Candidates looking to knock the Conservative incumbent off his seat in Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission have taken the battle for votes online.
For the past week, Mandeep Bhuller’s Liberal campaign has sent out incessant tweets in an attempt to engage Randy Kamp in debate on topics like the leaked auditor general’s report on the G8-G20 summit and the contract over F35 fighter jets.
Bhuller’s campaign is focusing much of its efforts online because he has a speech defect and suffers from Spina bifida, which limits his ability to door knock.
“We were hoping that Randy Kamp would show us the respect of having some discussions online, where Mandeep’s disability doesn’t impact his ability to communication,” said campaign spokesperson Brian Rice. “So far, Randy hasn’t chosen to do that. I think the voters deserve an opportunity to hear from our elected official and hear him defend things like the G8 auditor general’s report.”
Although a tad late, NDP candidate Craig Speirs entered the fray on Wednesday with a tweet that wondered “how local MP @RandyKamp_com is holding federal fisheries “responsible”.
Kamp, though, isn’t bothered by the baiting. In fact, he didn’t know his rivals were shouting questions at him that are now lost somewhere in cyber space.
He is looking forward to being engaged “in person” at the two planned all-candidate debates.
“We answer questions we get from real people, not questions that come from other campaigns,” Kamp said while taking a break from door knocking.
“We are doing real campaigning and would be glad to answer questions that come from real people.”
Find the candidates on Twitter:
• Randy Kamp - twitter.com/RandyKamp_com
• Craig Speirs - twitter.com/craigspeirsndp
• Mandeep Bhuller - twitter.com/VoteMandeep
• Peter Tam - twitter.com/VotePeterTam