1 week Ago By Dave Deibert, Saskatoon StarPhoenix
“The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions definitely made the election feel strange.” “ “You can remember that opening day at The Cave as I fretted about the number of people we had around.” “It was a challenging election due to some folks not feeling comfortable physically voting during the early days of COVID-19 or to connect on the doorstep while door knocking.
” “The combination of the COVID-19 restrictions and the snowstorm made it all very surreal.” “It already felt odd and different because of COVID. It wasn’t that weird on the voter contact side.
We were going door to door and having conversations. We stayed outside, made sure we were doing the distancing, the things that were recommended at that time. The thing that felt strange was not being able to have an event, a gathering, town hall meeting, debate.
” “It was hard to know what people would be comfortable with, and also what precautions above the restrictions to take. It got more comfortable as we went on.” “The COVID restrictions made some things tricky — normal campaign features like events, in-person debates, and visiting retirement homes were off the table — but in most ways it felt surprisingly normal because we could still door knock, flyer, and phone.
” “At first, knocking on doors was awkward. We were wearing masks. But after just a few days we realized that wasn’t necessary since we backed away a fair distance after knocking.
” “Furthermore, with the provincial election in close proximity to the municipal, it was extra challenging to share information and capture people’s attention.” “We’d had some experience covering the provincial election a couple of weeks earlier, so we knew it would be different, but not impossible to cover. The big difference was that instead of a room packed with volunteers and supporters, the press conference would be a handful of people standing 10 feet apart from each other in a field somewhere.
Less exciting visually, maybe.” “Giving people rides to the polling station was also quite different. Some of my volunteers partitioned off their vehicle with plastic to create a separation between the front seats and back passenger seats.
We provided masks and hand sanitizer as well.” “The day before, we were delivering the final get-out-the-vote pamphlets. In the morning it was OK.
Windy in the afternoon. By 5 p.m.
, heavy snow and wind. We couldn’t see the steps and it became too slippery to walk.” “We knew the night before and day before that the snow was coming and falling.
That this is going to be a challenge.” “Everyone knew there was a big storm coming, but what I remember most is waking up that morning and just marvelling at how much snow came down.” “I did some poking around, on the assumption that the only thing that would delay (an election) would be a major blizzard, and there were election-day blizzards in 1947, 1948 and 1951 .
.. In any case, the elections were held as planned in those years.
” “The weatherman — no respecter of democracy — saved up a particularly icy blizzard to hurl into the faces of citizens trudging their way to the polls this morning.” “There’s no snow days for elections. The election must continue.
” “Shovelling was delegated to my spouse that day.” “Oh gosh, I think my husband was shovelling for an hour or two and then our neighbour came with a snow blower to help us. They ended up snow blowing lots of neighbours’ homes.
I was out on foot in my neighbourhood reminding folks to vote during that time.” “It felt like a good neighbourhood moment. Sunny morning.
Bunch of us out there with snowblowers and shovels, out there for hours.” “On the original election day, I spent five hours in the morning snow-blowing around the neighbourhood. I’ve got a pretty good-sized snow blower, but at one house the snow was covering the top of the door along a long driveway.
” “I borrowed a four-wheel drive SUV from a neighbour to get around and help voters get to the polls. It was a good distraction from the stress to be rally driving through that deep snow, and occasionally pushing others out along the way. I didn’t get stuck, which I felt pretty proud of, too.
” “The city was littered, I would say, with small cars — with cars of any size — and small SUVs who thought that they could navigate blizzard conditions (Sunday) evening and through the night.” “A number of people were evacuated from vehicles, taken to their homes. Others were helped to be able to get their vehicle moving.
” “As soon as we knew there was a big storm coming, we tried as much as possible to accelerate our (get out the vote) plans and get things out the day before, but by the time the sun went down we were already having trouble getting around, and we knew that next day was going to be a serious challenge.” “I recall a lot of uncertainty about what was going to be happening with voting. Would polling hours be extended for stations that couldn’t open on time? Would people be able to vote on another day?” “This snowstorm, this blizzard, was not unforeseen.
” “Can we extend voting hours? Can we have another election day? How is this going to work? We were on the edge of our seats. We didn’t know if we could extend hours. There were all of these unknowns.
” “My most vivid memory is t “The uncertainty of whether the election would be postponed or not is one of my most vivid memories. I also remember looping arms with folks to help them walk through the snow since many still made the trek to their polling station.” “This is unprecedented.
It doesn’t make sense to just say, ‘It’s 8 p.m. and the polling stations are closed.
’ ” “We didn’t learn the plan until quite a few hours into the day, since the elections office needed guidance from the provincial ministry. There was a lot of uncertainty.” “Obviously an election in the city of Saskatoon is quite complex and requires a lot of moving parts, so we just wanted to make sure all of our pieces were in compliance with that order and logistics were organized.
” “That just is beyond comprehension.” “In the morning of that first election day, a volunteer and I were trying to deliver voting reminders and pull my supporters to go and vote. All of a sudden we saw someone cross-country skiing towards us, going right down the middle of the street.
She recognized me, and said, ‘Oh, I’m just going to the polls to go vote for you!’ It felt incredibly surreal.” “When the election was called off at 5 p.m.
, my wife Sarah was so demoralized and discouraged it wasn’t going to finally be over, and she was wet after tromping through deep snow to remind people to vote. I was out driving people to the polls and went and picked her up and found her on Idylwyld Drive in the dark. It was a rough moment.
” “My plan was to work from home for most of the afternoon and then go down to Charlie Clark’s campaign office downtown once the results started to come in ...
ultimately the postponement meant I didn’t have to go out that night. I felt for my colleagues who spent the day slogging around the city to write about the storm’s effects.” “My most vivid memory is of talking on FaceTime to one of my brothers-in-law after he had trudged through waist-high snow on foot to the Westmount polling station — a neighbourhood over.
He was very wet and very tired. He found it closed. If I recall correctly, that station was inaccessible for most of the day, and didn’t open until very late.
” “I was out trying to pull vote most of the day with volunteers, until we got word that voting was being suspended and then extended. Shout out to my Subaru Outback because we didn’t get stuck once.” “Those last few days were, frankly, hell.
It’s like running a full marathon and then finding out at the finish line you have to run another five miles.” “Absolutely. And it was also exhausting since we had to regroup and repeat our efforts to get people out to vote on election day twice.
” “It was a pretty unpleasant purgatory to be in, and of course as a council member, we had a lot of work to do to try to address the conditions around the city and manage the operational issues that the snow had created.” “Of course it added nerves. I wasn’t sure how people were going to perceive our response, not only as a city but as a community, to the snow.
Maybe everyone’s going to be really, really angry. Gets folks into a ‘throw-the-bums-out’ attitude. I was certainly on edge about that.
We came to realize that people were understanding.” “The rescheduled election day? It was my birthday. Nov.
13, just like this year.” “In a campaign, all your efforts and energies are driving towards that specific day, and you and your team and your family are looking forward to the relief of getting to that day and to the results, whatever they may be.” “In an average winter storm, we will be pretty confident to say we would meet those timelines.
With a storm like this one that resulted in 35-plus centimetres of snow with some drifts that are four feet high, that timeline might be extended.” “So even though I knew it was the reasonable choice to allow an additional chance to vote, it was very hard to reenergize and refocus for those additional days until the second election day. Especially because of the conditions around the city, which made door knocking nearly impossible, there was really no playbook about what campaign work we should be doing.
” “Family, friends, colleagues on city council, city administration — we all did the best we could for each other and the city.” “I was very grateful for our civic crews who worked very quickly to try and get people moving safely.” “My team had so many amazing volunteers that managed to get people to the polls under truly wild conditions.
It was an incredible team effort.” “I am so grateful for my campaign manager Michelle Beveridge, and an amazing campaign team and volunteers for building a campaign that there was no instruction manual for — as well as a two-phased election day strategy.” “The rescheduled election day was anticlimactic by comparison.
I remember interviewing Charlie Clark in the hall outside his campaign office after the results came in, and then filing my part of the story. It felt quite subdued compared to 2016. The pandemic made big celebrations difficult if not impossible, but I think everyone was utterly exhausted by that point and just wanted to go home.
” “The day after the election, my partner Erin and I were already out collecting signs because in that weather they would get lost fast. While in our truck, I got a call from Mayor Clark, congratulating me and welcoming me to council. And I could almost hear his smile as he told me: ‘You know this snow is responsibility now.
'” “It was quiet and muted. But there was a sense of relief, that all the weird things — campaigning in a pandemic, voting in a blizzard — was going to be done. Life was going to go on and the sun was going to come up the next day.
”.
