82 candidates in home stretch
Some candidates have been preparing for tomorrow’s election for over five years… while others have had less than five months. But however long they have been preparing, the eighty-two candidates running for the House of Representatives were all busy today trying to win over that one last voter. I caught up with a few of them for a final word.
Mark Espat, P.U.P., Albert
“We are very confident that we will deliver this division tomorrow. After over three decades of U.D.P rule in Albert, people realize that they have nothing to show for it, and they are ready to break with the past and are ready for a change. And I am very confident that tomorrow we will deliver Alberts to the People’s United Party.
The houses are breaking down. Hundreds are without jobs. The schools are over crowded. Sports has been neglected. There are no medical clinics. The elderly are unattended and we believe it is a time for a change and a majority of Albertans will vote for a change tomorrow.”
Thomas Morrison, U.D.P., Albert
“Jackie, I feel very confident with what is happening. We have certainly visited all the homes in the division. Our organization has been put in place and we are ready. And we feel that if our people turnout, we want to encourage our people to come out, I feel that if our people turn out, we are going to be in a good position by the time all the ballots have been counted.
Our campaign has been about empowering the people. We have been telling the people that we want to create jobs in this division. We are about education.”
Ruth Smith, P.D.P., Albert
“I am just taking things cool, because as we all know it is the people’s choice. So we cannot vote for them, they got to vote for who they want to. So I believe that we should all wait until after the results are read for us to know who will be the winner.”
Gilda Lewis, N.A.B.R., Albert
“Well, confident may not be the correct word, but very optimistic, very optimistic.”
Q: “Do you think you have covered all grounds in your house to house campaign?”
Gilda Lewis
“Well I have been in every single street in the Albert division. The voters that I didn’t speak to were voters that were not at home at the time.”
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, P.U.P., Port Loyola
“Jackie, I never count any chicken or anything else before it’s hatched. But as I have said before, we have put in a solid three years of groundwork in Port Loyola. We have reached out to maybe ninety eight percent of the voters and just about every single homes we’ve visited.
People need jobs; people want a stake in the future and that is an education. That’s what we are working with and that has been our positive message throughout. And I don’t think that will change now at crunch time, you know.”
Anthony “Boots” Martinez, U.D.P., Port Loyola
“I am just making sure that tomorrow is the day to make sure that people come out to vote. I am not nervous, because I have been working in this division. So, I have identified with the residents here. I have delivered the goods and services and they will decide tomorrow. Street, light, water, building homes, social, education. I think those are some of the projects we have embarked on, that we believe will put us over the hill.”
Figenia Cayetano, N.A.B.R., Port Loyola
“I feel quite confident that I will pull through in this election. There were quite a number of frustrated voters
out there who I was able to get through to and most people I talk with said that the red, blue seesaw game isn’t too nice a game in this era. We need to get pass through the red, blue syndrome.”
Faith Babb, U.D.P., Collet
“I will go to the polls very confident that the people will elect me, based on my performance, based on the fact that Faith Babb and the U.D.P. have delivered in the Collet division to uplift the people, improve the quality of life for them.”
Gerilee Flowers, N.A.B.R., Collet
“Well, I feel very confident in that when I go to the different areas to canvass, my people are saying that they are fed up with both parties and that they would like to see a new party get in and given a chance. About forty percent of the people I canvass said that they were not going to the polls at all and the ones that said they were going to the polls, said they would just vote black.”
Ray Lightburn, P.U.P., Mesopotamia
“I’ve been in this for the past thirty-four years. Like Mr. Price, I’ve been around him since I was eighteen and I remember every night, election night, he goes to sleep and he says, it is in the hands of the people. I feel the same way. It is in the hands of the people and I am with the people.
I think that with the party going to the people and involving them in the process, that it gives me a tremendous difference. It’s about collective leadership.”
The polls open at seven a.m.
