An undecided voter, a 1st-time voter and a non-voter share what matters to them this provincial election

• Read all of CBC Hamilton's coverage of the Ontario election here. 

Retired Hamilton principal Barry Smith is one of many undecided voters in this upcoming provincial election. 

"I'm still on the fence, and it's killing me," he told CBC Hamilton.

Voters have had a little over four weeks to decide who to vote for since Progressive Conservative candidate Doug Ford called the election on Jan. 28. The Feb. 27 election day now looms.

For people like Smith, the decision is not easy. He said he is "sadly" finding himself thinking about whether to vote "strategically, as opposed to entirely based upon policy."

Housing, education top of mind

As someone who doesn't support the current government, Smith said he's trying to decide "who will be the one to be the most likely to make this government … a minority government."

Smith lives in the Hamilton Mountain riding, the only one in the area where the incumbent, the New Democrat's Monique Taylor in this case, won't be running again.

Taylor, who has held the seat since 2011, announced last year that she'll run for the NDP in the federal election. 

Candidates now running in the provincial riding include Joshua Czerniga for the Green Party of Ontario, Dawn Danko for the Ontario Liberal Party, Kojo Damptey for the Ontario NDP and Monica Ciriello for the PCs. 

With Smith's background in education, that topic is close to his heart. 

"We just don't have enough educational assistance to support students with high needs," he said.

"We don't have enough teachers, principals. I have many colleagues that are still working, and they find that between 30 and 40 per cent of their time … they're short teachers."

When it comes to housing, he worries his children, who are all in their late 20s to late 30s and earn a good salary, won't be able to afford a house anytime soon.

He said the current provincial government "is not providing tangible solutions to this crisis of young people being able to afford a home."

He also has concerns about the rising rates of homelessness he's seeing around the province. 

"Along with health care, a healthy body, and a home ... are the things that will give people a stable bedrock upon which they can actualize their happiness," Smith said.

"I see it from the lens of homelessness and what we can do to support people, not just to give them a home but also the social services necessary to ensure they can keep it."

'I finally got the call' to be able to vote

For first-time voter Fedor Kozhenenko, homelessness is also top of mind.

He said over the years, it's become increasingly "scary" for him to walk around Hamilton's downtown core and being faced with many people struggling with substance addiction. Kozhenenko wants the provincial government to make the homelessness and drug crisis a priority.

"There's people that I know that have lost their jobs, [and] they've become invisible homeless … they sleep in their car in a Walmart parking lot, because they don't have access to affordable housing," he told CBC Hamilton. 

Kozhenenko, 28, is an immigrant from Russia who became a Canadian citizen last summer.

He said the first thing he did upon taking his citizenship oath was register to vote in elections and feels "incredibly grateful" to "participate in my country's affairs." 

Kozhenenko said voting was something he always wanted to do.

"Before, as a permanent resident, an international student and a temporary worker … you're here, but you're just sort of on the sidelines, the coach isn't calling you into play. And I finally got the call," he said.

Kozhenenko, a resident of Hamilton Centre, is taking the responsibility seriously, doing as much research as he can before the big day, but still feels undecided.

His riding's current incumbent is Independent candidate Sarah Jama, who is running against the Green's Lucia Iannantuono, the Liberal's Eileen Walker, the NDP's Robin Lennox, the PC's Sarah Bokhari, among others.

Kozhenenko said he respects Jama and what she has done for the community.

"I wish more people had guts like her," he said, but added he worries voting for Jama would further divide the left's vote and said he wants to go for whoever has the best chance to win.

'We are, by birth, a political entity'

As a member of the Onondaga Nation, Kaitlyn Adams doesn't consider herself a Canadian citizen. She is part of a sovereign nation within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and, therefore, doesn't vote in provincial or federal elections, she said.

However, that doesn't mean Adams is not involved or informed in many levels of politics. 

"Growing up, my family, they always told us that by being born an Indigenous person within Canada, we are, by birth, a political entity," she told CBC Hamilton.

Adams attended Western University in London, Ont., majoring in Indigenous studies and minoring in political science.

"I was always taught my whole life that I don't really have the luxury of not knowing about the political actions of Canada or the provincial or even across North America or Turtle Island," said Adams, who lives in Six Nations of the Grand River.

Adams, 33, said she still votes in her local traditional council, one of the oldest democracies in North America.

She owns a tattoo studio in her community, so recent developments around tariffs are one of the many issues she's looking out for.

Adams also worries about the state of health care for people from her community who are "already discriminated against or they already fall through the gaps."

Her community is being directly affected by the family doctor shortage. Adams's family now has to rely on the sole local health-care centre in Six Nations due to their family doctor retiring.

Adams said there are many other issues she's looking out for in this provincial election, including the rising cost of living.

Despite her community's sovereignty, the issues like affordability that affect people across the province "definitely impacts us whether we want it to or not."

Adams said while many people in her community might not agree with the way she looks at voting, it's important that people stay informed no matter what.

Understanding how policy and funding works is essential, Adams said, to knowing who to hold accountable in times of need.

"Even though we can't vote or a lot of our people choose not to vote, we're still able to participate in politics and a lot of other ways," she said.