Step 2: Approaching candidates

Answer

Approaching the candidates is the main (and most fun!) part of the toolkit. Remember that our goal is to push all parties to raise their health care commitments, so do your best to approach all the candidates in your riding. 

Feel free to provide the candidates with a link or printout of the Six Solutions handout. Following this section, you will find the questions for candidates alongside some helpful framing information. 

Four ideas for how to engage your candidates

  1. Meet with the candidates. Contact candidate campaigns and request an in-person or virtual meeting with the candidate. At the meeting, let the candidate know you are part of the BC Health Coalition’s campaign to secure health care commitments from all parties and you’ll be reporting back on their answers. Some candidates may be pressed for time, so do your best to move quickly through the questions. It’s a good idea to ask them for their staff to get back to you with written responses to all the questions. You can do this by yourself or organize a small group from your local campaign team to attend the meeting together. 
  2. Contact local campaigns and request written responses. If a meeting is not possible, provide candidate campaigns with the questions in writing and ask them to provide written responses. This is a great action you can take by yourself from the comfort of your home. The more people send in the same questions, the better!
  3. Attend a local all candidates meeting or debate. Connect with your local campaign team to organize a group to attend together, and either stuff the question box or split up the questions to ensure more of the questions get put to the candidates. 
  4. Find out if your local candidates will be attending any local events or making campaign announcements. Attend the events with your local campaign team and look for opportunities to ask them questions in public. Try to capture their responses on camera and share the videos with your local campaign team.

You can find out who the candidates are in your riding by referring to the Elections BC candidates list.