Last but not least

Pro-train campaign reaches the end of the line

So the results of the election are in, and it wasn’t the result I was hoping for. I ran for ECan last time, and came third. I was devastated. I was depressed for weeks. I campaigned - hard. At the time, I was working 40, 50, 60, 70 hour weeks, and trying to campaign at the same time. I also had a small daughter, just 6 months old, and I barely saw her.

This time, I had a second small daughter. 6 months old when the nominations went in. I had a job that I worked hard at - but this time, one that I liked. I wanted to run for ECan again, as I thought I had something to say, something to contribute. But I wasn’t going to put my own personal political ambitions ahead of spending time with my daughters.

At the moment, I work, I spend time with my girls, I try to sleep in between. That’s it. There were a number of candidate meetings during the campaign, and I tried to attend as many as I could. But I don’t have much spare time, time that I’m not working. And even though time spent campaigning - knocking on doors, delivering flyers - is important, it’s not as important as hanging with my girls. I can run again in 3 years. I can’t get back time that could have been spent with the girls, especially my 6 month-old.

So am I sad to have missed out? Yes, of course. No one likes losing. But do I regret not having done more? Not at all. Not for a minute. Elections are strange and unpredictable. I was guessing that Vicky and Chrys would have been the winners - but Paul Dietsche beat Chrys into second, with me more than a thousand back from her. That tells me I made the right choice. I could have been the People’s Choice candidate, done all the campaigning again, and still come third. And it would have crushed me.

I didn’t do any advertising. I didn’t pay Facebook a cent, didn’t stick my face up on fences, didn’t fill up your letterbox with more junk mail. Despite all that, more than 7,000 people still ticked my name. I want to thank everyone who voted for me. It has been heartening to hear all the support, whether it be from people commenting on my posts, or coming up to me in the bar to tell me they’d voted for me.

I wish Paul and Vicky the best for their term on ECan. It could be a challenging time, but I hope they can notch up some real wins for the environment. We all want to see better outcomes for our water, air, climate, and transport options. Hopefully they can make some progress on that.

For me, I’ll just keep on doing what I’ve been doing. I’ll be down at the bar, and if I do manage to find myself with any free moments, might try and get back into the dad blogging I had been doing. So expect less political, more playgrounds.

Thanks everyone,

James