Saturday’s election will be the ultimate verdict on whether Indi has accepted Cathy McGowan’s method of politics.
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The independent candidate admitted she was nervous on her last day of campaigning but excited to find out the thoughts of the electorate’s 103,000 voters.
“You go the community and say ‘do you like it, do you like it enough?’,” she said.
“I think we’ve done enough, the community seemed to say they really like it.”
For Ms McGowan, the election would not be about individual topics canvassed at the the nine forums throughout the campaign.
“More than any national issue, it will be about who will best represent us,” she said.
The vote was likely to go down to the wire, decided by preferences, but the independent predicted the conservative vote would be split between Sophie Mirabella and Marty Corboy to her benefit.
“I think it is a worry for the government,” Ms McGowan said.
“Will their preferences hold up? We’ll only know that Saturday night.”
If Saturday ended up being her last day as the Indi MP, Ms McGowan said she would still “feel really good about it”.
“We’ve stayed true to what we wanted to do and it won’t stop – this is a movement and regardless of who’s the member of parliament, the thousands of people involved in it like the taste of democracy,” she said.
“It would be nice to have another three years to continue to do it.”
The Wodonga volunteer hub was a hive of activity on Friday as the campaign team packed tubs of orange t-shirts, water bottles, flags and treats of fruit and home-made biscuits for all the region’s booths.
Hub co-ordinator Julie de Hennin said they sourced all the orange possible from Bruck and the rest of Indi.
“We’ve got a fantastic group of volunteers,” she said.