While Rachael Harder is heading for Ottawa, another candidate might be thinking of retirement, Halen Kooper reports.
It wasn’t until after I got home and had a moment to reflect on the evening, that I realized the experience I had at the Christian Heritage Party’s election night event.
At the time, I had been so concerned with making sure I got all the quotes, all the b-roll and all the photos that I needed for Lethbridge Campus Media.
I don’t feel like I missed out on the experience because I was distracted, but I do feel it’s a shame I didn’t think about it until after I left.
In the beginning, I was surprised at how small the venue they chose was, but after seeing who was invited it all made sense.
Everyone who was there were supporters but they were also the friends and family members of Marc Slingerland, Frans VandeStroet and Geoffrey Capp.
They didn’t want a big fancy venue like their opponents because they just wanted to celebrate their hard work and achievements with those closest to them and I feel privileged to have taken part.
Over the course of the evening, when I was there at least, I never once saw another journalist from any form of media other than one of my instructors.
In fact, I think I’m the only journalist who covered Geoffrey Capp at all over the course of the election.
Although it really bothers me the mainstream media would disregard someone who ran as a serious candidate, in some instances I think he may have been lucky.
While I do understand that it’s my job and I signed up for it, I find it unsettling to have to stick a microphone in the face of a person who just lost something that was so important to them.
Almost hypocritically, it was when I interviewed Geoffrey Capp I came to the reality of my experience at their election night event.
By the time the next federal election comes around Geoffrey will be 60-years-old and he thinks it’s very unlikely he’ll be a candidate again.
It made me look at their election event as Geoffrey’s send off from being involved in politics as a candidate and I thought how it was sort of my send off too.
There I was on the last day of the federal election, doing the last interview I’m likely to do with Geoffrey after he lost the last election he’ll ever take part in.
Many of the people I met while I covered the Christian Heritage Party are genuinely some of the nicest individuals I’ve had the pleasure of introducing myself to.
It’s strange these people I spent so much time with, who went completely out of their way to give interviews I needed and who treated me like a friend from the beginning are now just part of my portfolio.
