Negative
attacks
“If you haven't got anything nice to
say about anybody come sit next to me.”
― Alice Roosevelt Longworth
When you start talking to the owners you need to classify the voters
into five categories:
1. Those who will vote for you.
2. Those who will vote for your opponent.
3. Those who will vote against your opponent.
4. Those who will vote against you.
5. Those who not vote at all.
So the trick is to retain all of your voter support, minimize those who
will vote against you, increase the voters who will vote against your
opponent and urge the non-voters to vote for you.
Negative
campaigning
Attracting voters by telling them all the good things you will do is
difficult as there is a only a limited number of promises you can make.
Besides the voters may find "positive campaigning" boring. After a
while so do the campaigners.
Also you may not want to tell them that you plan to raise the condo
fees or levy a special assessment or shutdown the illegal rooming
houses and short-term rental units. You want to save those surprises
until after you get elected.
Collecting proxies can be a lot more effective when you attack the
incumbents record. Saying that the reserves are empty, the hallways are
dirty and the hot water risers leak are valid points that should be
raised.
Attacking the
person
“I always cheer up immensely if an
attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack
one personally, it means they have not a single political argument
left.”
—Margaret Thatcher
This too is fair game as long as you stick to the facts. If you say
that a director parks his car in the visitors' parking lot and she
never gets parking tickets, it helps if you have photos of her car in
the lot at the same time as other residents' cars are parked beside
hers and they have parking tickets on their windshields while her car
does not. She can't argue against that.
You can fairly argue that the incumbents are hiding information because
they will not allow you to examine the corporation's records after you
have properly asked to see them and you were refused access. You have
copies of your requests as proof.
Crossing the line
It is wrongful to tell the owners that the incumbents are taking
kickbacks from the contractors if you do not have any proof that will
stand up in civil or criminal court. If you have proof, great. Take it
to the police and request that they lay charges.
You must not utter ethnic, racial or religious slurs. Appeals to vote
for your own kind are disgusting. In a perfect world, such appeals
should cost you your neighbours' respect along with their votes.
If you have strong suspicions that your property manager is living with
the contractor who wins all the contracts in your building and the
manager is the only one who puts the three tenders out for quotes, then
get evidence that they live together. If you have to, hire a private
detective to get you proof. That would not be too expensive to arrange.
Hell, I’d kick in a few bucks for that. All condo owners win when we
flush a crook out of the industry.
Otherwise, keep these suspicions to yourself.
Defamation
Slander and libel can result in you being sued either in Small Claims
Court or in Superior Court. (It depends on the amount of the claimed
damages.)
Here is an excellent article on a situation where a condo owner sued a director for a libelous campaign leaflet and the director responded with a counter suit for libel printed on the requisition form. Both sides won $1,000 and to pay their own costs.
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