Canvassing

UPDATE: I decided to rely solely on canvassing and not use lawn signs at all, to reduce pollution, even though this is costly in terms of exposure. Find my campaign poster at https://bit.ly/azpostr!

What Wikipedia defines as "systematic initiation of direct contact with individuals, commonly used during political campaigns" is for me the most rewarding part of running for public office. I do not have the time to take selfies or tweet when canvassing as I dedicate my time exclusively to personal interactions with voters. The photo above was taken by a voter who published it on their blog. If you would like to help, please be sure to let me know through my contact form or page!

Over 90% of the people I meet canvassing are happy to meet me but occasionally, someone might be jarred by too many spams and robot calls and would rather not be bothered. Aspiring politicians in a political campaign are supposed to have access to all potential voters 9AM-9PM, as set in the Ontario provincial legislation governing municipal elections and explained in this letter to landlords and property managers (local copy). A political candidate and the (sometimes paid) volunteers helping them have a duty to ignore "no unsolicited knocks / no spam" signs because those could be a landlord's attempts to prevent their tenants to engage politically. Imagine if someone like Donald Trump, who is known for his real estate dealings and has been accused of discrimination, would have the power to prevent political candidates from talking to his tenants! If you have questions or feedback on this, you may contact the City of Toronto at 311 or Colin MacLean, manager of election services at 416-395-0025.

Let us now look at tribalism (or my lack thereof), which is the top question (i.e., what is my political party) I am asked while canvassing.

Non-partisanship

I am not affiliated with any political party and try to maintain cordial relationships with all; I aim to serve all people in Ward 10 equally, irrespective of affiliation.

I tweeted back in 2018:

I often get asked whether I'm "#left or #right" i.e., #liberal vs #conservative (#tribalism #partisanship #TED summary: youtube by @jonhaidt). Get his #book from amzn.to/2sYSkTB or #interview on #TVO youtube or from #TPL: TorontoPublicLibrary

..and more recently via fb (direct image link might not work)..

Avoiding partisanship comes at a cost to candidates in an election, as those affiliated with a political party get significant help from that particular political machine. But all that help causes an elected representative to owe their election to a particular party and may cause that representative to feel indebted to their party and to ignore the interests of their constituents when these are conflicting with that party's interests.

I will continue to update the feedback received when I canvas through the document linked as Q&A from the front page or directly through az22qna.