Key Positions for Your Campaign Team

While the following functions are needed, multiple functions may be handled by the same person.

• Official Agent

• You must name an official agent when registering as a candidate at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels. This person is responsible for keeping track and submitting expenses and contributions to the Chief Electoral Officer.
   

• Campaign Manager

• Your Campaign Manager will oversee your campaign team and ensure that the campaign runs as smoothly as possible by directing the candidate’s daily activities. Your campaign manager may also act as your channel to the party and the riding association.
   

• Communications Coordinator

• Ideally, your campaign manager will be someone with political experience who you respect and get along with, who can give you both praise and criticism, is trustworthy, and has good organizational and people skills.
• Your Communications Coordinator will arrange appointments for media interviews and prepare news releases and article submissions for newspapers, radio, and television, in conjunction with the candidate, campaign manager, and researcher. They also design and schedule advertising, including through the campaign’s website, and monitor and support the candidate’s social media accounts.
   

• Finance Coordinator/Fundraiser

• Working closely with your Official Agent, your Financial Coordinator is responsible for bookkeeping, must be familiar with the rules associated with campaign expenses and, depending on the size of your campaign, may conduct fundraising. They should be a thorough record keeper and, if possible, have connections, especially regarding potential funding sources.
• It is often suggested that fundraising activities should be completed even before an election campaign is called.
   

• Researcher/Information Officer

• Your Research/Information Officer will locate material on issues important to your constituency, your party, and your campaign, and monitor newspaper stories relevant to your campaign. They may also assist in writing background material for speeches, public forums and debates, news releases, and pamphlets. This person often works with your databases to identify the vote as well as supporters who want to volunteer or put a sign on their lawn.
   

• Volunteer Coordinator

• Your Volunteer Coordinator will recruit, manage, and look after your election campaign volunteers. They train and assign volunteers to tasks and often look after scheduling. In most cases, this person will also recruit drivers with vehicles who can volunteer on Election Day.
  The Volunteer Coordinator sometimes also acts as the Canvassing Coordinator.
   

• Canvassing Coordinator

• Your Canvassing Coordinator will find and assign volunteers to canvass households in the polling district, door-to-door or by telephone, and strategically plan when and where to canvass.
• They may also develop a canvassing script with the communications team.
• The coordinator collects the information gathered by canvassers and consults with the campaign team about updating databases and planning follow-up actions.
   

• Canvassers

• The main goal of canvassing is to identify your voters and get them to cast their ballot. Canvassers identify where campaign signs can be placed and whether supporters are willing to volunteer. They share information about advance polling opportunities and ask whether supportive voters need a ride to an advance poll or on Election Day.
   

• Campaign Headquarters Office Manager

• Your Campaign Headquarters Office Manager will look after campaign headquarters, including replenishing office supplies. They often welcome guests and volunteers, and answer and retrieve messages from the main phone line.
• Depending on the structure of your campaign, they may maintain a database or voter lists for your campaign, important in identifying your supporters and getting the vote out.
   

• Poll Coordinator

• Your Poll Coordinator is responsible for finding a poll captain and scrutineers, the volunteers who watch the counting of the ballots, for each electoral or polling district for polling day. They also call in final numbers to the campaign headquarters as they become available on Election Day for an unofficial tally of votes.
   

• Election Day Coordinator

• Your Election Day Coordinator will organize the scrutineers’ Election Day schedules, organize drivers and day care for voters who need them, post polling results in the campaign headquarters as they become available, and organize the post-election party for the evening of polling day.