How three Canadian voters made their choice in the election

Canadians are set to go to the polls Monday, but not everyone has always known what they were going to do when they got there. The Canadian Press followed three undecided voters through the ups and downs of this election campaign to see how they made up their minds.

LEDON WELLON, MOUNT PEARL, N.L. Reflections on the campaign

Ledon Wellon sighs, laughs and shakes her head when trying to put her feelings about the federal election campaign into words.

The 31-year-old hair stylist living in Mount Pearl, N.L., just a few minutes from the provincial capital, said she’s watched the campaign closely — including the English debate — but she hasn’t exactly found it inspiring.

“It’s been kind of all over the place,” Wellon said. “Nobody’s really saying what they’re doing, they’re just saying what the other person isn’t (doing) … which I don’t find helpful at all.”

It’s also hard to trust leaders who make promises but don’t lay out how they’ll follow through, she said.

How she came to her decision

Ultimately, Wellon said she’ll likely cast a ballot for the NDP. After paying around $20,000 for medications while she and her partner were trying to conceive, she said the party’s promise to roll out a universal pharmacare program won her over.

Message to the winner

Wellon’s message to whoever wins on Monday? Follow through.

“Whoever becomes prime minister, I just hope that a lot of the promises that were made are kept,” she said. “It’d be nice to be able to actually trust a leader that is in charge. So many young people need so many of the things that are promised.”

DAVID ODONGI, CALGARY Reflections on the campaign

David Odongi, 39, who lives with his wife and three children in Calgary, voted for the Liberals in both the 2015 and 2019 elections. But he was initially upset that Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau called an election during a pandemic.

He pointed to the recent English language leaders debate as a turning point for his decision. He said he didn’t like Trudeau’s remarks aimed at Green party Leader Annamie Paul.

How he came to his decision Odongi isn’t saying who he will vote for, just that it won’t be for the Liberals.

“I did come to a conclusion, yes,” he says. “It will not be the same as last time.”

Message to the winner

Odongi said he would like whoever gets Canada’s top job to work with other leaders and consider their points of view.

“Try and get us out of these problems that we’re going through. We’re going through COVID-19. We don’t know how it’s going to be better or going to be worse,” he said.

ALEX CARRIER, MONTREAL Reflections on the campaign

Montreal resident Alex Carrier, 36, who works for a large video-game developer, said that while many of the issues he cares about were discussed during the campaign, he would have liked to see more comprehensive

plans for dealing with the pandemic.

“Pandemic response is not a provincial matter. It’s a federal matter. It shouldn’t be different from Quebec, to Ontario, to Manitoba. There should be one comprehensive plan and it should be from the federal government,” he said.

How he came to his decision Carrier said he made his choice by process of elimination.

He ruled out the Conservatives because he doesn’t think the party is concerned enough about the environment and he’s worried that a Tory government would impose austerity measures at a time when people need help.

Carrier said he sees Trudeau, who represents the Papineau riding where he lives, as a status quo politician, who offers “more of the same, nothing bad, nothing good.”

While Carrier said he would have liked to see Jagmeet Singh bring up climate change more frequently, he thinks the NDP platform is the strongest and he thinks the party’s promise to tax “excess” profits made by companies during the pandemic to fund a recovery plan is “incredibly clever.”

Message to the winner

Carrier said he hopes the next prime minister will think about the long term and bring humility, as well as a willingness to reflect on who we are as a country, to the job.