A great campaign...

I have to tell you...I had the time of my life during the recent election campaign. I worked for several months for Keith Fountain, who was running for the Conservatives in Ottawa Centre. Unfortunately, Keith didn't win - although he did improve the Conservative share of the votes from the last election, while the other major candidates dropped.

I had been looking for a Conservative candidate to work with for a while. In my riding (Ottawa-Vanier), the Liberals have held the seat longer than the Soviet Union was a country. So, I wanted to find a candidate close by that I could really believe in.

Last May, I got an e-mail from a friend telling me all about Keith. At about the time same time, Keith sent me an e-mail through this blog. I was pretty impressed that a Conservative Party candidate was reading GayandRight....so, I was eager to meet Keith. It didn't take long to realize that Keith deserved to be in Parliament - he was bright, a libertarian in many regards, and he was passionate about how government could be improved. And, he had no problem with gay people!

I started helping distribute literature and then I took Keith out to a gay bar to do some campaigning. How many Conservative Party candidates campaign in gay bars? And, while he was there he was met several friends and colleagues from work.

Over time, I became his media person, his scheduler, and I drove him around to campaign events. The more I worked with Keith, the more I knew he was the future of the Conservative Party (or at least I hope so).

It was a hard and long campaign. Now, that it's over, I'm a little sad. I met a lot of terrific people working for Keith - all of them passionate about the future of this country - and all of them putting in tremendous amounts of time to help the Conservative cause. Admirable people -- all of them. I will miss working with them.

I hope Keith continues in politics. I hope the Conservative Party noticed what a great candidate he was. Canada needs more people like Keith.

I wish Stephen Harper the best! I hope he can prove that he can govern competently. However, I do know one thing. Some of the best Conservative Party candidates aren't in the House of Commons.