It’s getting down to crunch time in the federal election campaign and three of the big party leaders have yet to visit Guelph.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh have yet to visit Guelph.
“If he does come, we’re told the day before,” said local Liberal candidate Lloyd Longfield. “You get 24 hours notice to change your schedule and get yourself over to where he’s going to be.”
Longfield said he’d be thrilled if Trudeau came to Guelph to boost the campaign.
“It’s always good to see the boss. Of course it would be great to see him, but I also know he has 338 ridings to cover and we’re running out of days.”
Bob Coole, campaign manager for local Conservative candidate Dr. Ashish Sachan, said they’ve put in a request to have their party leader visit Guelph, but “it’s out of our hands.”
“We wouldn’t know anything until 12 to 18 hours before, if he does come,” Coole said.
He said the campaign would love a visit from Scheer.
“We are hoping. It would be a big boost,” Coole said.
Jahangir also said that any visit by Singh would come with short notice.
“We have asked for our leader to make a stop here in Guelph, but as you can imagine they’re quite busy,” Jahangir said.
“It would be a great boost and a great opportunity to meet him and maybe have a chance to speak to him,” she said.
“It’s if he can visit. It’s not that he doesn’t want to. If he can make it happen, he will.”
Trudeau was last in Guelph in 2016. Scheer and Singh have never made visits here as leaders of their parties.
The Green Party’s Elizabeth May was in Guelph Sept. 16 for local candidate Steve Dyk’s campaign launch and has made numerous trips to the Royal City the past couple of years.
People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier came to Guelph for a panel discussion in July and has made at least two other visits to Guelph in the recent past.
Trudeau has been in Kitchener on Monday and has visited Waterloo and Cambridge in the recent past.
Longfield, Coole and Jahangir all said that people shouldn’t read anything into the fact their party leaders haven’t been able to fit Guelph into his schedule.
“I know they’re very strategic in the use of time and I’m just focusing on the job I need to do and get myself re-elected. If he came by we’d make room in our schedule, but so far we haven’t had the call,” Longfield said.
“On Monday (Trudeau) was in Mannheim (near Waterloo) and it was his sixth stop of the day,” he said, who also disagreed with the notion that Trudeau’s absence in Guelph might be a sign of confidence in Longfield’s ability to win the riding without his help.
“I wouldn’t say that,” he said.
Coole said “it couldn’t be further from the truth” that the lack of a visit by Scheer shows the party has less interest in the riding.
“Trudeau hasn’t been here. So we’re both in the same boat,” Coole said.
“I’m hoping he stops in. That goes a long way to showing ‘oh, this guy cares.’ If he comes in and boosts us, I’d love it, but I’m not worried about it.”
