People’s Party of Canada (PPC) candidate Chey Craik thought it was positive that he received more than triple the percentage of votes in this federal election over 2019, but was still disappointed with a third-place showing.
Craik received 4,537 votes or 11.6 per cent of the popular vote in the Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan constituency during the 2021 federal election. In comparison, he received 3.5 per cent of the popular vote in 2019 during his first election run.
“I think people are going to realize their representation is lacking and that they had a better option. I guess they didn’t take it this time, but we’re building momentum, we’re building communication, and we’re building the results, so next time we’ll make a difference,” he said on Sept. 20 during a post-election gathering at a sports bar.
“We didn’t pull it off this time, but it’s coming.”
Craik was disappointed with — and surprised by — the overall results from the federal election, saying he had hoped to see a Conservative Party minority with the PPC acting as “kingmaker.” This would have helped return “true conservative values” to the national conversation and make them more acceptable.
Vote splitting was not an issue in this election — either regionally or nationally — even though it was “fantastic marketing” that the Conservatives used this election effectively, and in 2019 and past elections, he continued. However, he thought voters would come to realize that how they voted this time didn’t give them the change they wanted.
“I think we’ll see that over the next couple of years, and hopefully they’ll vote with their heart and conscience next time,” he said, adding more face-to-face conversations with voters should convince people to give him and the party more support.
Craik plans to run again whenever the next federal election is called; that could be in 18 to 24 months based on how this minority Parliament turned out. He believes that if he can quadruple his vote total from this time, the result next time is “going to be massive.”
This year’s campaigning went well for Craik and his team even though it was a short election period compared to 2019, he said. Last time he had five months to door-knock, while this time, he had five weeks. Furthermore, he changed his car’s oil once compared to three times last time, while he also went through only one pair of shoes this time.
“The reception I received in the riding was totally different from last time. Last time we were in small towns, we spent an hour or two door-knocking on every door in the town and (we got) six votes,” he said. “So we’ll see the election results once we get the numbers in,” and certain conversations will be different next time.
Craik doesn’t plan to disappear now that this election is over, either. Instead, his goal is to continue reaching out to voters and letting them know he and the PPC exist.
With two campaigns under his belt, Craik and his team plan to analyze what worked and what didn’t in this election. They will then make the necessary changes for the next federal election and hope that the third time is the charm.
“It (the outcome) didn’t go the way I thought it would and the way I hoped it would. But the people have spoken, and they have chosen who they want to be their representatives, and hopefully next time we’ll do something different … ,” he added. “I think people are understanding who we are and what we represent as time goes on, and they’ll change their tune next time.”
