen Plamondon modifying and updating my campaign site with audio/video, etc. Although the campaign is over, I invite you to visit the site and review the ads and speech highlights. Stephen has done an excellent job.

What about the giants?

Of course, we did face some challenges and setbacks. We want to learn from these and prepare to overcome them in the future. Some of these:

• While local media coverage was very good, we still faced the biases of the national media. CBC online did not even show me as a candidate on their website, a full week after I was registered. Their list of the 25 provincial parties did not include a live link to CHP-BC’s website, although they provided that for most of the parties. They even referred to the televised debate between the four most prominent party leaders as an “all-party leaders debate” (clearly untrue). Their “Vote Compass” Voters’ Guide included leading questions and a host of unsupported assumptions. Online readers participating in their survey were directed to one of the four biggest parties instead of becoming well-informed about all the options. This is a disgusting use of taxpayers’ money which effectively undermines the democratic process.
• Our focus on written, online, and audio-visual communications and our time spent preparing ads, brochures, and signs left us little time for door-knocking. We know the importance of one-on-one communications but due to the late campaign start, had to set priorities to reach the most people in the time available.
• I personally drove over 4,500 km, placing signs and retrieving them. Of course, in future campaigns we would hope to have more of this done by campaign volunteers but as this was our first provincial campaign it seemed only right that I would explore the territory. Even at that, I did not get to Atlin, the most distant community near the Yukon border.
• The biggest challenge—as always—was the apathy of many potential voters and their tendency to vote for the big-name parties as they do not believe we have a chance to win. Many people would have supported us if they had thought we could take the seat. This self-fulfilling prophecy must be challenged until the first CHP MLA or MP is elected. The Green Party, encouraged by the eventual election of Elizabeth May to Ottawa, has now sent Andrew Weaver to Victoria as the first-ever elected Green Party MLA. We celebrate this win for the Greens because it shows that persistence and commitment can overcome apathy and compromise.
• We were very pleased with our website but wished more of our voters would have visited it prior to voting. We tried many ways to encourage site visits, sending out links and advertising it both on our brochures and our ads. However, traffic to the site never reached the levels we had hoped for. We need to find better ways of getting people to read and listen to our platforms and principles.

The land we saw is a good land. We invite all CHP members to look at ways to engage in provincial elections and help us overcome the giants. If you’re not yet a member of CHP Canada, we invite you to join. We’re pressing on and going in.

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