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Southern River candidates talk about a day in the life on the campaign trail

Francis CurroComment News

THE Comment News has spoken to the Labor and Liberal candidate for Southern River about what the day in the life on the campaign trail.

SOUTHERN River MLA Peter Abetz admits the popularity of Colin Barnett may have an impact on the coming State Election result.

Mr Abetz has a margin of about 11 per cent for his seat after boundary changes ahead of this election, according to political expert Antony Green.

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He said he was still flat out campaigning and cited the election of Donald Trump and Brexit as reason for not taking anything for granted.

“I don’t think we take anything for granted as last election we had the anti-Julia Gillard factor which was quite significant and Colin Barnett was still very popular and he is not so quite popular now,” he said.

“I think Brexit and the US Presidential Election indicates that in politics you can’t assume anything these days.”

He said one of the challenges following the re-distribution was to get to know the new people of the electorate that did not know him before.

“I have just finished door-knocking those 4000 houses and obviously you don’t get everybody but at least people know you have made the effort to try and connect with them,” he said.

Mr Abetz is also working long hours in the lead up until the March 11 election.

He said letter boxing or waving signs on major roads dominated his day to get his name out there.

SOUTHERN RIVER Labor candidate Terry Healy said the most awkward interactions he faced on the campaign trail was knocking on former and current students’ doors.

Mr Healy, who is a teacher at Southern River College, will run against Liberal Peter Abetz at the upcoming March 11 election.

Although no one has ever been rude to Mr Healy on the campaign trail, he said the students could sometimes open the door when he was campaigning, which created an “awkward situation”.

“If you can imagine when you were in high school what would happen if your teacher knocked on the door asking to vote for them, it’s a horribly awkward situation,” he said.

Mr Healy had to take leave without pay from his job to dedicate time to campaigning.

He said he paid extra money into his home loan before he took the time off before.

Mr Healy begins the day by going to bus stops and shopping centres until about 9am while people were heading to work.

After that, he phones residents, begins door knocking in the afternoon and meeting with locals.

He said for a candidate running for an election, it was all about getting his name out there.

“At the shopping centre no one wants to have a long conversation with a politician,” he said.