Crunch time for candidates in final campaigning weekend

It’s crunch time for candidates in Regina ahead of the upcoming provincial election.

For candidates in Regina University, which saw Saskatchewan Party candidate Tina Beaudry-Mellor edge out NDP candidate Aleana Young by a little over 400 votes in 2016, there aren’t many votes to spare, forcing candidates to interact with their constituents as much as possible.

The weather, or being eight months pregnant like Young, is not enough to deter candidates from campaigning on the final weekend of the upcoming provincial election.

Throw in COVID-19 in the mix, and you have a very memorable election, not only for voters but for the candidates, too.

“It is a weird time to be having an election. And there are some things that are certainly different like we can’t get onto the university campus to meet with students, which is something that we would normally do,” Beaudry-Mellor said as she stood out in the cold. “Door knocking is the number one thing, and that hasn’t changed at all. And in fact, other than, you know, having to keep our distance which has sort of changed the process of it in a tiny way. This is still the most important thing.”

There has been no shortage of doors to knock on for Beaudry-Mellor, as she claims her party has knocked on thousands of doors over the last few months.

“Our campaign has done almost 25,000 doors in this campaign, I myself have done about 6000,” Beaudry-Mellor said. “This is the thing I love the most. The door-knocking part of it all. This is a great barometer of public opinion, It’s where you have the most nuanced conversations and you build relationships with your constituents.”

For candidates, it’s an opportunity to make that last-ditch effort to earn residents’ votes.

“It’s just talking to people and hearing their concerns. And whether there’s an opportunity to make those concerns realized, I think that that means a lot to people,” Beaudry-Mellor said.

Beaudry-Mellor is an avid guitar player, adding that learning to play guitar has some similarities with how candidates approach campaigning.

“It’s made up of tiny little details that you put together over time that you start to hone,” Beaudry-Mellor said. “It’s the same for sports, it’s the same for music, the tiny little details that you get better and better at over time, you sort of add your own flair to those once you get the technical part right. It takes lots of practice, time, attentiveness.

“We all sing our own song to some degree.”

Young, joined by Debbie Knill, of the Progressive Conservative party and Tanner Wallace of the Green Party will look for an opportunity to unseat Beaudry-Mellor on Monday.