
Normally, they're suit-and-tie and pencil-skirt clad Parliament Hill staffers, but for the past few weeks they've been jeans-wearing, coffee-swilling, even more BlackBerry-addicted campaigners, who are getting their hands dirty in this federal election, some working 12 hours a day, six days a week, eating crappy food on the fly, door-knocking, digging up dirt, writing, researching, hanging signs, and scheduling media calls, and sometimes with no pay.

Normally, they're suit-and-tie and pencil-skirt clad Parliament Hill staffers, but for the past few weeks they've been jeans-wearing, coffee-swilling, even more BlackBerry-addicted campaigners, who are getting their hands dirty in this federal election, some working 12 hours a day, six days a week, eating crappy food on the fly, door-knocking, digging up dirt, writing, researching, hanging signs, and scheduling media calls, and sometimes with no pay.