As he describes it, Sudbury NDP candidate Jamie West says he has neither a hockey card nor a byelection scandal, so he's still unknown to many voters.
The backhand reference to Tory candidate Troy Crowder (a former NHLer) and Liberal MPP and Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault extends more broadly to the provincial campaign, where he says controversies involving both parties have dominated the headlines.
"The Patrick Brown fizzle sucked all the air out of the room, so it was difficult for the press to pay attention to anything else," West said, sitting in his newly opened campaign headquarters on the Kingsway. "It was like a car crash that lasted for two weeks ... You couldn't look away.
"But I think that will change as (NDP Leader Andrea Horwath) gets out, and the candidates get out and start talking about the platform, and demonstrating that this election is all about change,” he said. “I think it's very, very unlikely that Kathleen Wynne is going to win again. You don't have to be a pundit to know that.”
What has him eager to get started is the number of people telling him they're considering voting New Democrat for the first time.
“I've heard people say, 'I don't normally vote for your party, but I can't stand her (Wynne), and that guy's crazy (Tory Leader Doug Ford), so this is your shot,' " he said. "I'm excited about that ... People want something that's really different."
Thibeault has made several funding announcements in recent weeks, something West says is clearly a ploy to buy voter support.
"A friend of mine asked me what I thought of it, and I said hey, leave all the money in Sudbury on your way out the door, we'll take it from here," he said. "Our hospitals are struggling, and then all of a sudden, the night before the prom, he shows up with all these cheques, and says, 'Hey, I love you, you're the most important thing in the world.' I think Sudbury is smarter than that."
It reflects a cynicism with the current government, he said, pointing to Thibeault's campaigning when he was an NDP MP, calling on the federal government to act on gas prices.
"He was always complaining about the price of gas, but now he's energy minister, he's got nothing to say about it," West said.
"So people see through it. (The funding announcements are) absolutely an election strategy, and every party does it to a certain extent, but this is unprecedented."
And the Tories are good at getting people excited, West said, but what they say doesn't always make sense. For example, Ford's promise to fire Hydro One CEO Mayo Schmidt, who makes $6 million a year, is a move that would be popular, but would cost taxpayers even more money.
"Hey, I want him fired -- it's not fair he's giving himself raises and our rates are going up," West said. "But the reality is, there's a big price tag attached to that. We need to figure out how to remove him, without costing us a fortune."
West is direct about the NDP's plans to raise taxes on high-income earners to pay for the party's promises and get the deficit under control.
"This isn't a spending problem, it's an income problem,” West said. “People who should be paying their fair share aren't. People who are already stretched to the max are paying to much.
"We're proud of our policy. We're raising taxes on the most wealthy -- we're talking about people making more than $300,000 a year, businesses that make over $1 million a year, and we're talking about a percentage or two. We're just saying, the rest of us are paying our fair share, it's time they chipped in because we've been giving you a free ride for too long."
For now, West plans to work hard to ensure people know what he is and what he represents.
"I need to knock on as many doors as possible,” he said. “This is a work hard city, right? So I'm going to put in the work and the time, and on June 7, we'll see the results. But I'm in it to win it."
