Last night I crashed in bed early (11 pm or so) and I slept till 9 am this morning. I haven’t done that in ages. I feel completely human again and my brain is capable of thinking today. I’d almost forgotten what that felt like;) It should be a good day.

Now on to the subject of dating. I’ve had a few friends ask me about if I’m dating, have I been dating, etc. as I used to blog about some of my online dating experiences. So I’ll answer here and get everyone in one shot;) No, I did not date this past year at all. Too many reasons to get into on here (I may be open on here about lots of thing, but hey even I have things to keep to myself;)) Although my close friends know the details. I have been feeling like getting out and dating again recently. Which led to a realization. With my new job, I work from home and so I think part of the reason I’ve been feeling like dating again is that it gets me out of the house and talking to someone in person, what a novelty, lol. With my job I’m on the phone regularly, but it’s not the same. I have to admit that my life is too busy and I don’t think I’m in the right headspace for a relationship. But dating (which if you read a really old post DOES NOT mean sex, lol) is something I’m thinking of getting back into. So last night I put up a profile on one of the sites and we’ll see what happens, but from past experience, I suspect I’ll meet some nice guys and make some new friends. Which is alright by me.

I won a partially paid summer lawn program back in the spring at a home and garden show. I went with the organics program they had. It’s 6 treatments of numerous things of organic fertilizer, corn gluten, aeration and various other factors. Then today they were out doing weed control and the guy who did it and wasn’t the usual one, stuck the sign in the lawn and it said it contained pesticides and to keep the kids/pets, etc. off the lawn. I was NOT happy. I told him how I was on the organics program and I wasn’t supposed to have pesticides on my lawn. So anyway they called the office, the office called me, big apology, I won’t have to pay my portion on the treatment. Big deal, I still have stinky pesticides on my lawn. My neighbors have cats that wander all over my yard. I wasn’t a pleasant customer to deal with, there didn’t seem to be much point using the organics program all summer only to spray pesticides on it at the end of the summer. Argggghhhhhh!

I’ll be honest, my typical political ramblings tend to be on a global/federal perspective. I’ve certainly been accused of being a Bush/Harper basher. I love Jon Stewart’s political satire and I regularly read alternet. Having said that, I find it’s easy to be a Bush basher, easier to jump on those political bandwagons, than discussing what is happening in our local scene. That’s because at this level, the lines are a lot blurrier, the issues more personal perhaps. So with that in mind, I’m more of a blank slate with this upcoming NB election. My opinions less formed.

So I’m finally going to write a post about the upcoming NB election. I think it’s important to clarify that I’m just a regular potential voter. I’m not a political expert, I only semi follow it in the news and mostly when issues that are important to me pop up and as I’ve said before, for the most part, I feel that trying to figure out who to vote for is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. What I do have are my observations of the election in a peripheral sense. In other words, Mr. Lord, Mr. Graham and Ms. Brewer, I’m your regular every day voter that your marketing campaign needs to appeal to. Here’s your demographic info:

single 37 year old Mother of two young children, one in school, one in preschool
Fredericton
Employed
income range (hey this is a public blog, c’mon;))
Post Secondary Education
Home Owner

What I’m curious to know and I know I could search and find it, but maybe a reader will have the info for me. What percentage of women vote in NB? How much of the female vote influences the polls here?

The reason I ask is that I’m going to blog about my perceptions of their marketing campaign. After all, they’re trying to gain my vote. I’m the one they need to sway. I read both the gleaner and the TJ yesterday and saw the full page campaign ads. With my new job, I’ve spent the last year investing a lot of time looking at marketing to women (I highly recommend. Marketing to Women and Don’t Think Pink) I saw both ads from a different perspective.

Liberal Ad:
1/2 page black and white (except for the liberal logo in red)
3rd person copy
team imagery

PC Ad:
full page ad, full colour
1st person copy
Close up of Lord 

Graham’s ad showed he and his team walking together. You can see the same imagery on his website. It’s a bit reminiscent of The Right Stuff but it works to a point. I think the colour version works better than the b/w ad in the paper. It’s too busy and loses it’s effectiveness of it being a team or community in b/w. Women are drawn to imagery that either connotates a team or community feel or they are drawn to imagery that shows close ups of people’s faces. The PC ad with Lord is certainly noticeable, but I find it’s too much in your face and not an appealing photo (no offense Mr. Lord;)). They both took different approaches with their copy as well. Graham’s copy is 3rd person (from the team) is specific in relation to energy, that the “PC’s have wasted 2.2 billion on the Orimulsion fiasco.” Which by the way most women are not receptive to that form of competitive put-down marketing.  He engages in “report talk” rather than “rapport talk” The PC Ad does a better attempt with the rapport talk as he uses the first person voice, the only problem, is that it’s too vague. The PC headline “Getting results for our children, families and seniors.” catches my attention, fits my demographic. The Liberal headline “Shawn Graham will make New Brunswick an energy leader”, yes it has my attention too, as certainly energy is important and definitely one of my “causes” but as the main leading headline, not as effective as the PC ad in that the PC ad hit on children and families, my critical focus for me.

So visually overall, I think the PC ad is more effective (although I think using a different image would have been better). In fact if you took the imagery (community/team feeling works) from the Liberal ad, combined it with the feel of the copy from the PC Ad. Keep the third person “we”, but give it a more personal touch, provide some facts and stay away from the competitive put-downs. Then I think it would have been a very effective ad. And yes colour ads are more effective, although more costly as well.

So what does this mean bottom line. I think it means that more people will be drawn visually to the PC ad then the Liberal ad regardless of where their loyalties lie.

And maybe I missed it (and if I did, that says something too about it’s effectiveness of reach), but was there an NDP ad?

So how much of a difference does an ad make? How much of a difference overall to their campaign will it matter which ad or marketing campaign, I prefer more? Will their signage that is just starting to be distributed all over town make a difference? How much do I trust the print media in NB which is essentially Irving owned? (another issue altogether). How does the every day person find out the election facts or will old engrained, pre-conceived and yes quite possibly false and ill informed info be my deciding factor. How much does my vote count? Who’s going to win my vote?

I contacted the NB Liberal Women’s association trying to find out the stats on the number of female voters in NB and to what degree they market to Women. I’ve heard nothing back from them as of yet. The PC group doesn’t have a link on their website anymore, so I may drop in to the campaign office near me and ask them. However, Rosella Melanson of the Advisory Council on the Status of Women did respond. She said that there were no recent studies with regards to woman voters, but that it is thought that they vote as often as men. She did say that very little of the political marketing is geared to women, even when it is known that undecided voters are mostly women.

I found this article from 2000 that she wrote that discusses some of these issues, albeit a bit outdated.

The people most likely to be influenced by a political campaign are the undecided. Women make up 66 per cent of the undecided vote in this federal election. Yet, it seems no party is making a pitch for women’s vote.

<<--snip-->>

Faced with such a lack of choice, many women may not vote, leaving men to have a disproportionate influence on the outcome. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain for four years, I figure.

In light of that (I want to have a reason to complain, so I have to vote;)), I see that both the PC’s and the Liberals now have some of their ad campaign up on their website including a youtube video from Shawn Graham, not a bad marketing idea Shawn. Makes it easier for us bloggers to share with everyone. Of course the first words out of his mouth are his branded negative put down marketing. He focuses on the orimulsion fiasco, and the rest of the ad isn’t bad, but I still think that he needs to have other emphasis in his ad campaign and I assume he will. Graham’s constant put-down marketing really bothers me, which means it bothers other potential voters as well (many of them women). He has a whole page on his website dedicated to it, called Tory watch. When I think Graham, I instantly hear in my head, all the radio and news clips of him saying what the PC’s aren’t doing. This election campaign is no different, his radio, tv and newspaper ads all start out with the tell tale Orimulsion fiasco. Tell me (or better yet, show me) what you will do for me as a citizen in NB, and let that speak for itself against the PC’s. I don’t need you to tattle on the PC’s for what they’ve done to the province. I also hope that he will have other ads besides energy ads. Energy is important and I care about the cost of my power bill, but I want to hear more. Yes, he’s talking increased daycare spots, autism support, and I know that because I’ve read the paper and listened to the news on the radio, but the ads are supposed to be influencing me, and so far they’re not.

See I told you, I’d innundate you with youtube video;)

The PC ad (radio, not youtube) is not bad. It’s positive, covers a lot of area and is almost convincing. And maybe that’s partly because he’s easier to listen to without seeing his face, live, full blown, etc.

A quick side note. I think the liberal website is by far the most informative and well laid out. Followed by the PC website and last the NDP website. The NDP website is terrible, difficult to read and does not have much information on it. 78% of women use the internet to research their choices in decisions they make. The more informative a site is, the more they are likely to trust the source. It’s the first thing I did when I went looking for information about the candidates, hit their websites. The PC website has too much of Lord’s face plastered all over it again. It may sound trivial, but it’s part of branding, and seeing him reinforces to me the branding he’s created with me, which is why I found his radio ad more effective. He’s also jumped on the negative band wagon with the liberal reality check. A lot of the articles are pdf files and a bit annoying to load them all if you want to read them. Overall, I’d rate the liberal website the winner here.

The truth is, I don’t like Shawn Graham. I don’t like Bernard Lord. I don’t dislike Allison Brewer. Do I know any of them personally . . . no. My perceptions of them are based from many experiences, tidbits heard in the news, read in the paper, and other media venues. I’m sure they are all very nice people, and it’s not that I don’t like them per se, it’s who they have branded themselves to be to me. Which is why I think waiting until election time to suddenly make promises, or kiss the babies so to speak is too late. The only reason it’s different with Allison Brewer is because I haven’t been exposed to her as much in the media and so the branding is weak.

Truthfully, and anyone who reads my blog knows, my views are probably more in line with the NDP. Does that mean I’m voting for Allison Brewer? Not likely (nor do I know of a candidate in my area as of yet). As Spinks said in a comment somewhere, the NDP in NB is a fringe party and while I may support many of their issues, I don’t believe in their ability to actually win. I know, it’s a catch 22, how can they win if people like myself won’t support them. Am I showing less integrity by voting for someone else. It’s reality. It’s why I think for the most part, politics, voting, etc. is all a sham. And not only that, I’m not really voting for Brewer, Graham or Lord. I have to decide between T.J. Burke and Mike Smith. That’s something I completely don’t understand. What if Mike Smith will provide the better choice for my neighborhood but I want the liberals to win the election?

I’m feeling it already, the voter apathy. I feel this every time it’s election time. No Clear choices, despite what the NDP may have in their tagline.  

I mentioned the other day that I wanted to start a regular weekly post about people I know that I think are inspirations. I don’t have a set criteria. They’re just people who may be friends or who have influenced me, but they are all people I know in real life, and for the next little while, all Fredericton related stories.

The first in my story is my dear friend Barbara J Gill. I’ve known Barb for a couple of years now and consider her one of my angels who watch over me. I consider her story an inspiration because she’s someone I admire. Barb just recently published two books. Her primary book Soul Gifts: The World’s Self Help Book is a book that explores life through Barb’s eyes and experiences. You can’t help but grow as you read it, knowing that Barb and others have grown along the way. She struggled as a single mother, struggled with Cancer, as a palliative care nurse, a successful events plannning business, a writer, a poet. Barb has worn many hats over the years, but the one that she truly embraces is her caring for everyone. Barb has brought me warm home cooked meals when she knew I was working all the time. She reminds me with her voice of experience about the risk of working too much and burn out. I watch her follow her path in life and know that I have learned so much from her. We are all fortunate that she has shared so much with us in her book. She covers a broad range of topics that on their own wouldn’t seem related, but she ties them all together under the umbrella of humanity. Agent orange, Native American philosophy, American and Canadian politics, cancer, music, art, WWII, spiritualism, mystique, evil, alternative health, poetry and more. It’s not a book read lightly, but one that makes you look carefully at your own life and for Barb to share the vulnerable aspects in her life through the book is a gift to all of us.

Her other book Soul Rubbing Exercises: A Personal Vision Quest is the companion book to Soul Gifts and is for those who enjoy self-exploration. All part of growth. It encourages you to look at yourself and your life and see how the connection to all is made.

Barb’s poetry is scattered throughout the book as vignettes of life and reflection. Some of the stories/poetry evoke a strong emotion, dark, others are light and fill of wistfullness.

July’s Child

Desperate woman
birthing rejection.

Child left to be found
in a campground washroom.

“Mother Mother
where are you

the basins are slimy
with soap
you’ve left me
bloody and hungry
like the blue-bloated slug
on the floor scrubbed with lye

Mother Mother
are you dying too?”

Midnight Mating on the Salmon River

Screeches
reached moonlight
spotlight loons skirting
the black river’s ballroom,
skimming the surface
like a flat stone skips;

I watched
water and wings
dance duet.

And like many talented people with multiple gifts, she is also an artist. Much of her artwork inspired by her experiences, such as cancer. She references them in Soul Gifts, but you can see a sampling of her artwork and photos related to the book at flickr.

Barb’s official launch for her books is this weekend at Hopewell Cape as part of the Chocolate River Poetry Festival, Augst 26th and 27th at 1:00 pm at the High Tide Cafe, in Hopewell Cape Provincial Park. Having just recently camped there, I know it’s a beautiful spot and can’t think of a better place for poets, writers, readers, fans and everyone alike to gather.

When we take responsibility for our choices, and consciously work towards balance, life improves. - Barbara J. Gill

Thank you Barb for all you have given me and are now giving to everyone, and yes, you can drop off a home cooked meal to my doorstep any time;)