Candidates rally support

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This article was published 19/10/2014 (4316 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WHAT do Winnipeg mayoral candidates do the last weekend before the polls open?

They hold rallies.

Frontrunner Judy Wasylycia-Leis hosted her rally for supporters Saturday afternoon, with hugs, lots of friendly chatter and generous slices of carrot cake.

Brian Bowman hosted two rallies, one Saturday with plans for another Sunday. Robert-Falcon Ouellette held a daylong rally that was really a community concert with hot dogs and chips.

The rallies were the main focal points of the weekend, but hardly the only activity.

Each of the leading candidates made it clear they were running full out to bring in the vote.

“You can see by the mood in this campaign office, it’s buoyant,” Judy Wasylycia-Leis said shortly after a news conference at the campaign headquarters.

Streams of people came and went Saturday afternoon: the garage-like doors in the back of her campaign office were thrown open for air circulation. “There are lots of volunteers coming. Today was my opportunity to thank the over 700 volunteers in the campaign. They’ve helped us put up over 4,000 signs and drop leaflets and answer phones and be there for our voters,” Wasylycia-Leis said.

She used the event to summarize her campaign platform and unveil the final part of it, a commitment to fix the city’s roads, clean up government at city hall and open up opportunities for regular citizens.

“Really the message today is we’ve got four sleeps and three and a half days to go and we’re going to go like crazy and do everything we can to bring this home,” Wasylycia-Leis said.

For Brian Bowman, it was crunch time, in an all-out race to beat the frontrunner and veteran campaigner.

He said his day started with meetings and calls at 6 a.m., followed by a morning rally for supporters and then a blitz of all 15 wards in the city.

By 6 p.m. Bowman had wrapped up the blitz and was gearing up for two or three appearances in the evening.

“We kicked off what we call the Bowman blitz. We visited every ward in Winnipeg. We started out at places like St. Norbert’s farmers market, St. Vital mall, different hockey rinks and locations in every corner of the city,” Bowman said.

The Bowman campaign has a second rally, Sunday at 1 p.m. at Bowman’s campaign headquarters.

“We’re not resting… Between now and the time the polls open Wednesday morning, we’ll be meeting as many Winnipeggers as possible,” Bowman said.

Robert-Falcon Ouellette threw a rally in a hall with a capacity for hundreds of supporters, complete with hotdogs and potato chips. The shindig at the Indian and Metis Friendship Centre in the city’s north end started Saturday afternoon and was slated to go into the evening. The lineup included a noted elder, a drum group, a choir and singer songwriter Scott Nolan.

Meanwhile, Gord Steeves is holding a news conference at noon today.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca