Stuti Gokhale
Lifetime brings the most fun-filled Christmas movies to the viewers every year, and one such holiday romance is ‘Candy Cane Candidate.’ Directed by Pat Kiely, the story revolves around Julia, who returns to her hometown North Falls crestfallen after massively losing her city council political campaign. Hoping to have a peaceful getaway from the mess, she however finds herself running in the mayoral elections after the North Falls mayor resigns suddenly. To add to her annoyance, Julia finds her opponent to be Parker – her arrogant former classmate, who had beat her to the senior class president position in high school.
Thus begins a witty race to outsmart each other and win the elections. However, as Julia and Parker begin to spend time together while campaigning and planning a toy drive through the holidays, they begin to notice the good in each other and begin to lose their hearts to each other. With the charming backdrop of a quaint little town during the Christmas season, ‘Candy Cane Candidate’ is a perfect movie to warm up your heart. In case you wonder where exactly it was filmed, we’ve got you covered.
Candy Cane Candidate Filming Locations
‘Candy Cane Candidate’ was entirely filmed in different regions of Ontario, namely Kemptville, Ottawa, and Almonte. Principal photography for the movie was most likely completed in a 15-day schedule in and around July 2021. The Ontario province provides great tax and funding incentives to filmmakers and has state-of-the-art production technology, thus making it a highly popular filming location.
With plenty of geographical diversity covered all over with prominent lakes and rivers, Ontario also provides the best scenery to film different kinds of movies and TV shows. The Niagara Falls, Hamilton, Toronto, Cambridge, and Dundas are some of the famous shooting spots in Ontario, where several TV shows like ‘The Queen’s Gambit‘ and ‘The Umbrella Academy,’ and the movie ‘Ghosts of Christmas Past‘ were also filmed. Let’s look closer at the filming locations for ‘Candy Cane Candidate.’
Kemptville, Ontario
Kemptville is a community located in the Municipality of North Grenville and was an important filming location for ‘Candy Cane Candidate.’ The fictional town of North Falls was created in downtown Kemptville, at Prescott Street and the North Grenville District High School, using fake snow to cover the grassy lawns. In terms of topography, the region is covered with farmland and forested areas and is also home to Kemptville Creek. Apart from the Lifetime film, ‘Turkey Drop’ was also filmed in Kemptville.
Ottawa, Ontario
Parts of ‘Candy Cane Candidate’ were also filmed in the Canadian capital Ottawa, popularly known as the “Christmas Movie Capital” of the world. The renowned ByWard Market — a buzzing shopping hub with colorful street art and delicious delicacies, as well as the lively Golden Triangle neighborhood, served as the filming spots for the movie.
The riverside city of Ottawa is rich in Victorian architecture and also has lush forest areas, thus making it an ideal setting for holiday movies. Movies like ‘A Christmas Stray,’ ‘Fatman,’ and ‘Christmas at Maple Creek’ were also filmed in the city.
Almonte, Ontario
Almonte was another filming location for ‘Candy Cane Candidate’ and is a popular spot in Ontario for filming Christmas movies. It is a former textile mill town in Lanark County, located 46 kilometers from Ottawa, and has several 19th Century historical sites as well as an iconic ‘50s diner. Some of the movies filmed previously in Almonte are ‘A Cheerful Christmas‘ and ‘Love on a Limb.’
Candy Cane Candidate Cast
Jacky Lai and Jake Epstein lead the cast as Julia and Parker, former high school rivals who are competing against each other in the mayoral elections. Some of Lai’s prominent works include the movie ‘A Sugar and Spice Holiday‘ and the supernatural drama series ‘Shadowhunters.’ Epstein has also done notable roles in the movies ‘A Christmas Village Romance‘ and ‘Eight Gifts of Hannukah,’ as well as the hit TV shows ‘Degrassi: The Next Generation’ and ‘Suits.’
Apart from Lai and Epstein, the other cast members of ‘Candy Cane Candidate’ include Kara Duncan (Lucy), Mickeey Nguyen (Jax), Stephanie Herrera (Mayor Rodriguez), Jinny Wong (Stella), Danny Vo (Noah), Edwina Renout (Sylvie), and Benedict Marsh (Nick).
Read More: Best Christmas Movies on Netflix
