Freedom Flyer 34

Editor's Note: Observer reporters dogged candidates on the campaign trail in recent weeks, getting a feel for the style of those who want to represent our ridings at Queen's Park. This is part of a series of stories from the two ridings in our area, Sarnia-Lambton and Lambton-Kent-Middlesex.

By AONGHUS KEALY
of The Observer

Sarnia-Lambton Freedom Party candidate Andrew Falby goes day by day for his Queen's Park campaign. Not door-to-door.

Falby said financial restrictions make it impossible for him to campaign door-to-door, adding that he earns less doing home renovations and property improvements than the average single guy on welfare (%520 per month).

"I refuse to go on welfare," he said. "I don't believe I should be taking from the state."

He said after he loses the election --- "That's a given" --- he will spend more time renovating.

Falby's campaign budget was $250, and that includes the $200 entry fee he had to pay the province to enter the race for a Queen's Park seat.

But the man once known as the homeless landlord does have a cell phone, a necessary expense for a campaign that is being run out of his campaign manager's two-car garage on Vidal Street.

"Don't you know that all homeless landlords have cell phones?" he joked.

He earned his name as the homeless landlord because he was a landlord to many properties in Sarnia, and later had to live out of a van for a short period of time.

But those who don't attend the debates or follow the news can still learn of Falby's candidacy when they drive by his two campaign signs in Sarnia.

Two signs bear his name and party. One is planted on the Vidal Street property of his campaign manager and best friend, Herman Martens. The other graces the property on Stewart Street, and was pounded in by another friend.

At a Rotarian lunch, he called Canada's voters a flock of sheep and urged them to bleat out their new national anthem, adding that they cow-towed to the will of the "wolves" of government --- civil servants.

It may surprise people that Falby would even try to campaign if he can't afford to go door-to-door, but Falby said he likes to think of himself as the "monkey wrench" of the campaign.