Cumberland candidates up against COVID-19

Candidates vying to become the next city councillor in Cumberland ward are spending long hours doing something that few others would contemplate right now: meeting face-to-face with as many strangers as they can. 

Advance polls are open today and Tuesday for voters to choose one of the 10 people on the ballot to replace former Ottawa city councillor Stephen Blais, who is now the area's MPP. The deadline for requesting a special mail-in ballot passed on Sept. 13, while voting day itself is not until Oct. 5.

• Here are your candidates for the Cumberland byelection
• Cumberland byelection could take place Oct. 5

The ground game of going door-to-door to meet voters is often a key way to get elected, and several candidates say they have walked up to a majority of the 19,600 homes in the ward, both rural and suburban, with their pamphlets.

"For me, it's everything — being able to connect with residents," said Catherine Kitts, who was runner-up in the 17-way race in Orléans ward during the 2018 municipal election. Coun. Matthew Luloff has endorsed her this time around, and she also has the backing of Blais and other local Liberals.

"Especially with this pandemic, that one-on-one connection becomes even more important because we haven't had the luxury of having community events or town halls or many debates, so it's really the only opportunity people have had to connect with us," said Kitts.

To knock, or not to knock

"We have been calling it the COVID campaign," said challenger Yvette Ashiri, who has had councillors Jeff Leiper and Shawn Menard join her while out canvassing, and has the support of NDP MPP Joel Harden.

"There are less people that we're able to meet because we have some doors that remain closed, which is completely understandable."

Candidates are mindful that not everyone wants to answer a doorbell during a pandemic. They wear masks and stay two metres back.

Lyse-Pascale Inamuco said she's grateful her volunteers have been willing to canvass thousands of homes during a pandemic, and said she's found most people to be friendly and happy to talk.

Other candidates have chosen not to knock on doors at all.

Craig MacAulay said he has never knocked on a door in four elections because he believes competitors win by their donations and databases. Mark Scharfe, a retired police officer and farmer who ran previously in Osgoode ward, said he didn't think it wise this time, given many seniors are feeling scared of infection.

Henry Valois, a volunteer firefighter from the Village of Cumberland, agreed, and said he's wearing out shoes distributing thousands of pamphlets, but doesn't knock on the door.

"Because of my front-line experience, I'm more worried about infecting anybody or getting infected myself than trying to win a vote, he said.

No gatherings, few debates

Seniors are a particularly difficult group to reach during this byelection.

Long-term care homes are closed to visitors, and seniors are less likely to be reached by messages on social media channels, which candidates have had to rely on even more.

This race has taken place under strict provincial rules on gatherings, too, so there were no campaign launch events, which meant fewer opportunities to fundraise. Nor will there be parties planned in local restaurants to thank volunteers for months of work.

The typical all-candidates debates haven't happened either. Rogers TV and Ecology Ottawa each organized virtual debates, but local community associations didn't feel it was something they could take on.

Despite that, candidates are more or less agreed on what voters are talking about. In Cumberland's expanding suburbs, residents are concerned about speeding and road safety, a perennial issue.

But in the rural areas, the upcoming redrawing of the electoral map are upsetting people.

They fear losing a francophone and rural voice if rural Cumberland is merged with rural Osgoode ward to the south, explained candidate Denis Labrèche, who is community association president in Carlsbad Springs.

Voter turnout

In recent days, with COVID-19 cases rising, some candidates have noticed more people refusing to come to the door.

And if candidates weren't already worried about people turning up to vote, they are now.

"Traditionally with a byelection, the turnout is quite low," said candidate Pat Uguccioni, managing editor of the Your Community Voice newspapers and a former City of Ottawa employee who has endorsements from former Ottawa mayors Bob Chiarelli and Larry O'Brien.

Voter turnout in Cumberland in 2018 was 38 per cent. For comparison, the Rideau-Rockcliffe byelection last year saw 30 per cent turnout.

"[COVID-19] certainly will affect the turnout, and the city's going to great lengths to make it safe for people to vote," said Uguccioni, referring to the single-use stationery and limits on the number of people allowed inside polling stations.

But along with safety concerns, voters might not have a byelection front-of-mind, said Inamuco.

"That's the challenge. Maybe people have received the information in their mailbox but they don't have the time because there's so many things going on. They're more worried about COVID-19 than the byelection," she said.

Two of the 10 candidates, Jensen Boire and A. Bruce Faulkner, did not respond to requests for comment.