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In the final week of the 2005 B.C. election campaign, Angela Schira of the B.C. Federation of Labour approached a campaign strategist for the New Democratic Party for some tactical advice. Labour had a few dollars left in its advertising budget; where should it direct that money?
"I suggested to her at the time Prince George would be a helpful place," recalled Brad Zubyk, who was the NDP's director of candidate support in the campaign. "It was a place that we believed we could be competitive in and possibly take a seat."
He recounted the scene during cross-examination last November during a trial on B.C.'s election spending limits. In the end, the extra advertising didn't buy the NDP any of the three seats in Prince George, although they came close enough to make the Liberals sweat a little.
Mr. Zubyk's testimony provides a window on the co-ordinated efforts of labour and the NDP - comments that will ensure he won't be invited back to the NDP's war room any time soon.
But he wasn't there to kiss and tell: His point was that it doesn't take millions of dollars to fight an effective campaign. And it was that insight that helped shape this week's decision by Mr. Justice Frank Cole of the B.C. Supreme Court to roll back parts of the province's so-called gag law.
"I was impressed with the evidence of Mr. Zubyk," Judge Cole wrote in his 127-page decision. "I am satisfied that the spending limits allow for a modest provincial informational campaign and a reasonable electoral district informational campaign."
The case revolved around a new B.C. law that imposed an advertising spending limit of $150,000 on third parties - generally labour and business organizations - in the 60 days leading up to election day. Justice Cole concluded the province went too far, and allowed the cap to apply only during the official 28-day campaign.
His ruling opened a window for unfettered advertising by third parties until the campaign begins April 14 - unless the government is successful in its appeal in court today.
"We are hoping to get our message to the public in the next few weeks," said B.C. Teachers' Federation president Irene Lanzinger, who spearheaded the court case against the gag law. Regardless, the BCTF will spend their limit in a single week of the campaign.
If they took Mr. Zubyk's advice, the teachers would save their money in the next two weeks. He said he doesn't believe a pre-campaign spending spree will soak in.
"You would be crazy to do that ... It's just not effective," he told the court. "Research shows that people make up their mind the last seven to 10 days, so you want to get them in that window."
Mr. Zubyk has worked as a political consultant on election campaigns for left-of-centre parties for two decades: federal Liberals, provincial NDP, Vision Vancouver. "My politics are based in defeating neo-conservatives."
Yet there he was in court, squared off against the NDP's allies, the trade unions, who were fighting the Liberal government's gag law.
Mr. Zubyk, in an interview this week, was unapologetic for helping the B.C. Liberals on this one. "I agree 100 per cent with the government, the idea that money equals voice is dangerous to democracy."
His opposite number is Greg Lyle, pollster and strategist for federal and provincial Conservatives, the B.C. Liberal Party and the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association.
Mr. Lyle happens to agree with the unions who say they cannot make do with $150,000 in advertising. (The BCTF spent more than $874,000 on advertising in the 2005 election campaign.)
"In B.C., $150,000 is nothing, it's a drop in the budget," Mr. Lyle said in an interview. "It's hard for me to imagine a campaign less than $1-million."
Evidence in the trial put the price of a modest, province-wide, ad campaign using TV and newspapers over three weeks at $929,587.
But by the end of the interview, Mr. Lyle's love of the game lured him into taking the $150,000 challenge.
Not that he's in the business of advising the dozens of trade unions who have registered as third party sponsors in the coming election, but ...
"This election is going to be decided in a dozen swing ridings," he noted. The battleground of Burnaby, with four seats, would be hard to saturate with low-cost, local advertising.
But, he calculates, it would be easy to target Kamloops and Prince George, which between them offer five seats that could go either way. A couple of powerful unions, working parallel campaigns, could tilt the field for the NDP.
"Let's say CUPE takes Kamloops and the BCGEU takes Prince George. That might do it."
Best of all, the price for his advice on this one: Free.
Cost of doing business
What will $150,000 buy?
If you are advertising in B.C., not much.
In a B.C. Supreme Court challenge to the province's $150,000 election spending limits for third-party advertisers, the trial went into detail on the costs of conventional ad buys in B.C.
three-week television campaign: $643,000
three-week radio campaign: $273,000
three-week campaign in daily newspapers: $250,000
campaign in community newspapers: $340,000
four-week billboard campaign: $268,000
four-week campaign advertising on outdoor transit shelters: $151,000
four-week campaign advertising on bus exteriors: $130,000
So what's an organization to do? In a submission to the court, B.C.'s Attorney-General suggested they look to new media.
"Traditional media is a cathedral, where pronouncements are made and reinforced from on high as a means of attempting to ensure their acceptance. The modern Internet - Web 2.0 - is a bazaar: chaotic, interactive, organic ... and democratic in the sense that only those messages which are engaging are accepted."