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Avoiding the noise: why I’ve never said my opponents’ names
Today a man stopped me in the parking lot and asked me why political leaders had to be so antagonistic and aggressive against each other. I told him that politics gets very personal. Even though a lot of people say they are going into politics and that they will rise above the negativity, I find that they often are the first ones to start to criticize.
I was never involved with politics until I was nominated and running. I had never gone to a political meeting until my own nomination meeting in 1988. I had never even belonged to a political party until my nomination. I didn’t really know how to campaign or anything else about politics. However, I had good people around me to help.
One of the other candidates for the PC nomination was a lawyer from Truro by the name of Faisal Joseph. I had never met him and knew nothing about him. However, since that nomination in 1988 we have stayed in touch even though he now lives in London, Ontario. Without hesitation, he came to my assistance with help for a project I was working on in Parliament in 2001.
One problem I encountered in the first campaign was that my Liberal opponent’s name was Dennis James. I had friends whose first name was Dennis, and I had friends whose first name was James. I was very much afraid I was going to call Dennis James… James Dennis. To me, that would be disrespectful and embarrassing to both him and me. In order to avoid making this mistake, I decided to never say his name. I went the entire campaign without saying his name once in public.
In my next campaign, I decided to do the same thing, even though my opponent’s name was easy to remember. Then, in my next seven campaigns, I took the same approach. To the best of my knowledge, I’ve never said the name of my opponent in any campaign in public. As part of the campaign, I did compare policies and parties, but it has never been personal simply because of “Dennis James.”
Ironically, Dennis James was my Liberal opponent in my first campaign, but in my last campaign, Dennis James was my Liberal Campaign Manager. Even though we were opponents in that first election campaign, we always remained in touch and shared ideas and policy issues. We became good friends. Still are.
I was never involved with politics until I was nominated and running. I had never gone to a political meeting until my own nomination meeting in 1988. I had never even belonged to a political party until my nomination. I didn’t really know how to campaign or anything else about politics. However, I had good people around me to help.
One of the other candidates for the PC nomination was a lawyer from Truro by the name of Faisal Joseph. I had never met him and knew nothing about him. However, since that nomination in 1988 we have stayed in touch even though he now lives in London, Ontario. Without hesitation, he came to my assistance with help for a project I was working on in Parliament in 2001.
One problem I encountered in the first campaign was that my Liberal opponent’s name was Dennis James. I had friends whose first name was Dennis, and I had friends whose first name was James. I was very much afraid I was going to call Dennis James… James Dennis. To me, that would be disrespectful and embarrassing to both him and me. In order to avoid making this mistake, I decided to never say his name. I went the entire campaign without saying his name once in public.
In my next campaign, I decided to do the same thing, even though my opponent’s name was easy to remember. Then, in my next seven campaigns, I took the same approach. To the best of my knowledge, I’ve never said the name of my opponent in any campaign in public. As part of the campaign, I did compare policies and parties, but it has never been personal simply because of “Dennis James.”
Ironically, Dennis James was my Liberal opponent in my first campaign, but in my last campaign, Dennis James was my Liberal Campaign Manager. Even though we were opponents in that first election campaign, we always remained in touch and shared ideas and policy issues. We became good friends. Still are.