Tim Hudak gave reporters a peek inside how modern campaigns gather voter info and take the pulse of local battles Monday. Despite the fact he was in Cornwall after a day of campaigning that started in Etobicoke, the Progressive Conservative Leader let hacks listen in as he spent just over an hour on the telephone with 11,500 of his closest friends in Brampton West.
The telephone town hall was just one of more than 50 Hudak has done, many of them before the official campaigning of the writ period began. The technique essentially involves dialing up every single phone number in the riding and leaving a recorded message with details on when the town hall will be and how to join in.
The blanket calls tell the party a little something about every number – someone either answers or they don’t. Those that do participate reveal a willingness to at least listen to the party’s pitch and the longer they stay on the line gives a pretty good indication of how deep that interest may be.
And while they’re listening in to Hudak answer questions or pump up local candidate Ben Shenouda – in whom the PCs have high hopes – party data nerds can hoover in all kinds of info on what motivates them by asking poll questions along the way.
For example, the PCs could get a sense of how well Hudak’s message of the day resonated in Brampton by simply asking “are you in favour of unplugging smart meters?” Press one for yes, two for no and suddenly the Tories now 73% of the participants are onside. And they know how to reach every one of those people.
Other questions include “are you likely to support Tim Hudak?” and “Do you want a lawn sign for Ben Shenouda?” But it’s not just one way. Everyone on the phone is encouraged to ask questions of their own directly of Hudak – giving his campaign some valuable intel on what people are interested in. Only a few get the privilege of putting their query to the man himself but not worries if you were at the back of the queue. Callers could leave a recorded message of their question, serving up even more rich data for the pointdexters to crunch.
Auto insurance is one issue that pops up twice in questions from Brampton Westers, something Hudak notes afterwards was also the case the previous day in Scarborough. The issue of jobs has also been a consistent theme, he said.
Telephone town halls were used to great effect by Rob Ford in his successful Toronto mayoral run in 2010 – so much so his rival George Smitherman had jumped on the idea and had started to do his own events by the end of the race. Hudak said he first used the technique during his leadership campaign in 2009.
And why not? Numbers of callers on the line went up and down, starting at 500 and rising to 5,000 within minutes. The high point was 11,500 but with people coming on and dropping off throughout the hour, a campaign could reach many, many thousands, without the tedious slogging of a traditional door-knocking blitz.
The people on the line get something out of the experience as well. There’s little doubt the town halls helped Ford build his momentum in the lengthy mayor’s race, as like-minded voters realized they weren’t alone in their frustration at the way things were done down at Nathan Phillips. No wonder candidates are opting to let their fingers do the walking.
