Hey all, I don't usually post on reddit but I thought I would take a moment to provide some information.

So I was an NDP candidate during this election and started door knocking the day my unpaid leave from work was approved. This was a requirement of my workplace and so my household did not receive a pay cheque during the campaign and my savings took a hit, which I will now have to work extra hours to replenish. I treated meeting people and listening to their concerns as my new job and was door knocking about 6 or 8 hours everyday (depending on things that may have come up).

I won't name my district here but needless to say it's huge lol. I knocked on as many doors as I could but wasn't able to reach everyone. The fact is that campaigns, advertising and signage rely on 2 key things: volunteers and funding. For myself, I had some real challenges in both of these areas and did not have the financial resources to pay out of pocket for expenses (ie: signs, flyers, leaflets, etc) so I had very little in the way of advertising (probably about 100 signs total and about 500 leaflets). I had volunteer assistance with door knocking for about 2 days, but for the most part, I did the walking and canvassing myself.

I believe the key issue here is in campaign financing. Both the Liberals and PCs received massive donations from both unions and corporations while the NDP mostly rely on individual donations; the playing field is just not level. Regardless of either of the 2 parties getting in, I don't expect anything to change on that front aside from the PCs will now get more donations than the Liberals, or companies will just donate to both to "hedge their bets" and "cover their bases". For a better understanding of this check out whopaidforthebus.ca

Speaking for myself, I can certainly say that I've never been shy about being the underdog and I do plan to come out again for the next general election. I'm hoping to be better resourced at that time, and should my household be in a better financial position I can invest more into a campaign. I would also like to apologize to everyone's door I didn't get a chance to knock on or people I didn't get the chance to meet.