Pandemic eliminates election staples

With 18 political campaigns under his belt, Norm Letnick has seen almost everything on the campaign trail, but trying to win office in a snap election during a pandemic is new even for him.

So to protect public health in the run-up to the Oct. 24 election, the incumbent Liberal MLA for Kelowna-Lake Country is steering away from the traditional practice of knocking on people’s doors and instead asking people to come to him.

Letnick is driving his camper to a different part of his riding every afternoon – except for the day of the leaders’ debate – and putting out signs letting people know where to find him if they want to talk.

“Then we’re doing exactly what I would do if I was door-knocking,” said Letnick, who assured voters even his camper now has a rigourous cleaning schedule thanks to COVID-19.

Door-knocking has always been a staple of Letnick’s outreach to constituents. He goes out as time permits in the summer, and also hires students through his office to canvas constituents to make sure their concerns don’t go unheard.

“When you’re looking at a snap election like this, it really reinforces the work you do between elections,” said Letnick, who has an additional leg up in the form of election signs from 2017 that he has been able to reuse, beating last week’s stampede to local sign shops.

Toni Boot, who’s running as a New Democrat in the Penticton riding, is skipping lawn signs altogether.

“We just don’t need the extra plastic and it’s such a short time they’re going to be used anyways,” said Boot, an environmentalist on leave from her usual job as mayor of Summerland.

She is planning to put up larger signs elsewhere in the community, but they’re still on order. And, having also made the decision to skip door-knocking, Boot’s team is working the phones instead and using digital tools, like social media.

“The BC NDP is a pretty grassroots party,” she said, and “because we are so grassroots, we tend to rely on a lot of volunteers. We don’t go for big ad buys. We rely on volunteers to help get the word out.”

One more key pandemic-inspired difference in this election is the rise in popularity of mail-in ballots.

As of 4 p.m. Friday, Elections BC had received approximately 494,000 requests for mail-in ballots; there were just 11,268 such requests in 2017.

Election officials have said they’re expecting requests for upwards of 800,000 mail-in ballots – equal to about 40% of the popular vote – which could delay results by several days after Oct. 24.

To request a mail-in ballot, visit www.electionsbc.ca or call 1-800-661-8683. The deadline to get one directly from Elections BC is Oct. 17, but they may be obtained after that date from district electoral offices. Completed mail-in ballots must be received by Elections BC before 8 p.m. on Oct. 24.