A New Brunswicker in Alberta: The Yellowhead By-election

So I just finished voting in my first ever by-election (yay, politics). Here are my thoughts on the campaign and how the candidates did.

First, this is the riding of Yellowhead:

Yes, It was necessary to try and draw a bow tie on the border between Yellowhead and Wild Rose.

And here is the candidate list from the Elections Canada website along with their photos:

The Campaign

Overall it was a very low-key campaign and if you weren't looking you would not be able to tell a by-election was going on. At least, not where I was residing. But to be fair I'm way out in rural Alberta and this riding butts up against Edmonton. I was probably doomed to a quiet campaign from the get-go. I did see one, small, Conservative sign by the road. But no door-to-door volunteers that I saw and no debates held in town.

Elections Canada was out in full force online. I must have seen a dozen or so ads on YouTube. Unfortunately the candidates were not as proactive.

Making Contact

Throughout the campaign I tried to contact the candidates to get their views on policy issues important to me. Doing so proved a challenge. Only the Conservative, Liberal, and independent candidates had a phone number listed on the Elections Canada site. I eventually got a hold of the Conservatives via phone. One down.

Online was much the same; only the independent and Libertarian candidates had Facebook pages while the independent also had a campaign website. I got in contact with both through Facebook.

I only managed to get someone to pick up at the Liberal campaign office on election day and the candidate was not in so no policy answers from them.

And finally we have the NDP candidate. Oh boy. I'm still not sure how he expected anyone to contact him. Smoke signals, maybe?  

Voting

Elections Canada really needs to work on their signage. Not only were there no visual cues put outside but the building being used does not include its full name on any of its signs. Voting was fairly painless despite not being pre-registered. 

Awards

Let's have some fun:

Best Signage: Not Awarded
Quickest Response: Jim Eglinski (despite being the last successfully contacted)
Most Thoughtful Response: Dean Williams
Best Slogan: Dean Williams, "Vote Yellow for Yellowhead" (it makes about as much sense in context)
Best Online Presence: Elections Canada, followed by Dean Williams

And finally the booby prize.

Most Likely to be a Theoretical Entity Only: Eric Rosendahl

Final Remarks

Overall a typical sleepy by-election. I would advise the candidates that in this day and age you need some form of online strategy. Best of luck to all of the candidates today!