With the federal election only a few days away, PSAC members and Canadians from coast to coast to coast are thinking seriously about heading to the polls, if they haven’t voted already.
In Westman, PSAC members are helping giving local folks that extra push to the polls. In Brandon, PSAC-sponsored election coffee sleeves are hugging the take-out orders at coffee shops across the city.
Susan Norman, retired PSAC/CEIU member, spearheaded the project with the Westman Area Council. Approximately 1,500 coffee sleeves were distributed to locally owned coffee shops. The sleeves have a simple-yet-effect message reminding people to register and get out to vote on October 19.
Norman was at a meeting recently when she came up with the idea. “I had got a cup of coffee and they were doing some advertising on it and I thought, ‘oh my goodness – what a great idea!'” With Election Day on the horizon, she ran her idea past the Area Council and they decided to “run with it.”
When asked about the response from the young workers she’s found in her deliveries to coffee shops, Norman says, “They were just ecstatic! One young girl, it’s her first federal election. She’s already voted and she’s working [at the polls] on Monday.”
In addition to local coffee shops, a large delivery was made to Brandon University, where the Westman Area Council acknowledges a special push is required for many students living away from home and voting for the first time.
Norman says although their local coffee campaign is non-partisan - the black-and-white colours were chosen consciously for the sleeves - her personal purpose for being engaged and heading to the polls is, “to get rid of Harper.”
Members of the Westman Area Council are based in Brandon, Manitoba, and surrounding areas.