Every minute counts as campaign clock ticks down

Sherwood Armbruster likens election day to a wedding.

Planning starts about a year in advance, and even if everyone has done everything right, things can go wrong.

Sure, most weddings don’t involve over 2,300 staff conducting polls for 12 straight hours, and maybe the 12 candidates hoping to be mayor, 54 vying for the city’s 15 council seats and the 90-plus running for school trustee aren’t exactly a cavalcade of brides and grooms.

But it’s an emotional experience that takes a village to execute smoothly, said Armbruster, the city’s elections manager.

“This act of public service that we’re involved in as election officials is really sacred work, and it’s something that, as I reflect on society broadly or I see our world, is fraying in many different ways,” he said Tuesday.

“And whether we’re involved in various spheres of of work in the community, the work of contending for something really precious called democracy is just as important as as ever.”

Winnipeg’s near six-month municipal and school board campaign season that began May 1 comes to an end Wednesday.

On Tuesday, city workers were delivering 15 trucks’ worth of voting supplies to 184 polling locations.

The last year has been spent drawing ward boundaries for polling subdivisions, creating a voters list based on the national registry in Ottawa.

“The work behind the scenes, it’s difficult to describe — at best, we hope we’re not in the story, to be quite honest,” Armbruster said.

“Election officials are the people that are doing everything in our power to to be invisible, and we’re thankful when that happens.”

Advance voting hit a record high this year, with 50,767 voters casting ballots early, 21 per cent more than the previous record set in 2022.

At the same time, the number of the number of people voting on election day has been on the decline since 2014; half of all eligible Winnipeggers cast ballots in 2014, but in the last municipal election in 2022, turnout had dipped to 37.5 per cent.

Armbruster noted the city extended its advance voting hours this year, offering more evening availability, and saw significant jumps in balloting at shopping malls and universities. Numbers at seniors homes, hospitals and city hall were similar to those in 2022.

”I think the numbers would reflect that voters find it more convenient, accessible to vote in some of the advance voting opportunities out in the community… for me and my team, though, the the message that I’m always sharing is that our job is to provide opportunities (to vote),” he said.

Armbruster, who said he’s by turns exhausted, excited and looking forward to spending more time with his family again, is also anticipating an emotional letdown when it’s all over.

“I feel like I’m in the middle of this incredible event that that I feel honoured that I get to be a part of with thousands of people,” he said.

Winnipeg’s growing advance polling numbers are following a national trend: there were marked increases this year in Toronto and Vancouver municipal elections, and advance voting in the provincial election in Quebec earlier this month surpassed 2022 counts.

Ben Mercado-Cruz has encountered Winnipeggers across the spectrum of political engagement while knocking on doors as a campaign volunteer for incumbent Scott Gillingham: decided voters, undecided voters, the apathetic and those suspicious of the democratic process.

For those undecided or uncaring, the 29-year-old has used a simple method to start the conversation: instead of talking platforms, he asks them to think about what might have bothered them in the last week.

Did they hit a pothole? Were they stuck in traffic? Were they late for something because a bus was late or didn’t show up at all? Those are municipal responsibilities, he tells them, and different candidates have made different promises to improve those day-to-day frustrations.

“I think people over-complicate it, and then you just say, ‘No, I just want to hear what’s up, how has your life been?’” he told the Free Press. “If you’re dissatisfied, think about it and then go vote.”

Mercado-Cruz admitted he isn’t sure if this election’s advance voting numbers will translate into his hopes of a more politically tuned-in city.

“I think it’s great democracy is getting easier, but it seems to be only getting easier for those that are engaged,” he said. “I think there is still an apathy…. There’s still a lot of work to do.”

For mayoral and council candidates, the last days and hours are crucial.

Candidates and their volunteers have shifted to getting out the vote; they’re doing less work to change minds at the door, but are more focused on getting supportive constituents to voting stations.

Gillingham has volunteers making phone calls, dropping off cards reminding supporters to vote and has been attending “coffee parties” in seniors homes. On the day before the election, he hit all 15 wards, meeting with business owners around the city.

“I think people over-complicate it, and then you just say, ‘No, I just want to hear what’s up, how has your life been?’… If you’re dissatisfied, think about it and then go vote.”

On Sunday afternoon, as hockey fans were on their way to Princess Auto Stadium to take in the outdoor Heritage Classic between the Jets and Montreal Canadiens, about 20 supporters, including his wife Marla and his daughter Hannah, waved campaign signs at a Pembina Highway intersection

It was their version of a common campaign tactic known as a “Burma-Shave,” named after a 1920s brand of shaving cream known for advertising using multiple consecutive billboards on short stretches of road.

“Most of the voters, I believe, that are going to vote have made up their minds, and now what it’s about is about getting those people to the polls to cast that ballot,” Gillingham said over the traffic noise.

“We know that voter turnout in the last several municipal elections has been dropping each time, we don’t want to see that, we want to see it sustained or even increase. I don’t know (if) it’s going to this time.”

Noah Redden, who has enjoyed a jump in support in a recent Free Press-Abacus Data (formerly Probe Research) poll, took to Dreamland Diner on Portage Avenue Sunday for a meet-and-greet, and held another in Old Market Square Tuesday.

His campaign is about as grassroots as it gets. He has leaned on social media to get the word out, even taking part in his own town hall on social media when he wasn’t included in a televised debate with the three leading candidates on CBC last week. His press releases don’t mention a campaign manager, instead offering his direct cellphone number to reporters with questions.

“We know that voter turnout in the last several municipal elections has been dropping each time, we don’t want to see that, we want to see it sustained or even increase.”

“It’s definitely trickier. I mean, if you don’t have that good message, it can really fall apart,” he said. “But I’ve been thankful that I have such a great grassroots team behind me, who are behind me 100 per cent.”

Jeff Palmer, a candidate in the wide-open race council race in Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry, repeated something he heard former Premier Gary Doer says before an election: until Wednesday, he planned to keep running as though he was one vote behind.

And it’s been a long run, for him and everyone else. Provincial election campaigns in Manitoba are run in a four- to five-week period, while city candidates are on the campaign trail five times as long.

“I’ve never run provincially or federally, but my impression is that a municipal campaign is the most challenging campaign to run because you don’t have staff, you are responsible for all your own media, marketing, policy,” he said. “It’s not like you’re joining a provincial or federal team where you can share those resources; I can’t blame or credit the leader of a party for my success or failure.”

“I think it’s really crucial that we… as people who are candidates, as politicians… have to do more for people.,”

He’ll be with his volunteers Wednesday knocking on doors, dropping off reminders and meeting people “until we can’t anymore,” he said, adding his team is renting a bus so a group of people in a seniors building can get to their voting location.

Even so, he is expecting a quieter day, calling it “closing the loop” on a lot of hard work.

In the Mynarski ward, where voters have more choices for councillor than anywhere else in Winnipeg, candidate Natalie Smith said she has encountered people who described themselves as undecided right up to the final days of the campaign.

She told them she knows where they’re coming from, and placed the responsibility of improving voter turnout on candidates.

“I think it’s really crucial that we — as people who are candidates, as politicians — have to do more for people,” she said.

“Often I hear, ‘Oh, people need to get more engaged,’ but it’s really up to people in those candidacies, in those positions, to engage with people. It’s a chicken and the egg, right?”

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No pay, but that’s OK

The quantity — and quality — of volunteers a candidate has can make or break a campaign.

Kelly Ross, a teacher, has spent up to five days a week volunteering for Natalie Smith’s campaign in Mynarski. She’s knocked on doors, arranged a silent auction and donated her own money because she believes in Smith’s platform.

“You know, there’s election rules on how much a candidate is allowed to spend financially. There’s no rules about how many people can volunteer their time,” said Ross, 41.

“I think it’s valuable for residents to see that there’s actual people spending their own free time helping them out.”

There are six candidates — most in any city ward — in Mynarski, including incumbent Ross Eadie, who is trying to win his fifth-straight term.

Ross said she’s connected with undecided voters in the ward just days before the election, making a strong volunteer presence all the more crucial.

“It’s so important that we’re talking to people, because we’ve been hearing people are still undecided, so we need to hopefully make them decided,” she said.

“Maybe we’re the last faces, in terms of candidates, that (they) see before they vote, and I think that’s probably meaningful to those undecided folks.”

Liv Gardiner is helping out with Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry candidate Jeff Palmer’s campaign. The two met when Gardner was studying city planning at the University of Manitoba and Palmer was an instructor, and they got along “like a house on fire.”

Gardiner, 27, uses a canvassing app to keep track of the residents who have committed to voting for Palmer, expressed interest in learning more about the candidate, or — if a home is marked with a red dot — “they weren’t into it.”

Luckily, those homes have been few and far between.

”I always feel kind of bad about invading people’s space, so I was nervous about it,” Gardiner said. “I think I thought I was going to get more aggression, but I was very lucky I didn’t receive any sort of hostility or anything like that, which was really nice.”

While dropping off cards reminding Palmer’s supporters to vote Wednesday, Gardiner said the campaign had been an interesting introduction into political work.

“I’m definitely interested in continuing to be more involved,” Gardiner said. “I think it was a really good way to just be connected with the city and the neighbourhood.”

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Longtime trustee, candidate, dies

Voting for school trustees in Seven Oaks Ward 2 will continue after candidate Derek Dabee, a longtime trustee who had served the ward since 2010, died Sunday.

“Under the Municipal Councils and School Boards Elections Act, the candidate is deemed to have withdrawn from the election,” a press release from the City of Winnipeg released Tuesday morning said.

Dabee, who had served as the ward’s board chair, was a “strong advocate for public education” who championed sports, recreation and human rights initiatives, Seven Oaks School Division superintendent Tony Kreml said in a letter to families sent Tuesday.

“We are so thankful to have known Derek and grateful for his service to the Division,” the letter said.

“Derek’s role in supporting public education will continue to benefit students, families and staff into the future.”

Dabee was 75.

— With files from Erik Pindera

malak.abas@winnipegfreepress.com