[NatureNS] Dealing with politicians

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Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:47:10 -0300
From: Doug Linzey <doug@fundymud.com>
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Warning: This is not strictly natural history-related, but it does apply 
to most of us in an election period.

Candidates will always ask you about your concerns. Don't tell them. 
Whatever you say, they'll feed right back to you.

Rather, tell them that  in order to decide whom to vote for you have to 
know what their concerns and interests are. Your own opinions are 
irrelevant when it comes to judging the candidates until you know what 
they really stand for.

I have two standard questions for candidates: What are the three (or 
four or five) issues ofmost concern to you in this riding? and What are 
the three issues of most concern to you facing the country? Once they've 
answered these questions, you can feel free to get into a discussion 
about anything.

If you want to know if a candidate is interested in the environment, for 
example, you won't really know unless you ask these sorts of questions 
first. If the candidate knows right off the bat that this is your 
primary concern, guess what? You have an instant friend.

One other point is that if the candidate starts to offer the party 
platform or complain about the other parties, my response is, "No, I'm 
familiar with your party's stand on things. What I want to know is your 
own position." Likewise, if a handler tries to answer my questions, I 
just say I'd prefer to hear directly from the candidate, thank you.

Doug Linzey

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