I live in Windsor, Ontario, Canada and we are having our municipal election today.

I just wanted to give a few thoughts about my experience during this election.

It’s so easy

I think Canadians sometimes take for granted how easy it is for us to vote in elections compared to other countries. I hear about long waiting lines or mail in voting issues or machines messing up and it sounds a lot like systems being intentionally difficult to ensure people don’t vote. I have never had a problem voting in Canada.

My voting card listed multiple days I could early vote. On the day of the election (today) I had five locations I could go to near my house. I walked in. I showed my ID. I don’t have a drivers licence at the moment so I had to show some other form of proof of my residence. I didn’t have a utility bill handy (thank you paperless billing) but I did have a form from Service Canada about updating my pin number. That was good enough.

Why is that good enough? Because it damn well should be. There isn’t some giant fake voter fraud epidemic and the proof is that we never have elections where too many people voted. I’ve been living at the same place for almost a decade. I’ve been living in Windsor for 20 years. There doesn’t need to be more hoops in me proving I am who I am.

This is the way it should be.

Nobody does door to door anymore

A few weeks ago I started my research on who to vote for. I went to the Who Is Running? page on the City of Windsor website. Out of the 11 candidates, only 6 had a website. Today 9 now have one. One of the candidates told me he sent his website and they didn’t post it. I talked to a City of Windsor employee after who blamed the candidate. His website is there now. While I’m sure it’s sometimes incompetence on the candidate I don’t think that’s true for this one.

On October 15, I sent emails to every candidate in my area that didn’t have a website. It just so happens none of these candidates went to my house either. In fact, only one candidate went to my house and she was running for Catholic district school board. No ward candidates came to my door. No mayoral candidates came to my door. A friend of mine told me both major candidates for mayor came to his apartment building and bought everyone lunch. Are you surprised it was a majority seniors apartment building?

I understand why nobody makes phone calls or texts. Most people today hate when they get called or texted by someone they weren’t expecting a phone call or text from. But by October 15 I only received two flyers. As of election day I’ve received more, multiple from one ward candidate, but not even something from every candidate.

My biggest issue is the lack of door to door.

I’ve worked elections in my lifetime. Provincial and federal. Yes I know a lot of people react poorly to having someone knock on their door. It is, however, the very best way to make yourself as a candidate known. I don’t live in the finest neighbourhood in the city but it’s a neighbourhood full of families, full of adults, and it’s safe to walk. I bring up the safe to walk because one candidate told me in an email he didn’t feel safe as a visible minority going door to door. I am not in a predominantly white neighbourhood.

The lack of door to door interaction made me feel like my neighbourhood, and I, was being ignored. That’s why I emailed candidates.

Do you even want to win?

Out of the people I emailed, one didn’t even respond. She was running for my Ward. Why did you even submit your name in? Can’t send a flyer. Can’t knock a door. Can’t even answer an email.

One candidate told me he didn’t have a website because, “I am running a zero-dollar campaign, and it would just become irrelevant after the election if I had one.”

It costs ZERO DOLLARS to have a website. It costs ZERO DOLLARS to walk around the ward and speak to potential voters. Do you even want to win?

I had another candidate say he was knocking on doors and just didn’t get to me. Okay. Maybe it’s true.

I had one candidate for mayor respond to me about why I should vote for him as mayor by… talking about India. You are running for mayor of Windsor, can’t set up a website, can’t knock on my door, and when I email you, you suggest letting you call me and talk to me about… India. And how we should be in a state of emergency. Because of India.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE EVEN RUNNING FOR?

I am glad I emailed candidates because it did help me in making my decisions for who to vote for. I didn’t email everyone. If you didn’t get an email it’s because you had a website and/or sent me a flyer.

But I really just can’t get over the laziness of these campaigns. People put their name in and then put in zero effort. One person did tell me they got in an accident recently and you know what that’s just bad luck and I’ll let you off the hook. Maybe not on building a website but on not knocking on my door.

It would take an hour for the average person to walk from one side of my ward to another. I feel like in a week of walking through the neighbourhoods you should be able to get the ward done. Maybe you get held up by a few candidates. Maybe you get tired. Bad weather. It happens.

THE DEADLINE TO FILE FOR NOMINATION WAS AUGUST 21 WITH THE ELECTION ON OCTOBER 26. YOU HAD TWO MONTHS.

Two months to go door to door, knock on a door, maybe talk to someone, and make your presence known. The Ward candidates I feel have no excuse.

Mayoral candidates? I understand it can be hard to hit every door in a 200,000 person city. I understand it’s easier to set up events. But to only set them up in a senior apartment complex? I didn’t get a visit from the current mayor. I didn’t get a visit from the brother of the former mayor. I didn’t get a visit from anyone except Tina Chittle, and she was running for Greater Essex County District School Board Trustee. Thanks Tina.

I didn’t get invited for a town hall. I didn’t even see a candidate try to talk to people on a Windsor Facebook group.

We are more connected to people than ever before in the history of society and yet we make less of an effort than ever before.

Everyone seems to be running a two issue campaign

I don’t mean to generalize, maybe I’m being lazy, but in checking websites and flyers, there seems to be two primary issues on everyone’s mind: homelessness and drug addiction.

Yes, it’s an issue. It’s an issue everywhere. Windsor isn’t special. It’s wild when I hear people talk about their city like it’s the only place where oxycontin got widely distributed outside of cancer patients and people got addicted to strong level pain medication only to have it replaced by meth and fentanyl.

The cost of living is higher than ever. The cost of paying bills is higher than ever. It’s tough to work, it’s tough to travel, it’s tough to live. I’m not minimizing this in the slightest.

I just find it a bit frustrating this is priority one, mainly because it’s a visibility issue. We see the people on the street, paralyzed by their drugs, struggling to walk. It’s horrible. It’s inhumane. I have a family member on those streets and it breaks my heart. But I don’t see a single candidate declaring they are willing to spend the millions to get them proper drug treatment, proper dental treatment, proper mental health treatment, to clothe them, feed them, and house them. To get them their needed education or skills training to get back into working and paying taxes.

The cynic in me feels like multiple candidates are running on the promise of not turning people (yes, people) going through the roughest time in their lives, not into tax payers with dignity in their lives again, but just a way to… make them disappear. People just don’t want to see the homeless people. They don’t want to see the people struggling on drugs. Make them disappear and you’ll get their vote.

That seems to be all that matters to so many. They see it every day so they feel it every day. But rarely do I see someone saying they have the goal of actual recovery. It’s mostly just to hide them.

“You should run”

No.

I hate hearing this after I speak about the pros and cons of current elections.

I’m in my early 40s and I understand myself well enough to know two things: yes, I have an understanding of what works, or at least a confidence to believe I do. No, I’m not very good at getting people to take my advice on what to do.

There is a level of charisma required to get people to listen to what you have to say and then work with you to get it done. There’s also a level of fortitude required in shaking hands with people you don’t want to shake in order to get things done you want done. I know my limitations.

I wish the people who do run the best and I hope to help people in the future to run better campaigns that better represent what people actually want. I want people better educated, especially in our current society where education and the pursuit of knowledge is considered a waste of time and everyone wants answers immediately without doing the work.

That doesn’t mean I think I can accomplish it. Then again, with the level of laziness I have seen from some candidates, if someone wants to front the money next election? There’s certainly worse ways to waste your cash.

Even then, I’ve spent too much of my life online to not be an easy target for quick smear campaigns. As John Mulaney once said on the idea of becoming President of the United States of America, “Not unless everyone gets real cool about a bunch of stuff real quickly.”

Just because I want more human campaigns in municipal, provincial, and federal elections doesn’t mean I’m necessarily the person who should do it.

Anyhootie, good luck to all candidates running today. It’s a nice day out. Enjoy your walk to go vote.