After one cold shoulder and a few door knocks that went unanswered, Jane Philpott arrived at the house of Rose Macdonald and got a reception that would cheer any politician.

There was immediate recognition and a welcome hug from Macdonald, who made an excited phone call to a friend to share the news of her visitor.

“I like what she stands for, how she speaks, how she stands up for others,” Macdonald said, agreeing to take a lawn sign and pledging Philpott her vote.

Philpott, a doctor, won the riding of Markham-Stouffville in 2015 as a Liberal. But her re-election challenge is far harder than imagined a year ago, when she was a respected cabinet minister.

This time she’s running as an independent in the fallout of the SNC-Lavalin controversy that also engulfed Jody Wilson-Raybould, her friend and cabinet colleague.

Wilson-Raybould, the former attorney general and justice minister, testified at a parliamentary committee that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and senior aides improperly pressured her to give the Quebec company a deferred prosecution agreement to avoid a possible criminal conviction that could cost it government contracts. She resigned from cabinet in February.

Philpott followed suit in early March, declaring she had “lost confidence” in the government’s handling of the issue.

The two MPs were subsequently tossed from the Liberal caucus. Now both are running for re-election as independents.

“It’s extraordinary freedom, the feeling that this is what democracy is about: connecting with voters, getting to know their issues and not being dictated to,” said Philpott, who served as minister of health, then Indigenous services and finally the twin role of president of the Treasury Board and minister of digital government.

Stouffville resident Norma Card backed Philpott in 2015 and says the fact she’s running as an independent only adds to her appeal.

“I think it’s very exciting. I think we may finally get some change and I think she’s so well-known and respected she’ll be able to talk to everybody,” said Card, who is volunteering on Philpott’s campaign.

Yet there’s a full slate trying to make sure she doesn’t get elected — Conservative Theodore Antony, Roy Long for the Green Party, Jeremy Lin of the People’s Party of Canada, and two other doctors, New Democrat Hal Berman and Liberal Helena Jaczek.

Jaczek is the other political veteran in this race, having represented the community at Queen’s Park for more than a decade until her defeat last year.

The former provincial cabinet minister has known Philpott professionally and more recently, the two have helped each on their respective election campaigns. Until this one.

“Honestly, it’s not personal. It’s not about me. It’s about Team Trudeau,” Jaczek said, gesturing at the election signs that dot the walls of her campaign headquarters.

But Jaczek questions whether an independent MP can truly be effective without the political support and financial resources that comes with party membership. She says that issue is on the minds of voters, too.

“Quite a bit of the discussion, especially the people who phone in, has been effectiveness of an independent,” said Jaczek, who served as York Region’s medical officer of health before she entered politics.

“We are in a party system, you got stuff done ... whether it’s opposition or it’s minority or a majority,” she said.

Jaczek and Philpott will compete largely for the riding’s liberal voters; by their own admissions, they’re not likely to disagree much on policy. But Jaczek worries that the progressive vote could split, ensuring victory for the Conservative.

“The fear, really, is of the Conservative coming through the middle. I'm sure Jane Philpott knew that when she decided to become an independent candidate,” Jaczek said.

That very concern motivated Jeff Woodland to help Jaczek’s campaign.

“This is quite a unique race. What really drove me to help Helena was to be involved in a race that really mattered,” said Woodland, who travelled from his Scarborough home to help out.

“I think it’s important to push the message of the Liberal Party and the effect that someone who is part of a caucus can have in Ottawa,” Woodland said.

Philpott has heard the arguments that she’s naïve and overly optimistic to think that a single independent MP could have meaningful influence in the 338-seat House of Commons.

To that, she says, look to the example of Elizabeth May, who was elected in 2011 and for many of the years since has sat as the lone member of Parliament for the Green Party. “I think you'd be hard-pressed to find very many other MPs that drove their policy priorities to the extent that Elizabeth has done,” Philpott said.

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“I really think one shouldn’t underestimate what a single seat in the House of Commons can do if it's held by someone who is will to work very hard, be competent, speak up on behalf of their constituents and collaborate with anyone who is wiling to work with them,” she said.

During a recent Toronto visit, Wilson-Raybould also extolled the virtues of sitting as an independent MP.

“We as a country are faced with so many significant issues that if we think that one party has a monopoly on all of the solutions ... we’re never going to solve or take bold climate action, resolve Indigenous reconciliation,” Wilson-Raybould told an audience during the Word on the Street festival.

“We have to move beyond parties.”

Yet as much as Philpott and Wilson-Raybould are running against political rivals, they are also up against history. Dozens of independent candidates run in each election, and they rarely win. There is one factor that works in their favour, however. Those who have won — MPs such as John Nunziata, Chuck Cadman, André Arthur and Tony Roman — gained public profiles.

Philpott says her campaign is going “very well,” citing 300 volunteers, steady requests for lawn signs and a good reception while knocking on doors. She has also announced that her campaign had reached its fundraising target.

She says she’s drawing support from voters from all stripes. “I haven't been able to crystallize what the message is, but there’s some kind of message that people are collectively trying send,” Philpott said.

She thinks that her resignation from cabinet was the “right thing to do,” a decision reinforced by the federal ethics commissioner, who ruled that Trudeau had violated ethics laws.

“I do feel sad about it. I feel that it didn’t have to have been that way, that there were a whole bunch of points along the way when it could have been handled differently by the prime minister and the people around him,” Philpott said.

The NDP’s Berman was just recently confirmed as a candidate in the riding. He previously ran in 2015 for the New Democrats in York Centre, finishing third behind Liberal Michael Levitt, who won, and the second-place Conservative.

The palliative care physician says he’s a “social democrat” with a long interest in politics. He says voters are unhappy with Trudeau’s leadership, including his failure to enact electoral reform as promised, and accuses the Liberal leader of having a double standard.

“He promised a new relationship with First Nations and he completely failed at that. He imposes one set of values ... but he does not feel bound by those values,” Berman said.

Long, of the Green Party, says local residents are concerned about jobs for their children, as well the affordability of education and housing.

“They want their kids to be able to work and live in our community, to get a decent job. That is absolutely number one,” said Long, a locksmith who is making his first run for political office.

“The affordability for younger people, it’s killing them,” he said.

Antony’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

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