Door knocking still seen as critical in tight election campaign

It was a busy weekend for candidates knocking on doors in Calgary, especially in the tightly contested riding of Calgary Confederation.

Both Conservative candidate Len Webber and Liberal candidate Matt Grant spent time taking their messages directly to voters — one door at a time.

The approach may seem dated in today's social-media age, but Melanee Thomas, who teaches political science at the University of Calgary, says the tried-and-true technique of doorstep campaigning is still the best way for candidates to reach voters in a meaningful way.

"The reality is that most Canadians — the overwhelmingly majority of Canadians — do not engage with politics online at all," she said. "Like, not even a little bit."

A real-life, face-to-face meeting with a candidate often sparks more follow-up action among voters, Thomas added.

Liberal candidate Matt Grant said he started door-knocking back in April 2014 and figures he's visited 115,000 homes since then.

He figures the effort "really has an impact" in the riding.

"Our theory has always been, do the new stuff well but do the old-school stuff even better," Grant said.

Webber, meanwhile, combined both old-school and new-school techniques over the weekend, bringing along some provincial politicians for his door-knocking outings and sharing their excursions on social media.

Interim Alberta PC leader Ric McIver tweeted his support for Webber:

And Jeremy Nixon, who ran for the Wildrose in Calgary-Klein in the last provincial election, also came along on a door-knocking outing:

NDP candidate Kirk Heuser noted his team was busy hitting doors, too, encouraging people to get out and cast ballots in advance polls:

Also running in Calgary Confederation is Natalie Odd of the Green Party, and Kevan Hunter with the Marxist-Leninist Party.

Advance polls are open until 8 p.m. Monday and the general voting day is Monday, Oct. 19.