Knocking on doors, posting signs: federal election campaign hits the ground running in Winnipeg

With a federal election now looming just shy of over a month, candidates from Canada's major parties hit the ground running in Winnipeg on Sunday.

Canadians will go to the polls on April 28 after a 36-day campaign, the shortest allowed under the law, that officially started after Prime Minister Mark Carney visited Gov. Gen. Mary Simon to dissolve Parliament.

But for some candidates in Winnipeg, election campaign mode has been shaping up for days now. 

"I've been on the doors for the last three weeks," Conservative MP Marty Morantz, incumbent for Winnipeg West, formerly known as the Charleswood–St. James–Assiniboia–Headingley riding, told CBC on Sunday. 

He said the Liberal government has brought the country into a weakened economy with increases to the cost of living and tax policies, adding there needs to be a change in order to unleash the potential of Canada's resources and get the economy back on track.

"When I go door-to-door, the story I'm hearing is not the story that's reflected in the polls … the story I'm hearing are people that are fed up with after 10 years of Liberal rule who are looking for a government that's going to look out for the average Canadian again." 

Liberal incumbent Terry Duguid was out on Sunday in the Winnipeg South riding, setting up signs, after weeks of knocking on doors. 

"Our new prime minister's message is really resonating … standing up for Canada to protect the country, to protect our sovereignty, to protect our workers," Duguid told CBC on Sunday. 

The federal cabinet minister said his party is bringing a more positive view on Canada's economic growth and future, contrasting with the "negativity" front the Conservative party is promoting with a message that Canada is broken. 

"I'm feeling very good, but we have to work hard for 36 days," Duguid said. "I've been in politics for a few decades and what I trust is the response at the door, and the response is very good."

NDP MP Leah Gazan, who is running once again to represent Winnipeg Centre in Parliament, told CBC she has forged close relations with constituents and her campaign is focused on keeping up the hard work ahead and after April 28, rather than at polling numbers.

"Right now people across Canada don't want to see us trashing each other. They want to see us working together to protect the interests of all people that are residing in Canada," she said. 

In the riding, concerns are split between the affordability crisis and the relation with the U.S., Gazan said.

"I'm willing to work in a united way to make sure that people's needs are met."

Cost of living concerns

Some voters in Manitoba are welcoming the election call with a mix of excitement and concern. 

"There's an opportunity for change," said Mike Dueck, a resident from the Winnipeg North riding.

Among his priorities for the election is families' autonomy over their own finances, something he said is important for those starting to grow a business and who have young children. 

"Allow us to have the opportunity to just save or to spend where we feel kind of more fit rather than trying to determine as much of where our tax money is going to be going," he said. 

Jaired Heinrichs, a welder from Winkler, Man., part of the Portage–Lisgar riding said finding ways to bring down the cost of living is top of mind for him in the next federal election, which would include scrapping the carbon tax entirely, for larger polluters like manufacturers as well. 

"Make it affordable for Canadians and Manitobans like me who are barely scraping by paycheque to paycheque," he said. "Groceries, gas, living expenses, rent is ruthless these days."

Election smeared by U.S.-Canada relations

After Carney was elected the new leader of the Liberal party in a landslide vote, Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, said it was expected he would call for an election "while the iron is hot" given how support for Liberals has inched ahead of other parties according to recent polling numbers.

"I don't think it's too much of a gamble," he said. "It is the shortest election in living memory of just so many days … and by such a short campaign is probably to Carney's benefit because his numbers are high."

CBC's Poll Tracker, which aggregates public opinion polling, suggests the Liberals and Conservatives are effectively tied in national polls with the New Democrats trailing in a distant third place as of Sunday. 

Adams said there has been a "massive swing" of votes in different parts of Canada and with a longer election campaign, parties have more time to catch up to be the front-runner, like what happened in 2015 when former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau began his campaign in third place and finished as the winner. 

But the election is also shaping up to be "quite different" from others, Adams said, as the ballot question for many has phased out from who is best fit to run the country to who might be the best to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump, tariffs and Canadian sovereignty.

The last election when U.S.-Canada relations were brought into the spotlight was in 1988, Adams said. 

"The so-called free trade election … people were talking about U.S.-Canada relations and should [former Primer Minister Brian] Mulroney be striking a free trade agreement."

Other main topics swirling around the US-Canada relations gaining relevance for the election, Adams said, are interprovincial trade barriers and defence spending. In Manitoba, the Churchill port's future has gained traction as well, through the lens of bolstering trade with Europe and Asia.