Before yesterday’s strike action, CUP-W had tried to put pressure on Canada Post by stopping the delivery of flyers – putting advertisers and political candidates in a tough spot.
Some municipal candidates in Mount Pearl took it upon themselves to deliver their flyers themselves.
Nicole Kieley was dismayed to hear that the flyers she had printed wouldn’t be delivered to households in the city.
Kieley lost a leg in a horrific accident in May of 2023 when a vehicle struck her after crashing through the front window of Shoppers Drug Mart in St. John’s.
She says the prospect of trying to deliver her own flyers was daunting.
“At that moment, my mind just went kind of blank,” says Kieley. “That was the way I was going to be able to address not being able to get to as many doors…nowhere near as (many) door to doors as I did the first time I ran.”
Fellow Mount Pearl municipal candidates Wanda Tiller and Chelsea Lane found themselves in a similar situation.
(VOCM News)
Lane, a mother of three, says she has been saving up for the last four years to have the material printed, half of which are now stuck at Canada Post. She says the development was devastating to her.
“I did not expect to…lose half my flyers, and I can’t afford to get them all re-printed; it’s outside of my budget, so I was able to get some reprinted, but unfortunately that means that a big portion of Mount Pearl won’t get my flyer unless somehow they end up being released.”
Wanda Tiller says she’s involved in a lot of organizations, but as a new candidate, she was at a disadvantage in getting her name out there without being able to distribute flyers in the mail.
That’s when she reached out to Kieley and the three candidates decided to join forces.
She and Kieley made contact with the local girls’ soccer team and managed to distribute combined flyers to about 71 per cent of households in Mount Pearl. She saw Chelsea’s post about how devastated she was by the development and decided to share it on her own page. “Someone had said to me, like, why would you share Chelsea’s? And I said ‘because everyone’s voice deserves to be heard.’ It was a big thing for us to work together.”
