Campaign Help needed

Helping with a Campaign .... Or The Things I’d Love Help with as a Political Candidate:

I quite often get asked how people can help, so I thought I’d put this together as an answer that people can refer to. Campaigns take a lot of work and it is almost impossible for one person to do it all.  In no particular order, here are the things I’d love some help with as a candidate running for Environment Canterbury in 2022.  If you are interested in supporting other candidates then they will be interested in similar things.

Billboards:

Those of us running a campaign need to put up billboards. If you have a good fence or a place that a billboard can go, in a street that has good passing traffic, one way to help is to offer to have a board on your fence. If you know someone who might be talked into having a billboard in a good place then helping to set that up would also help.

Billboards can’t be put up in public spaces – so we can put them on fences or on an open area near the road but not in parks, for example. Helping with putting up billboards is also always appreciated.

Helping out online:

Like it or not, social media is quite an important part of campaigns and getting information about candidates out is a good thing. Even just sharing, commenting and liking posts are all helpful things to do to help a campaign page. Doing that helps posts become more visible. Commenting and sharing posts on candidates pages is even more effective.

Encouraging others to like or follow the page also helps. Managing a social media page for someone might be an option or working with a small group to support your candidate online can also be really useful.

Direct Voter Contact:

Making phone calls (which can be done from home) or knocking on doors to talk about your candidate can also really help with attracting votes for the person you want to see get in. Many people dread this kind of work but the reality is that it can be quite fun and you can have some great conversations about things that you care about.

Supporting at events:

For many of us who are running, it really helps to have some familiar faces in the audience when talking at Candidates evenings. Even better go along and ask some questions that could help your candidate showcase their strengths.

Letterbox drops
This is the first thing many people think of when getting involved in campaigning. Delivering addresssed letters that go out to people known to vote is a similar process and usually candidates need a lot of help at particular times to get stuff out into the right letterboxes.

Organising hui or events:

These can be quite small – get some friends from the same voting area together to meet the candidate online or at home. Organise meetings for groups you are part of that might have an interest and ask candidates to come along.  

Another option might be to help at or near a market by handing out leaflets etc.

Making a donation:

It costs a lot to run a campaign so if you have some capacity, however large or small, to support a candidate this way, they will really appreciate it.

Become a Campaign Manager:

If you are feeling particularly energetic, offering to manage a campaign is really helpful. Many people have campaign managers who work with the candidate to get everything done. This takes a lot of work off the shoulders of a candidate and means they can spend more time working on direct voter contact.

If you'd like to offer help, get in contact by email chrys.horn@xtra.co.nz, or PM me.

Central Government and Local Government in New Zealand: What do they do?

When I stepped into advocating for active transport and public transport about 13 years ago, it took me quite a while to work out how the different layers of government fit together and produce outcomes on the ground. As I’ve been talking to people about local government and what it does, I’ve learned that I'm not the only one who has problems trying to put how our Government in NZ works.

Of course there is no way to explain it fully in a short post.  I'm aiming simply to provide a wee summary of what happens and how central government relates to local government, in particular.

Central government is elected in a general election every three years when we vote for our members of parliament.  Parliament writes most of the laws under which we operate in New Zealand. Laws include things like the Local Government Act and the Resource Management Act. 

Once a law is in place, the government develops policy with the help of their departments or ministries. That policy sets a course of action for the country.  

Local Government is elected every three years in local body elections, like the ones coming up later this year.   

In Canterbury, our local government consists of the Christchurch City Council and the Canterbury Regional Council/ Environment Canterbury. 

The City Council provides infrastructure and services for residents and business - from water pipes and local road maintenance, to sewage treatment and parks and playgrounds.  The Regional Council has more of an environmental focus and Regulates activities that affect our land, water and air.  It functions across a number of District and City Council areas.  

The things these councils must, can and cannot do are set out in a range of legislation including the Local Government Act and the Resource Management Act AND in the policy statements that central government issues. 

Within that, councils have a lot of say over what happens on the ground, locally.  They decide on things like upgrading local roads, setting speed limits, where housing goes, how to deal with flooding, and providing cycle and walking facilities.  They also build and run local facilities like libraries, community centres, playgrounds, collect our rubbish and get water to our taps and sewage processed. These things are done by the paid staff in the organisation or contractors, once the elected councillors decide how money will be spent.  They will debate things like how much to spend on, strengthening local communities, or providing free events or improving the safety of our roads, or, indeed, whether to spend more money on a stadium. 

 Local government has a significant impact on our daily lives, so it is important to size up the candidates who are standing and vote for the people that you think will work hard, and weigh up the issues (both short and long term) before making the best decisions that they can for our city. 

Oh! And don’t sit back once you have voted good people in. If they are good, they will want to know how you feel about issues they are deciding on and how you think they will affect you.  When you participate in having your say, the views expressed by submitters gives your local body members a steer in how they should make their decisions.

It has been wet!

I can't believe that it has been so long since I have written in this blog.  Largely that is because I've been writing in other places and on other topics, and that has felt like enough.  Now I'm standing for the Regional Council, it seems like a good time to use it again to post some thoughts that might tell readers something about where I'm coming from and the sort of Councillor I might be if I get in. 

It's Been Wet!

The news came on Tuesday that this July has been the wettest month on record.  By Tuesday afternoon, 212 mm had been recorded in Christchurch – more than three times the 61mm average for July.  As I write this on the 28^th July, it happens to be drizzling again, so the total might even go up a little! 

What is happening is exactly what was forecast a decade or two ago when scientists made predictions about how climate change would affect Christchurch; fewer large rain events and more droughts. Our flood infrastructure wasn’t built for these large events, however over recent years, a lot of flood retention ponds and wetlands have been put in in the upper reaches of the Ōpāwahō Heathcote River.  As the week comes to a close, those areas are holding back millions of cubic metres of water which will slowly be released into the river as the floods subside. Still more are planned and are needed.  

The upper reaches of the Avon have a lot more building already on them, so it is more difficult to put in water retention infrastructure like that in the Ōpāwahō catchment.  Luckily, though, perhaps, the Red Zone resulting from the Christchurch Earthquakes provides an area that can be flooded.  If we can plant it up with natives that can cope with flooding, we can also increase its capacity as a buffer against future floods.  We are still seeing issues further up that catchment around Edgeware, for example, that will need addressing in some way.

More can be done by council and residents alike. For example, using porous paving allows water to soak into the ground rather than run off quickly.  Likewise planting trees and wetland plants can also help slow down runoff and increase the city’s resilience to floods.

These issues are worth a lot of attention, because not only are we seeing bigger flood events, our low lying, flat city is likely to be strongly affected by rising sea levels – another symptom resulting from a warming planet. 

That is a topic for another post.