Election campaign a balancing act for young families

Mounting a political campaign takes time and effort but so does having a small child.

Some candidates in the coming election are taking on both.

Nicole Sarauer, the NDP candidate for Regina Douglas Park, said her life has changed a lot since her last campaign four years ago — she wasn’t even dating anyone in 2016. Now she has a partner and a 14-month-old girl at home.

“My life has changed exponentially since the last election, and sure, it’s a little bit more difficult this time around. I have more responsibilities than I did last time, I have different priorities than I did last time but I have a very supportive partner and supportive extended family who are helping out a lot right now,” said Sarauer.

She said she still gets to see her daughter off to daycare in the morning and then head out to campaign.

Sarauer said having a child has changed her perspective on a few things. She said she understood the issues before, but now she can relate.

“Some of the challenges that folks are facing like access to affordable daycare and the concerns about our classrooms are hitting home in a way that it didn’t hit home before,” said Sarauer.

Some candidates have their kids helping out with door-knocking and putting up signs, but Sarauer said her daughter hasn’t been put to work just yet.

“I think I would have to spend more time chasing her around than I would actually having a conversation with anyone,” said Sarauer, laughing.

Sask. Party candidate runs flexible schedule

On the other side of the aisle, one of the only Saskatchewan Party candidates with very small children is Dustin Duncan. He has three of them — boys aged six and three along with a girl born just a year and a half ago.

Environment Minister Dustin Duncan (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

Duncan said the most important thing is keeping things as normal as possible for the kids.

“(I) try to just be flexible with my schedule so that, for as much as possible, it’s not all on my wife in terms of looking after the kids and helping out at home, and getting our oldest son to school and things like that,” said Duncan.

His family lives in Regina but his constituency is Weyburn-Big Muddy, so it can take a lot of driving to get around to the voters. But Duncan said that makes scheduling all the more important so he can be home when he needs to be.

“I’m there when the kids wake up in the morning, I’m there at 3 a.m. when our little one wakes up and wants to crawl into Mom and Dad’s bed,” said Duncan.

The kids are still young enough that they don’t quite know what’s going on yet.

“I tried to explain to our six-year-old kind of what the election is all about and I’m not sure how much of it he really yet understands. I’m kind of waiting for the Paw Patrol election episode. Hopefully that’ll come out because then I’m sure he’ll get it,” said Duncan.