Candidates already getting the word out

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This article was published 09/08/2011 (5496 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While the lazy days of summer still have a firm hold on residents of the Wheat City, the half-dozen men running in this fall’s provincial election are not relaxing in their own yards, but are instead out visiting the doorsteps of others.

With approximately three weeks to go before the expected provincial election call, party-elected candidates in the constituencies of Brandon West and Brandon East have ramped up their pre-campaign door-knocking, trying to get their name out as best they can prior to the election writ being dropped.

During this, the province’s first fixed-date election, the earliest the writ can be dropped is Aug. 30 and the latest it can be dropped is Sept. 6.

George Buri, the Liberal Party candidate in Brandon West, said it’s his goal to visit as many of the approximately 10,000 households in the constituency as he can before and during the campaign period.

"I want to make a lot of contact, talk to a lot of people, go to all of the forums that I’m invited to and just see what happens," he said. "I’m sensing there’s a desire for some change. I’m telling them that it’s time to choose Liberal, that it’s a good idea to have Liberals in the legislature and have three healthy parties in the legislature. I’m getting a positive response from people … I have a good feeling about things."

In speaking with residents, Buri said he has heard a desire for government to improve road infrastructure and expand educational opportunities both in the public system and at the post-secondary level.

But by and large, he said, people want to talk about health care.

"One senior was telling me he doesn’t really want to sit in a doctor’s office for three hours, waiting to be seen. I think, with our system the way it is, it seems to be kind of bogged down and we need more frontline services," he said. "We need to improve access to health care and we need to cut some of the bureaucracy that’s going on in our system."

Jim Murray, the constituency’s NDP candidate, says his small group of about six volunteers helping him to canvass the area five nights a week has allowed him to visit more than 450 residences so far this summer.

Because he is a school division trustee, Murray says many people have wanted to discuss education as well as health-care issues.

"I think once that you let people know what’s been going on and what this government has done in health care, then a lot of people are very impressed with that," he said.

Other than the odd dissenter who has wanted to argue about the contentious Bipole III Manitoba Hydro development, Murray said residents of Brandon West have been telling him they are happy with the government of Premier Greg Selinger.

"What I’ve been hearing from a lot of people is that they’re happy with what’s been happening in the province in the last while," he said.

"I’m getting a really good feeling from this. When I went into this originally, I had no idea what to expect. But Premier Selinger’s popularity has soared in the last while and I’m not hearing people saying they want change at the doorsteps. People are satisfied with what’s been happening."

But Reg Helwer, the constituency’s Progressive Conservative candidate, says he has heard quite the opposite.

He said quite a few of the people he has been chatting up say they are ready for a change.

"Certainly, they want to see the government change. They’re tired of it," he said.

While many people have had individual issues on which they’ve have been bending Helwer’s ear, one topic that seems to be coming up again and again is crime, he said.

"Certainly, what I’m getting from the doorsteps is that what’s reported in the media is not what they’re experiencing and what their fears are," Helwer said.

"Obviously, the things they are reading about in Winnipeg concern them — the biker wars and such — and everyone has a friend or has had their own experience of having their vehicles stolen in Winnipeg over the past few years."

In Brandon East, PC candidate Mike Waddell says he has also been hearing loud and clear that people are concerned about crime and public safety.

"Crime has been a huge discussion point on the doorstep," he said.

"One individual who I chatted with initially during the 2007 (provincial election) campaign has been waiting for what they would have called ‘justice’ for a family member and they still haven’t seen it yet because it’s still going through the court. That was a very long and very pointed discussion just a couple of nights back when we were door-knocking."

In addition, Waddell said he has heard many comments from residents who are simply happy he is running again.

"The number of people that are excited that we’re trying this back to back and that we’re going to at least give it a good, hard try to bring change to Brandon East … there’s just a ton of people, once they twig to the fact that there’s an election this fall, that they go, ‘Yes, Mike. We need change in Brandon East."

Meanwhile, Drew Caldwell, the constituency’s incumbent NDP MLA, says he and his canvassing team have been to several hundred doorsteps over the past several weeks and he has had many conversations on his government’s record of investment in Brandon.

"The electorate is very aware that the regional health centre has been built by this NDP government and the CancerCare centre, in particular, because everybody has been touched by cancer, literally," he said.

"That has been the most common comment on the doorstep, but I’ve had comments on the skate park, on ACC, the Sportsplex.

"People are aware of our record and they’re also very aware that the opposition have opposed all these investments in Brandon."

While he said that door-knocking is certainly a large part of his campaign personally, Caldwell said he has been in a slightly different position than his opponents this summer because he’s still got to be an MLA each day.

"I’m elected to build this community and we do that every single day here," he said.

"Really, my job is to build Brandon and to work with people who need assistance. That’s really what I do."

Brandon East’s Liberal candidate, Shaun Cameron, says while he’s still finalizing his campaign literature and getting his volunteer team in place, he has been able to visit in the range of 150 to 200 homes so far this summer.

"A lot of (the conversation) so far has been about the lack of sustainable housing and crime is always a big issue, no matter where you are, in terms of how to effectively deal with it," he said.

"Hopefully, each door that I’m getting to, I’m a little better than I was at the last one as far as being able to offer those talking points to people."

Juggling his fall election campaign with his soon-to-be expanding family — he’s expecting his second child in December — will be a bit tricky, Cameron noted, but he said he has "never been one to shy away from a challenge."

"People I’ve been talking to definitely feel it’s a party headed in the right direction," he said.

"We definitely have to build on a foundation, first of all with the membership, but it’s a new voice and it’s a fresh voice in a place that’s been so hardcore NDP for so long.

"My goal is to be myself and, hopefully, that will carry me through."

Manitobans go to the polls on Oct.4.