By Pepper Parr
March 23, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
It wasn’t the nicest day to be out on the streets knocking on doors but Burlington’s federal Liberals and their candidate Karina Gould roamed the streets in the Cavendish – Melissa part of town.
They had 50 volunteers doing what MPP Eleanor McMahon did to win the provincial seat as a Liberal for the first time in 70 years – knock on doors and get to know people.
Gould sees the work as part of her listening to people.
Karina Gould flashing one of her smiles to a volunteer.
The next federal election is scheduled for October but there are some who think it could be called much sooner than that. There is certainly the sense that a battle is brewing and that there is a Prime Minister who has a fight on his hands.
The Trudeau name has always been a draw – but a Trudeau has never had to go up against anyone as crafty and as strategic as Stephen Harper.
Gould left her job as Trade and Investment Specialist for the Mexican Trade Commission in Toronto to become a full time candidate .
Mike Wallace waiting to do his part in a federal funding announcement for a local corporation.
Earlier in the week the sitting MP for Burlington Mike Wallace took part in two events that had cheques being handed out to local corporations. Good photo op for the MP – Gould just wishes Wallace was doing more of this. “The federal government has more than $137 million in economic development funds that it has not handed out. She would like to see more of that funding coming into the Region.
In her campaign work Gould hears of the difficulty single parents have with day care costs and they wonder why Quebec has a program that doesn’t cripple households financially. Many want to see the federal government deliver on the old promise to create a national day care program.
She hears stories about students who can’t handle the crushing cost of a university education and then the difficulty they have finding a job when they do graduate.
Gould is working at getting a sense as to what the issues are for the city she was raised in and where she has spent most of her life.
A university graduate with several degrees: a joint Honours degree in Political Science and Latin American Studies from McGill and a Master’s degree in International Relations at the University of Oxford in England.
Her work now are to gain the widest possible understanding of the constituency and its needs. When the election is called she expects to have covered every street in the city and have a solid grounding that she can work with as she campaigns to become the member of the House of Commons for Burlington.
The campaign team is made up of quite a few young people, several who are already in close to full election mode
The campaign manager is a college colleague who said she “knew Karina was going to run for public office when we were students together at McGill University”.
While those doing the door to door work are out on the street, there is another team working the telephone – two teams are on the telephones getting a clearer sense of where the population is in terms of what they think and what they want their federal government to do.
Karina Gould, on the right with her campaign team going over the numbers for the day.
Last weekend was a Day of Action for Liberals across the country. Other weekends – it’s Karina Gould and her team going door to door.
They meet at a local pub for coffee then head out in their cars to different parts of the city and return four hours later for updates, pizza and political chit chat.
The fifty people who were out last Saturday were a combination of older people who have been Liberals most of their lives and a healthy number of young people who have energy and ideals that still shine.
Eleanor McMahon used the door to door approach to win the provincial seat. She was fortunate enough to have Premier Kathleen Wynne join her on a few occasions.
Does that mean Burlington might see Justin Trudeau walking door to door sometime in September?
