Some sales pitches better than others

Apparently Mayor Peter Milobar is unimpressed with my newspaper-hawking abilities. Which is fine, because the feeling is mutual. He apparently made a comment to a local TV station disparaging my sales technique in flogging The Daily News on downtown streets Wednesday morning as we collected donations for Raise a Reader.

His motivation, I assume, was to leave the impression that he’s a better salesperson than I am, but in fact he’s probably not used to actually working for a living, and I’m pretty sure I collected more than he did.

I’m kidding, of course. Actually, Coun. Marg Spina is the one who can upsell. While the mayor and I were bringing in toonies and loonies, she was raking in 10- and 20-dollar bills. 

All for a good cause, and lots of fun. Our City councillors (Milobar, Spina, Dennis Walsh and Nancy Bepple), and MP Cathy McLeod, deserve kudos for hitting the sidewalks bright and early to support it. In fact, McLeod and Milobar teamed up on Victoria Street for awhile starting at around 6:30 a.m., proving that local and federal politicians can co-operate.

The total effort brought in more than $4,000 in sales of the special edition of The Daily News, which parlays into more than $40,000 when matching sponsor and government contributions are added in. Every penny of which goes to literacy projects right here in Kamloops.