My first week or so on Alexa’s campaign was as a telephone and foot canvasser. I was enjoying every minute of it. The NDP were doing amazingly well in Atlantic Canada, so the reception on the phone and at the door was incredibly positive. And with popularity came a huge demand for Alexa lawn signs.The problem though, was our sign chair. He was inefficient and definitely didn’t take direction from our campaign manager very well. Joanne McNiven – at the time, the best campaign manager in the country – was not happy.

One morning, on my way to the telephone bank to do some calling Joanne called me over and said she had an assignment for me. My job was to ensure the sign chair put up all the signs she wanted on a daily basis, and that I had to report to her at the end of each day on our progress.

It took several days, but I got him on track.

Unbeknownst to me, I had caught the attention of two key figures in the campaign. Two weeks before Election Day, I was given a new task: organize the Election Night Victory Party. The tradition for most leaders/parties – to this day – is that election night venues would be in each political leader’s riding.

This meant that once the venue was chosen, I liaised with the national media, helped chose the audio/visual team, worked with the hotel on all logistics around the event, coordinated volunteers to be ushers and security, and kept the campaign team updated at all times. I was in my element. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Election night, June 2, 1997, the NDP went from nine seats (and no official party status) to 21 seats, including a historic six seats in Nova Scotia and two in New Brunswick. To understand the significance of these victories, it is important to point out that the NDP had only elected three MPs from the region since its inception in 1961.

The morning after, I headed back into the campaign office to help with the teardown. I had worked enough campaigns to know that win or lose, no one shows up the next morning, and we had a campaign space that took up two floors!

At the end of that day, as I headed out, one of Alexa’s closest and longest friends called me over and asked some questions…

Why did I come in that day? To help with teardown, I said. I know no one shows up the next day.

What were my plans moving forward? I noted that I was in between jobs and was about to resume my job search, now that campaign was over.

Would I be interested in a six-week contract to help open Alexa’s first federal constituency office? When the shock wore off, I said that I’d be honoured. The last person I thought they would trust with such a critical job was a former Liberal!

The campaign team had found a temporary location and transferred the campaign phone number to it, so that we could start handling casework before the House of Commons had time to help us set up. Within days I along with another temporary colleague began dealing with casework, outreach, media and the barrage of invitations coming in for the new Halifax MP.

Several weeks into this temporary job, I was told that Alexa wanted to share space for her permanent constituency office with the provincial NDP Member (MLA) for Halifax Fairview, Eileen O’Connell. Halifax Fairview had been Alexa’s provincial riding before she jumped to federal politics. That severely restricted the geographic area that was both in Halifax Fairview and the federal riding of Halifax.

Sometime down the road, I’ll share the story of how that constituency office came to be. But I do want to share one small part of that adventure. We had established that we needed – if my recollection serves me correctly – six phone lines and one fax line. I got to chose those numbers. 28 years later, the number I chose as the main line is still the Halifax constituency office’s current main number today.

By September, my six-week contract had been extended on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. I had, in the meantime, interviewed for constituency jobs in the other three metro MPs’ offices, but had not heard back. To be honest, I was strongly urged to apply even though I thought that it would spell trouble for an NDP MP to hire a former Liberal, when party members had worked tirelessly, election after election, to get to this point.

So, as we headed into the Labour Day weekend, I sent a message to Alexa’s Director of Operations, that since my contract was over, I would come in the following week to train the person replacing me on a permanent basis. On the Tuesday morning after Labour Day, as I laid under a desk screwing in the L-joint to the oak desk we had brought over from the campaign while we waited for money from the House of Commons to order permanent furniture, Alexa walked in looking for me.

I could see here shoes as she stood in front of the desk saying “Anthony, get up. Congrats, you got the job.” I almost hit my head under the desk, excited that I got a job in one the three offices to which I had applied. She reached out and gave me a hug, laughing while she said that she had hired me.

My response was “no”. She looked so confused. I told her that the party membership would flip if they knew their leader hired a former Liberal while they had spent decades trying to get to this point. She told me that all three MPs that interviewed me, had called her to say she would be crazy not to hire me, that she trusted their judgement, that she believed in merit-based hiring, and that I was clearly most qualified to work in her office. I had tears in my eyes.

And so began my 10 years with Alexa and 28 years with the NDP.

Over time, I will come back to share some of the amazing adventures with a woman who had been at the outset, a political icon, but who became a mentor and the most influential person in my life responsible for my move to Ottawa in 2000, and meeting the man who remains today, my absolute everything.

In my next post, I will jump to my last 14 years of experience as a Lobby office/coordinator for the NDP Whip.