A candidate for Windsor City Council is trying a new approach to encourage residents in his ward to vote.
Kieran McKenzie, who is running for the Ward 9 seat, has teamed up with Bike Windsor-Essex to not only use bicycles to encourage residents to take advantage of advance voting but also call attention to the issues surrounding bike infrastructure in Windsor.
In an appearance on Friday, streamed on Facebook Live, McKenzie unveiled the initiative in time for advance voting, which began in Windsor over the weekend.
"What we're trying to show is that not only is there an opportunity to vote early, but also that we can use bikes and cycling infrastructure to do things that they would do in their daily life, like go to school, vote and go to work," said McKenzie.
McKenzie said a crucial issue in this election is the advancement of cycling infrastructure throughout the city, something that Lori Newton of Bike Windsor-Essex says is lacking in Windsor.
"The infrastructure has not really moved the bar in the past four years," said Newton. "The bicycle use master plan is still, sadly, almost ignored. Although we're doing an active transportation plan which is very exciting for us, we need to see implementation."
The campaign first used the bicycle initiative in a get-out-the-vote effort on Friday and Saturday, when the first day of advance voting took place at Devonshire Mall.
McKenzie is running in Ward 9 against incumbent councillor Hilary Payne. The other challenger for the seat is Alex Aggarwal
Advance voting is taking place at various sites across Windsor all this week. Click here to get the complete list of times and places where you can vote early.
The municipal election is on Monday, October 22.