Two days before the civic election, incumbent Bev Buckway and her only opponent, Al Fedoriak, are reaching the end of their individual campaigns to serve as mayor of the territory's capital into 2012.

"It'll all come out in the wash on Thursday,” Fedoriak said this morning when asked about his campaign.

Thursday's results will tell exactly how each campaign has gone, but right now, both candidates are pleased with their run for the city's top council seat.

"The time has gone fast,” Buckway said in an interview this morning.

She and Fedoriak, who announced his candidacy two days before the nomination deadline in September, have taken a few different approaches to pursuading voters to place an X beside their names on the ballot.

Fedoriak's blue and yellow lawn signs can be spotted throughout the city.

Buckway, however, decided she would continue not to use lawn signs for her campaign.

She hasn't done so for any election campaign, beginning when she successfully ran for a councillor's seat in 2003, because of the possibility they might be vandalized and that some voters find them annoying, she explained.

Rather, Buckway supporters are sporting the Jim Robb-designed campaign buttons she used in her first run for mayor three years ago.

There have also been newspaper ads in her efforts to be re-elected.

As Buckway pointed out, she's not trying to re-invent herself in the three weeks before the vote after three years on the job.

"People know what they're getting,” she said.

Both mayoral candidates have also been getting their message across in the form of brochures, flyers and answering calls that have come in.

While Fedoriak has been making a point of visiting businesses and workplaces to meet voters, Buckway said being "out and about” in the public has also served as a way to those who will cast a ballot on Thursday.

There have also been the election forums which have enabled each to tell voters where they stand on various issues.

For Buckway, that's also meant defending her work for the last three years.

It's a different election for the incumbent than in 2006, when the then-councillor was seeking the mayor's chair.

Last time, she said, she was looking to take on a role, while this time around she's looking to protect that position.

There have been many positive comments, she said, also noting she's found herself defending her roles as president of the Association of Yukon Communities and on the board of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

For Buckway, serving as mayor also means looking at the "bigger picture” through those and other organizations.

The positions have also meant the city has a voice on the larger territorial and federal levels.

Those roles take up about eight weekends each year and haven't interfered with her job as mayor, she continued.

Over the last term, she said, she's had a 90 per cent attendance rate at council meetings on Monday nights and the council and senior management sessions which happen throughout the week.

Buckway also heard criticism at a candidates' forum over the $457,387 deficit the city is looking at.

As she noted though, the deficit is showing part way through the fiscal year, and staff are working to balance the budget by year's end.

It also shows the city believes in being a transparent government by making it public.

At the same time that Buckway has been defending her work, she also believes her message promoting sustainability and participation at the municipal level as well as stressing her experience has been coming through in her campaign.

Fedoriak is in the same boat, stating his call for change is coming through.

Amid an overall message that stresses listening to the public, the first-time candidate has pointed to the need for council to revisit its plans for the Whistlebend subdivision, specifically around lot size, changes to the city's transit system and a focus on roadwork he believes is needed in the city.

With two candidates, voters have a clear choice, he said, noting the positive feedback he's received to his ideas, which stress having city staff implementing what city taxpayers want for their city.

"They're there to provide services in the form taxpayers want,” he said.

Both candidates are pleased with the support they have received from voters, though Buckway acknowledged some voters won't say one way or the other how they will vote Thursday because of their work, such as those employed by the Yukon government.

Candidates gathered at Yukon College today for a lunchtime forum.

Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday.