Thanks to everyone for sending messages of
concern and
support in response to the destruction of our office in Saanich. If you haven’t heard, a large truck lost
control and plowed into the front wall of our office. The young
man behind the
wheel of his dad’s truck has been charged.
I am just so relieved that neither he nor his passenger
were
injured. And, of course, we are all very
relieved the office was not full of people at the time. We often have late night sessions following
canvassing. Some nights twenty people
are in the office with the midnight oils burning.
We could have had serious injuries – or
worse.
The good news for those of you not familiar
with our SGI
operations is that our main office is in Sidney. The
bigger space with the storefront on a
charming pedestrian- friendly main street has always been our
headquarters.
There is no question that this has happened at
a very bad –
or at least, inconvenient – time. The
Saanich office cannot be used at the moment (check out the photo
on our SGI
website -- elizabethmay.ca
-- and
you will see why!) The office was
excellent
for organizing the nightly canvas. The
challenge is to find an alternative place for those canvasses. And, of course, the accident imposes
additional
costs. If there is no spring election,
this is a minor mishap and a headache.
If there is a spring election, it is a more serious
setback.
I am very grateful to my whole team for
mobilizing around
midnight Saturday night and all day Sunday to secure the office,
rescue
computers (all fine!), deal with the police, etc!
Both staff and volunteers were quick to
respond. In fact, one young volunteer passed the office and saw
the accident
even before we were contacted by police, and let us know. (Thanks TJ!)
If anyone across the country wants to help, we
would be
grateful for volunteers willing to phone into the riding so the
phone canvass
can help fill the gap while we are challenged to run the foot
canvass. (just
email [email protected]
and
let us know if you can put in a few hours a week to help and we
will get you
trained and set up!)
Thanks again for all your support!