Candidates campaigning in rural prairie ridings won’t likely be making fashion statements this winter as they bundle up in boots and toques and pray they don’t slide off an icy road.
Then again, they might not have to worry about wardrobe or winter roads if they’re relying on websites and other media to get their information out to voters.
Many candidates have either their own website or a page on their party’s site. Some are keeping voters apprised through daily diaries or blogs. Others are relying on more traditional media.
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Bill Caton, the Liberal candidate in the huge Cypress Hills-Grasslands riding of southwestern Saskatchewan, said he is issuing News release
newss to the approximately 10 weekly newspapers in the area and will be booking radio ads.
He also has a website.
“I mostly just have it there so they can find out what I’m thinking.”
Caton said the roads haven’t been too bad but he doesn’t plan to go knocking on doors in the riding, which measures 340 kilometres by 280 km at its widest point.
Caton was the candidate in 2004, too, and he thinks most people know who he is because he spent much of that campaign in the communities meeting people.
“Most voters are listening to the leaders,” he said of this go-round. “They will make their decisions there.”
Despite his decision not to go door knocking and his belief that computer technology is the communication of the future, Caton isn’t sure how many rural people are seeking their election information on-line.
High-speed access is not available in all parts of the southwest, including Caton’s ranch, and the slowness of dial-up might limit rural residents’ use of the internet.
Finance minister Ralph Goodale, a veteran of the last winter campaign, in 1979-80, said technology is a tool that can make a big difference in getting a message out.
“With the use of telephonics and the use of the internet, actually communication now is less dependent on weather conditions than it used to be,” he said at his kick-off news conference.
Despite the hassle of winter, he said there is no substitute for meeting with voters face-to-face.
“And if it’s 30 below or 40 below in 2005, it’s just about the same as 30 below in 1979, so you put on the extra load of underwear and get out there and knock on doors,” said the Liberal candidate in Wascana.
Bob Senff, running for the NDP in Brandon-Souris, said he cut short his door-to-door efforts due to the biting cold and blizzard-like conditions that hit parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba last week.
He had to take a run at a snow bank blocking the end of his acreage driveway so that he could get out of his yard.
“I had some fun getting out,” he said with a laugh.
He isn’t worried about getting stuck while out campaigning in his riding. There are lots of tractors around to pull him out.
“In reality, snow is good,” he observed. “It just makes it inconvenient.”
This is the teacher’s first experience as a candidate and he said while computers and cell phones do make communication easier, he wants and needs to get out and meet constituents.
“Many people still out in the rural areas aren’t into e-mail and blogging.”
