Genevieve Simms

Leaders can swing an election. We need look no further than Ralph Klein for proof. However, elections are a lot more interesting if candidates in each constituency have to work hard to win over voters.

These days, working hard means going door to door for as many hours as you can; meeting voters face to face. Asking them how they are going to vote. Asking them to put a sign on their lawn or apartment balcony. And since there are some close races in the city, there’s a lot of door-knocking going on.

Last week, I tagged along with three first-time candidates — a PC, a Liberal and an ND — so I could see what voters are saying, how they are reacting to candidates.

Julie Hrdlicka, activist and community organizer, is running for the NDs in Calgary-Fort. This constituency stretches from Inglewood to Forest Lawn and Ogden. Conservative Wayne Cao took it with a huge majority last election. The area has gone ND in the past.

Kent Hehr, a young lawyer, is the Liberal candidate in Calgary-Buffalo — an inner-city constituency that includes the beltline and downtown. The Conservatives won it last time around by only 550 votes, but it has gone Liberal in the past. Since there is no incumbent, it promises to be one of the tightest races in the city.

Alison Redford, also a lawyer, is running for the Tories in Calgary-Elbow. The Liberals took Elbow (which used to be Ralph Klein’s constituency) in a byelection last June, but by only 800 votes. So this promises to be another tight race.

Hrdlicka has been campaigning for a year. She’s already covered about 9,000 homes in the constituency and hopes to reach them all by election day. We head into Forest Lawn on Monday afternoon and she starts ringing doorbells. The first woman who answers says she is definitely not voting Conservative. She’s a cashier at Safeway and doesn’t like the way the Klein government pushed around working people. She agrees to take a lawn sign.

Down the street Hrdlicka talks a young guy into a lawn sign. His issue is affordable housing. He says he and his wife had to move in with her parents because even though they are both working full time, they can’t afford their own place.

A couple of blocks over, Ahmed, who came to Canada with his family from Palestine, says he really wants to vote. He’s delighted with Hrdlicka’s work against the war in Iraq and promises to get all his friends and family out on election day. At another house an elderly woman says she is fed up with all the homelessness. “There’s no excuse for it in a place as rich as this,” she says.

Most people in this neighbourhood of small, well-worn houses nod in agreement when Hrdlicka says the boom has left a lot of people on the sidelines. She never mentions that she’s running for the NDs, although the party label is prominent on the brochure she hands them. She tells them she’s ready to “shake things up” if she gets elected. She’s so energetic and personable that she can even get a rise out of jaded teens.

“Take care, man,” Hrdlicka says as she leaves the doorstep. After two hours of door-knocking she’s convinced 13 people to take lawn signs and many more have given her their names and telephone number so they can be reminded to get out and vote. This is important because only 33 per cent of eligible voters turned out last time. And a lot of votes are needed to catch up with incumbent Wayne Cao.

Kent Hehr, the Liberal first-timer in Buffalo, is ready to roll by 6 p.m. on Tuesday evening. And roll is the operative word since he gets around in a motorized wheelchair ever since a drive-by shooting left him a quadriplegic. We head into the modest condo towers just east of the Good Earth on 11 Street S.W.

The first guy who opens his door asks Hehr about the Liberals’ position on oil and gas royalties. He works for an oil company and says Stelmach’s royalty position caused “ripples” among his co-workers that make him nervous about the future. Hehr says the Liberals would give natural gas companies a better break and focus on collecting more royalties from the oilsands.

The guy at the door says he’s “not a fan of the Conservatives.” But he doesn’t commit to voting for the Liberals either.

A lot of people aren’t home this evening. A couple of people who come to the door say they aren’t interested in politics. Some people say they are new to the country or the province so can’t vote. Then a young woman comes to her door and is quite happy to tell Hehr she has always voted Liberal. A few floors up another woman declares herself a Liberal.

We move on to the next condo building — Hehr dashing down the slushy sidewalk much faster than me. A senior tells him she’s going to vote Liberal and agrees to take a sign for her balcony. Upstairs, a young woman who has just returned from her yoga class says she’s definitely not voting Conservative and is leaning towards the Greens. When Hehr tells her the Liberals have taken this constituency in the past so voting for him wouldn’t be a wasted vote, she gets really interested.

Hehr seems tireless as he heads across the street to another building. We’ve been out for over two hours, but he wants to do more. Inside, two more people enthusiastically declare for the Liberals. “Awesome!” says one young woman when he introduces himself as the Liberal candidate.

Hehr definitely has fans in this neighbourhood. There are also a lot of people who are simply disinterested in the election, who likely won’t bother to vote. Others are undecided about who to vote for. And like Forest Lawn, there are a lot of immigrants and other newcomers who aren’t eligible to vote. For both Hehr and his Conservative opponent — Sean Chu — identifying and getting voters to the polls is key to winning here.

I meet Alison Redford at her campaign headquarters on Macleod Trail around 4 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. We head over to Meadowlark Park just west of Chinook Centre. It’s a cozy, middle-income neighbourhood of well-tended homes in Calgary-Elbow, which voted in Liberal Craig Cheffins during a byelection last year. Redford is determined to win it back for the Tories. She’s never been a candidate before, although a few years back, she unsuccessfully challenged controversial Conservative MP Rob Anders for the party nomination.

At the first house a man fights to hold back his dog from leaping out the door. However, he’s glad to see Redford, and says he likes the PCs because they are “forward thinking.” At the next house an elderly woman asks if she can have more than one brochure. “Good luck,” she says. “You’re with the right party.” As we go down the street, it’s much the same story. People seem pleased to see Redford and offer their support. Most of them are seniors who say they have always voted Conservative. Not everyone is happy, though.

One woman says she’s a PC, but she doesn’t like Ed Stelmach. A retired school principal says he was a PC member for 25 years “but got disgusted” with the party during the Klein era. “I’m glad they got defeated in the byelection,” he says. “The party needed a shakeup.”

Redford listens intently. She agrees that there were problems, that the Klein government’s policies hurt Calgary. And then she tells the school principal that Stelmach wants to start over, and that as an MLA she would work hard to keep the party on the right track. He looks like he might reconsider voting for the PCs.

Interestingly, although many residents indicate they are going to vote PC, nobody wants a sign on their lawn. The PCs and the Liberals were virtually tied in this area during the byelection. However, if all the people who say they support the PCs actually get out and vote this time around, looks like Redford could gain the upper hand.

This election is about local candidates more so than any election in the past 15 years. None of the main party leaders — Brian Mason, Kevin Taft or Ed Stelmach — seem to have captured the imagination of Calgary voters. And that’s why, in some constituencies, particularly close races like the one in Calgary-Buffalo, the candidate’s enthusiasm for door-knocking, for meeting voters one-on-one, could make all the difference come election day.

Gillian Steward is a Calgary-based journalist who has covered Alberta politics since the Lougheed days.