By Canadian Press

Scheer heads to historic Liberal riding to urge Canadians to vote out government

Oct 21, 2019 | 5:15 PM

REGINA — In every campaign office Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has visited this election, there’s been a sign: victory is knocking.

Door knocking, the party means, and Scheer did exactly that in the waning hours of the election campaign Monday as his party fights fiercely to form government.

The Conservative campaign strategy focused on getting candidates out to as many doors as possible in a bid to put a more human face on the party and make the personal connections seen as key to getting out the vote.

Monday morning, Scheer headed into the Saskatchewan riding of Liberal cabinet minister Ralph Goodale, who has been in politics for nearly 45 years, the majority of them at the federal level.

“The people of Wascana are tired of a Liberal member of Parliament who always votes against them,” Scheer said outside of candidate Michael Kram’s campaign office.

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“Ralph Goodale has sold out Saskatchewan time and time again.” 

Goodale won the Regina-Wascana riding in 2015 with 55 per cent of the vote, with the Conservatives at about 30 per cent.

But the party said frustration with the Liberal government and the carbon-tax debate could push voters more strongly into their column this time around.

Terry Dreger, who waited for Scheer outside Kram’s office Monday morning, said he was so fed up with the Liberals that he decided to move his voter registration into Goodale’s riding so he could cast a ballot against him.

Voting in his old riding of Yorkton-Melville wouldn’t make a difference, Dreger said — it’s a lock for the Tories.

In Regina-Wascana, he felt his ballot could make a difference.

“There’s a lot of anger and frustration here,” Dreger said. 

Scheer spent about a half an hour going from house to house in a neighbourhood of single-family homes with manicured lawns already decorated for Halloween, and SUVs and pickup trucks in the driveways.

It is residents of neighbourhoods like this one the Conservatives are hoping to woo over this campaign, designing a platform filled with pocketbook promises targeted at young families.

Scheer hit about 15 houses during his canvass, hanging voting information on doors where there was no one home, and engaging briefly with those who did answer the door.

One man told him that while he’s long supported the party, his daughter would be casting her first ballot ever this campaign and it would be Tory blue.

“Thanks so much for your support,” Scheer said.

He cast his own ballot later Monday in his home riding of Regina-Qu’Appelle, which he has represented in the House of Commons since 2004.

Scheer, dressed in a blue shirt and dark suit jacket, flashed a smile and gave a thumbs-up for news cameras as he dropped his vote into the box.

His wife, Jill, voted moments later. They were joined at the polling station by their children, one of whom hugged Scheer after he cast his ballot.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Oct. 21, 2019.

The Canadian Press