Election Night Reflection (Wednesday, October 10th, 2007)

Tonight, I attended an election night event for Green Party candidate Ted Shelegy. The event took place at Vegas World Lounge on Dalhousie Street. At the event many first year Laurier Brantford journalism students were eager to have their questions answered by Shelegy, who tonight was the most important person inside the lounge. I enjoyed my experience attending election night and can honestly say when it came to getting the information I needed for my Candidate Event story I succeeded in some areas but failed in other ones.

I got to the event early in an effort to have my questions answered by Shelegy before the lounge became too crowded. My planned seemed to work. I chose to place my focus on the Green Party’s opinion of the proposed new Highway 24. I was able to ask Shelegy why his party is against the construction of the highway which would run through environmentally endangered areas. I also asked of his opinions towards Liberal Candidate Dave Levac’s comment that Highway 24 is important to the area’s economy.

Shelegy was the only person I talked with while at the event. I could have and feel as though I should have talked to the campaign manager or one of the volunteers. This would have been especially important considering that I had a conversation with one of Shelegy’s volunteers sometime last week. This conservation took place at Shelegy’s campaign office which is also located on Dalhousie Street and I visited to get research information such as brochures and pamphlets. By asking a Green Party supporter for their opinion on the issues related to Highway 24 I would have been able to see if they agree or disagree with Shelegy’s stance.

I got my information in a variety of ways. As mentioned earlier I visited Shelegy’s campaign office. It was there that I obtained the brochures and pamphlets which outline Shelegy’s and the Green Party of Ontario’s policies and beliefs going into today’s election. The handouts are well organized and outline the various ways the Green Party will work towards improving important social issues such as education, the economy, health care and agriculture. I also picked up a handout which described how Mixed Member Proportional worked and the ways in which it differs from the First Past the Post system.

I thought Vegas World Lounge was a nice place to hold the event. The people there all seemed to be interested in the election results. People cheered as the number of votes for Shelegy scrolled across the bottom of the television screen and the results for the Brant riding were shown.


I was able to succeed in asking Shelegy the questioned that I wanted to know the answers to in terms of Highway 24. I failed however it came to digging for information from other sources. I think I would have done a better job tonight if I asked my questioned to people other than just Shelegy.