6,500 Doors Across Stittsville: What Knocking on Every One Has Taught Me

Sheetal Narwal — candidate for City Councillor, Ward 6 – Stittsville

Before I began this campaign, people tried to prepare me.

"Door-knocking is tough," they warned. "People behave rude. Some may not listen."

I heard them, and I walked toward the door anyway — prepared not to argue or sell, but to listen, to learn, and to meet every conversation with patience and respect. Halfway through a 178-day campaign, and 6,500 doors later, here is what Stittsville has taught me.

The hard doors teach you the most

Let me be honest with you, because you deserve honesty from anyone asking for your vote. There have been difficult moments — a door closed too quick and too fast, a conversation ended before it began, a stranger's frustration spilling out before I could even say my name.

It would be easy to walk away stung. Instead I try to remember that we never really know what someone is carrying on a given day: exhaustion, worry, or the quiet weight of having felt ignored for far too long. So I give people the benefit of the doubt. A neighbour who feels unheard isn't a problem to manage — they are the very reason I am running, and every closed door sharpens my resolve to build a Stittsville where no one feels invisible in the first place.

What Stittsville is really like at the door

Here is where the warnings got it wrong. What I have found across our neighbourhoods, again and again, is kindness.

On scorching afternoons, residents have come out with chilled water bottles. One man, watching me stand in the sun, offered me a hat off his own shelf. When the rain came pouring down, neighbours didn't wave from behind the glass — they opened their doors and asked us to step inside.

Some conversations lasted barely a minute. Others unfolded into something far larger: stories about raising children on these streets, growing older in these homes, losing time in the traffic, worrying about safety, and holding onto the hope that this community can become even better than it already is. People here didn't just open their doors to me. They opened their hearts — and that has stayed with me.

Halfway through 178 days, and 6,500+ doors in

We have now reached the midpoint of this 178-day campaign, having knocked on more than 6,500 doors across Stittsville. Every one of those conversations has left me more grateful, more hopeful, and more determined than the day before.

They have also reminded me what leadership actually is. Leadership cannot be taught — it is proven, one commitment kept and one hard moment met at a time. It is not promising from a distance, but presence: a candidate showing up at your door, listening carefully, earning trust one doorstep at a time, and drawing on a record of leadership already earned to turn what you share into real action at the council table.

Thank you, Stittsville

To everyone who offered water, a hat, or a dry place to stand; to everyone who told me the truth even when it was hard to hear; to everyone who opened a door and then a heart — I am grateful for your kindness, your honesty, and your trust.

I will carry your stories, concerns, and hopes with me all the way to October 26, and I will work every day to prove that trust was well placed. We are only halfway there. Let's finish this together.