Candidates hit the streets for weekend of campaigning
- The Standard (St. Catharines)
- PETER DOWNS Standard Staff pdowns@stcatharinesstandard.ca
She may be new to politics, but Sandie Bellows has already figured out a couple of things about pounding the pavement on the campaign trail.
Staying fresh on your feet on the door-knocking rounds requires multiple footwear changes, the St. Catharines Progressive Conservative candidate has learned.
Bellows was relying on a pair of open-toed wedges Saturday afternoon as she and a team of volunteers canvassed the area where she grew up in the city’s north end.
But she also had a pair of running shoes along with her and a set of shoes with a lowrise wedged heel.
“I rotate all of them,” she said, while knocking on doors in the area of Richelieu Dr. and Niagara St.
“We’re putting a lot of miles on this body. It’s not killing me, though.”
The writ dropped Wednesday for the Oct. 6 provincial election, making this past weekend the first official one of the campaign.
But local candidates said they’ve been actively gearing up for the election for the past several weeks.
“The reception has been fantastic,” Bellows said.
“People like that you stop and talk to them. Even if they don’t like your platform, they’re just happy you’re there to listen.”
While bad blood has already boiled over for candidates running in other parts of the province, St. Catharines candidates reached by The Standard said the mood is much more genial locally.
“St . Catharines has had a tradition over the years of avoiding that ( bad blood),” St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley said in a phone interview Saturday, after hitting the streets of Port Dalhousie with his campaign team.
“I think it ’s important to have a good debate on the issues, not on personalities.”
Bradley, a veteran of at least 10 campaigns since first being elected in 1977, noted he’s been friends for many years with Bellows and her family.
“We’re friends at the start of the campaign and we’ll be friends at the end of the campaign,” he said.
Neither Bradley or Bellows were planning to do any door knocking on Sunday, opting instead to get out to meet prospective voters at various community events.
“ The intensity will pick up as the election gets closer,” Bradley said.
“ The public is partially engaged right now, but very understandably they have a lot of other things on their minds.”
Communist Party candidate Saleh Waziruddin didn’t get out on the campaign trail over the weekend, but said his message of cutting corporate tax cuts and directing more dollars to health-care has been well received at the door.
“Corporate tax cuts are the root cause of limited resources for hospitals,” he maintained.
The riding’ s other candidates — Irene Lowell of the New Democratic Party, Jennifer Mooradian of the Green party and Dave Unrau of the Freedom Party — could not be reached over the weekend.
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