The first status update on the letter is that almost a third of the candidates have made it difficult to get in touch. In decreasing order of difficulty, the problems are/were:
- As noted in the original post, Canadian Heritage Party candidates Carl Hiemstra and Lesley Bartley don’t have any contact information published yet.
- At the time of writing Conservative candidate Paul van Meerbergen didn’t have a website or email address listed. However, I was able to find an email address from his previous campaign for city council. (His listing on the CPC website has since been updated to add contact info.)
- Conservative candidate Mary Lou Ambrogio’s widely publicized general email address bounced, reporting “Unknown user”. (I was able to find an alternative address.)
- Email to Conservative candidate Joe Preston’s media liaison garnered a surprising auto-response, which noted that that person no longer works for his office. However, the message provided two additional contacts, neither of which had similar delivery issues.
- NDP candidate Steve Holmes doesn’t have an email address, just a contact form.
The ones who made it easy are:
- Sue Barnes (Liberal)
- Noel Burgon (Green)
- Ryan Dolby (NDP)
- Peter Ferguson (NDP)
- Jacquie Gauthier (Liberal)
- Mary Ann Hodge (Green)
- Ed Holder (Conservative)
- Monica Jarabek (Green)
- Irene Mathyssen (NDP)
- Daniel O’Neail (Green)
- Glen Pearson (Liberal)
- Suzanne van Bommel (Liberal)
- Mike van Holst (independent)
- Leonard Vanderhoeven (CHP)
And they say Winnipeg is a small town – I went to UWO with Noel Burgon, Green Party candidate. Went to his website to confirm and yup, it’s him! How very interesting….