Life on the campaign trail: Covering the leader

Covering a national leader's tour is gruelling work, but it does have its plus sides. Depending on the campaign you’re assigned to, reporters generally stay in good hotels, don’t have to worry about making their travel arrangements and, mostly, the food is pretty decent. You get to see so much of the country in a short time, places most Canadians only hope to see. But, this typically only applies to reporters who cover the Liberals, the Conservatives and the NDP. If you’re on the Green Party beat (like me), not so much.

According to a CBC News analysis of the leader’s itineraries, Green Party Leader Annamie Paul visited nine unique ridings during the 2021 campaign. The other major party leaders visited about 50 to 60 ridings or more during the writ period. The week I spent with Paul felt more like covering a municipal campaign than a national one. Instead of flying from city to city, Paul went from corner to corner – opting for Toronto transit and rideshares.

While my colleagues assigned to the other campaigns clocked more kilometres than I did, please don’t feel sorry for me. For one thing, I spent a week with the New Democrats touring Ontario and B.C. Consider as well, the format of these leaders’ tours tends to be heavily controlled. Days often follow this pattern: wake up in a hotel, fuel with coffee, go to a news conference where the leader makes an announcement and then takes questions - which is often an exercise in trying to knock the leader off his or her talking points. You then have a short window to file your story before (or while) heading to the next stop. It’s fun for the first couple of days, but it becomes a grind.

Covering the Greens, you never know what you’re going to get. Paul has a gift for going off-script and speaking off the cuff; it tends to make for better quotes and clips. She took as many questions as reporters gave her (yes, there weren’t many reporters) and often she answered them. I filed the day’s news each day but still found time to break away and wander the surrounding neighbourhoods that make up the Toronto riding where Paul was vying for a seat. I spent half a day in a community park with tents, temporary shelters and a Naloxone kit hanging on a chain-link fence. The park was a vivid reminder of the housing and opioid crisis that has gripped many communities.