THE CALGARY HERALD, August 3, 1971

Peter Lougheed took a rest from fighting issues and wooing voters Saturday, but he didn’t get much of a holiday.

While most citizens relaxed in vacation lands during the holiday weekend, the provincial Conservative leader hop-scotched across Calgary in an open convertible for personal glimpses of the party’s campaign headquarters in 11 city ridings.

Despite the holiday and hot, muggy weather, scores of local party workers clustered at each point to shake hands with their beaming leader and report on campaign efforts within the riding.

VISITS BRIEF

The visits were brief, as the three-man Lougheed party was careful not to fall too far behind the tight schedule and keep workers elsewhere waiting.

A five-minute talk on the overall campaign to date (“It’s been absolutely buoyant”), some anecdotes, a glance at the coloured-in street maps of the riding, a quick huddle with the candidate and Mr. Lougheed was off for the next headquarters.

“You can’t be a remote leader,” he said later. “The thing I’m looking for at each place is the sparkle — I’ve been through enough campaigns to know when it’s there.”

Along the route Lougheed’s message to the party faithful seldom varied — keep up the fight and don’t forget you’re working for a “tremendous candidate.”

OUTDOORS SETTINGS

Campaign organizers were told to schedule events for the outdoors in settings which would involve the whole family.

At Roy Farran’s Calgary-North Hill base Mr. Lougheed drank two glasses of ginger ale and chatted with ladies, admired a small poodle wearing a coat with Lougheed markings at Fred Peacock’s Calgary-Currie centre and jumped on a table to speak in Bill Dickie’s trailer in Calgary-Glenmore.

One minor snag was that at times he had problems putting names to the familiar faces encountered throughout the city, something to avoid in a trip designed to send morale sky high.

GOOD VISION

“I’ve been lucky,” the Conservative leader said at one point between stops “The people at the last two ridings wore name tags, and I’ve got excellent vision.”

The crowning moment of the Lougheed tour came at the last riding, Calgary McCall, while he and candidate Alderman John Kushner stood with a group of youths listening to an outdoor rock band outside the Kushner trailer.

There he was presented with a striped necktie bearing the familiar blue and gold colors of the Conservative party.

“Now isn’t that something,” he said, and immediately put it on.