Canvassing

Canvassing is pivotal for political campaigns. It serves as a potent tool to secure, activate, and expand the base. This method enables direct voter outreach, fostering personalized connections, and mobilizing supporters for actions such as volunteering and donating, thereby strengthening the campaign's grassroots foundation.

Before canvassing

All volunteers need to have their Privacy Training and Volunteer Agreement completed.

Training volunteers for canvassing

Volunteers should be trained on every canvas. Even if volunteers have canvassed before, please ask them to stay for training so that we ensure everyone is on the same page.

• Experienced canvasses can be asked to lead the training
• Role-play a few interactions to give folks an idea of how to move through these conversations and explain why it is important they move at a certain pace.
• Ensure all canvassers have their Privacy Training and Volunteer Agreement completed.
• Ensure all canvassers know their safety is our top priority and that voter data must be kept private.  They should never feel obligated to canvass alone, enter people’s homes, stay on the phone with people, deal with aggressive individuals, or otherwise. Poor interactions are rare,  but it is important that they know their safety is #1. Review the Personal Privacy section of our Privacy & Security document.

Canvassing between elections vs during elections

Canvassing between elections

In this kind of canvass we are checking in with voters as to their perception of how our Green MLAs are doing or asking them what their top issues are. Due to the fact that we are listening and trying to build genuine connections, this is a slower pace

Canvassing during election time

This style of canvassing is extremely fast and usually involves a question such as “In the next provincial Election would you ever consider voting Green?” and then moving on with a “Thanks for your time!”

Knowing the base

It is difficult to turn conversations into votes if we don’t know who “the base” (our supporters) are and who our target audience is (future potential supporters). While you work on building the base, make time to get to know the current base and community and work to train your volunteers on this as well.

BC Greens target audience

You will be speaking with people who don’t like the Greens, people who are loyal Greens, people who are on the fence about who to vote for, don’t like politics, and often, don’t know how provincial politics works. Establish who is worth spending time speaking to and who we isn’t in a time with little time and resources. We are looking for folks with shared values and that may mean folks who haven't historically voted for us or voted much at all. People who will not hear our point of view or are strongly with the opposition  are not worth spending time speaking with while acting as a volunteer (that is what the dinner table is for! Just kidding, ha!)

BC Greens base

Get to know stand-out volunteers, donors, community stakeholders, and other leaders in your riding. That way, if you're about to call them or knock on the door, you know how to cater the conversation to that individual. Leverage your personal connections and know who could be especially important to connect with (and who the candidate should be speaking to directly).

The art of listening

A common misconception about political engagement is that you have to know a lot about politics to get involved. The thought is that to make an impact you have to know the jargon, stay up to date with current events, know the stats, and more. The reality is, while that is all helpful, it is not essential. This misconception keeps folks from volunteering or discussing politics. Instead, avoiding jargon helps to make you a stronger communicator and campaigner. You understand how to speak to the everyday person in a clear, welcoming, and reflective way. Most of the time, you won’t get into a political discussion, and that isn’t always our job canvassing. Learning how to listen to people so they feel heard and gathering data is. To encourage people to volunteer and to vote, instead of stressing about knowing all the facts, we need to practice the art of listening which also includes thoughtful, reflective questions. Here are some examples of how to get out of jargon talk or how to listen/ask questions to help them feel heard without having to know all the facts.

The key to a powerful conversation is you nodding and saying “mm hmm, for sure” while they keep talking. There is always a line if people are outright deniers of facts or are being aggressive however often folks are being defensive because they may not know how to answer and don’t want to seem uneducated or unengaged. The reality is politics is something that everyone understands, because it is experienced - so ask for theirs. Rather than denying their truth and shutting them down, try to find the ounce of truth in what they said and repackage it so they gain some information & feel heard.

Showing compassion, conversing in a layperson friendly way, and keeping the conversation going with questions and active listening leads to people being heard. In this way we can also get a sense for how people are feeling about the BC Greens and what their top issues are.

Door canvassing

Door canvassing is also known as foot canvassing or door knocking.

Phone canvassing

We make phone calls to people in our riding, generally only to party members and people who have indicated in the past that they are BC Greens supporters.  It's an amazing way to connect with voters and promote the BC Greens and our events. While it may sound scary at first, it's fun and easier than it sounds as there is always a script to follow, and you can call on other RA members for support. Particularly at election time we need lots of phoners!