So my 11-year-old son came home from school today to tell me that he’s running for school president. He goes to a small school — few hundred students — with kindergarten to grade 6. He’s in grade 6. He tells me that all the senior boys are behind him and no other boys will be running. The girls, however, will be putting forward a girl candidate. He’s worried about that. The girls tend to vote for girls and the boys tend to vote for boys. In my world on Parliament Hill, it’s left vs right, rich vs poor, old vs young but here, at my son’s public school, the key political cleavage is boys v girls.
Mind you, he says he’s got a good friend — a boy — in grade 3 who he believes will deliver him the grade 3 demographic. I told him I think the grade 3 demographic is key. So that’s good.
His sister — she’s in grade 8 at another school — is in charge of designing the poster. I love my daughter and she can design a mean poster but I told my son that, in my experience, the air war — posters and school announcements — are not nearly so important as the ground game. He needs to be meeting every school bus as it unloads for the next two weeks and press the flesh with every student you can. Even better, have one of his buddies sing my son’s praises while he’s pressing the flesh. Particularly girl flesh.
But what do I know? I’m just a journalist! So I asked Twitter for advice. And Twitter delivered! Some political pros chipped in — and so did many other helpful tipsters!
@davidakin need compelling message to motivate ground game. A populist appeal wouldn’t hurt either!
— Mike McDonald (@BCMikeMcD) October 1, 2014
@davidakin Depends on what his ad-buy is — Chris Plecash (@chrisplecash) October 1, 2014
@davidakin What is the expected voter turnout? — Karl Bélanger (@KarlBelanger) October 1, 2014
@davidakin Air war then. — Karl Bélanger (@KarlBelanger) October 1, 2014
Pizza RT @davidakin:In primary school,politics not left-right,old-young,rich-poor but-boy v girl.So: How how do I sell son to grade 4 girls? — Jimmy Zoubris (@jzoubris) October 1, 2014
@davidakin the female grade school vote is all about promising more school dances. Be vague about # of the increase, but promise more
— Meaghan Daly (@FVGamesPres) October 1, 2014
@davidakin voice coachto get foreign accent
— Raymond McConville (@DrRaymondMc) October 1, 2014
@davidakin Harper would run a series of “cootie” ads against his opponent. — Dan Arnold (@calgarygrit) October 1, 2014
@davidakin Hand out branded lollipops outside the polling booth. #easywin — Ken Boessenkool (@KenBoessenkool) October 1, 2014
@SpartanVTyranny @calgarygrit @davidakin “What a wonderful Spiderman lunchbox you have there. Shame if something were to happen to it.”
— Luke Bradley (@LukeBrizazzle) October 1, 2014
@davidakin perform campaign promise lyrics to tune of One Direction song. I just died when my male classmates performed NKOTB in 4th grade.
— Rikki Ratliff (@rikkiratliff) October 1, 2014
@davidakin convince a second girl to run and split the girl vote? — Rob Silver (@RobSilver) October 1, 2014
Let’s push the envelope! RT @LIanMacDonald: @davidakin Is a lemonade stand permissible under the School Election Expenses Act? — David Akin (@davidakin) October 1, 2014
@davidakin How soon will he go negative?
— TSRHG (@TSRHG) October 1, 2014
@davidakin Kids should sue all the way to the Supreme Court. Sounds like a basic freedom of political speech case.
— Chris Bloom (@cbloom007) October 1, 2014
@davidakin What about “contrast” ads. That always fools ’em. — Edward Keenan (@thekeenanwire) October 1, 2014
@davidakin @RedAloud what’s his foreign policy? Where does he stand on health care and recess? — Brandon Tozzo (@BrandonTozzo) October 1, 2014
@davidakin tell him to ignore the Forum polls
— Christopher Dummitt (@chrisdummitt1) October 1, 2014
@davidakin Hopefully he watches Battleground 🙂
— Cedric Richards (@CedricRichards) October 1, 2014