Candidates for the four main federal parties in Kingston and the Islands have no intention of slowing over the final weekend of campaigning, despite this being one of the longest election races in Canadian history.

There’s a lot on the line: Monday’s vote will determine who goes to Ottawa to sit in the 42nd Parliament.

"We are going to keep canvassing right up to Monday," said Liberal candidate Mark Gerretsen. "Our office has really been focused on getting out the vote of people who are saying they’re voting Liberal."

That’s a common theme in the NDP, Green and Conservative camps in Kingston.

"I’m seeing double the amount of support at the doors," said the NDP’s Daniel Beals, the only one of the five candidates (Luke McAllister declared at the last minute for the Libertarian party) who ran in the 2011 federal election. "Our goal is to get these people out to vote. We believe we really have a chance to win. You want as many identified supporters as possible. I know we have double the amount from the last campaign."

The Green party’s Nathan Townend said a lot of Kingstonians are still undecided about how they will vote.

"There’s definitely a base of votership that’s concerned about getting rid of Stephen Harper," Townend said. "Of the undecideds, there are a lot not necessarily keen on Mark Gerretsen. Enough to be worthy of mentioning that they were not impressed with his tenure as mayor."

Conservative Andy Brooke will be door-knocking in polling areas his party lost in the last election.

"I’m surprised by the support I’ve been encountering," Brooke said. "I feel really good about where the campaign’s at. The long campaign has been good for me. I’m not someone who came in with name recognition. It’s given me the time to be known."

If the parties have local polling numbers, no one is releasing them.

Meantime, all four candidates are remaining positive and reading the signs from the hustings.

"We probably drove 30 or 40 people to the advance polls," Gerretsen said. "We’ve got another 40 lined up for Monday."

Said Beals: "From start to finish, it’s always been about stopping Harper in this city. That has lived on through the campaign. Kingston’s highly motivated to have a different government."

For Brooke, the goal is to present himself as an agent of change while representing a party that’s been in power in Ottawa for 10 years — and looking for a resurgence in Kingston and the Islands.

The candidates were asked by the Whig-Standard what policies or issues they thought were striking a chord with voters late in the campaign.

"I’m seeing a lot of people, including seniors, say (Liberal Leader) Justin Trudeau is really growing on me," Gerretsen said. "That seemed to happen about the first week of September. That’s only supported in what we’re seeing in the national polling."

He said his party has had to set its policy record straight on the issue of income splitting.

"Voters are being misled the Liberals are ending it," Gerretsen said. "We aren’t ending it."

Beals said the NDP messages that it will enhance health care, including long-term care, and introduce pharmacare, have resonated with electors.

"The key," Beals said, "is our willingness to not run deficits and to balance the budget."

Townend has been encouraged to hear Kingstonians’ desire to talk about "poverty reduction."

"People are saying poverty isn’t on the radar enough, in Kingston and nationally, and that the parties aren’t addressing it," he said. "We want to have more discussion about the basic income guarantee that’s happening with the grassroots in Kingston. We have a form of it in our platform."

Townend also listed a number of "democratic reform" issues: reducing the power of the prime minister’s office, Senate reform and changing the electoral system.

Brooke said he’s received positive feedback for his stands on native issues and bringing the prison farm back to Kingston, two issues that he says have surprised local voters due to his party affiliation.

"They don’t think a Conservative would be supportive of native issues," said Brooke, who has two daughters with First Nations ancestry. "I’m seen as a different kind of Conservative candidate. I have never been scripted."

As for the prison farm, shut down by the Conservatives in 2010, Brooke said that as MP he would be "allowed to advocate for any issue pertinent to this riding. I’m not rogue. I’m still a Conservative."

Gerretsen said he would like to see the voter turnout in Kingston and the Islands rebound to 75%; it was just shy of 64% in 2011, as the youth vote continues to decline here and across the country.

"If there’s one thing that stands out it’s how many young people have been involved in our campaign," said Gerretsen. "We have a Holy Cross (Catholic Secondary School) student volunteering in our campaign office since May. He turns 18 on election day and he’s so excited to be able to vote. The level of engagement of young people has been really touching."

Beals believes NDP support has been on the rise in Kingston and the Islands the past four years.

"I have the unique position that I can gauge it from 2011," he said. "In 2011, I didn’t have people driving down the street and honking at me and yelling support. That has increased for me."

Townend said the four original candidates realized from the outset that the people in this riding wanted them to conduct respectful campaigns, based on the issues, calling the area a "close-knit community."

"I’ve had people say it’s a shame you’re not running for a party with a hope of winning," he said, laughing. "And I think, ‘Well, just vote for me.’ My campaign, and myself, we’ve been well received."

Brooke said he was most touched by a woman who approached him at a restaurant to say how sorry she was that his campaign signs, and those of the other candidates, were being vandalized.

"I realized she had tears in her eyes. She was quite disturbed and saddened by what she had seen. The sense I got was things should not be that way," he recalled.

Election facts

• Kingston and the Islands has been held by the Liberals for 27 years;

• While the Liberals are the incumbent party here, there is no incumbent MP after Ted Hsu announced he would not seek re-election for the party;

• In Kingston and the Islands, an Environics poll conducted in July showed the NDP slightly ahead of the Liberals;

• This week, the threehundredeight website, which uses a weighted system to compile poll results, showed the Liberals well ahead at 57.3%, followed by the Conservatives at 22.8%, the NDP at 15.8% and the Greens at 3.6%.

• In 2011, the local results were much closer with the Liberals at 39.3%, the Conservatives at 34.9%, NDP at 21.5% and the Greens with 4.2%.

• At the dissolution of Parliament in August, the Conservatives held a majority with 195 seats, followed by the NDP at 95, the Liberals with 36, and Bloc Quebecois at 2;

• Nationally, the Liberals have benefited from a strong surge in support in the polls in the final weeks of the campaign, coming mainly at the expense of the NDP;

• The race is so close, however, that there is much discussion about the possibility of a minority Parliament being elected with no clear winner.