Icy stairs and snow bank signs: campaigning in Ontarios winter election [Video]

Falling down stairs, pushing stuck cars out of snow banks and cancelling events are just some of the challenges candidates have faced on the winter campaign trail, but Sol Mamakwa may have them all beat.

This is Ontario’s first winter election campaign since 1981 and the incumbent NDP candidate for Kiiwetinoong in northwestern Ontario has rented a plane with skis so he can try to visit some of the 24 fly-in First Nation communities in his riding that spans nearly 300,000 square kilometres.

“(It’s) not too bad, but it’s frickin’ cold right now,” he said recently during a break from campaigning in Pickle Lake. “Last week has been minus 40.”

He was trying to visit two to three fly-in communities a day with his plane over the last week or so of the campaign. At a cost of $6,000 to $8,000 per day that’s about all his campaign can afford, …