I have been reliably informed there is a federal election going on and that I ought to write something about it.
Trust me, there is nothing to write about, at least not here.
The race in Battlefords-Lloydminster has been so quiet you would barely know an election is on at all.
Now, granted, the pre-writ activity was interesting, particularly on the Liberals’ side when they nominated prominent North Battleford city councillor Ray Fox.
Then came the Stanley Cup playoffs, and his ill-considered Facebook post featuring a photo of a woman with a black eye.
That was the end of his candidacy. It was also the end of the election — for the Liberals, and for everyone here.
The opposition parties have been in various states of disorganization, which is surprising because incumbent Gerry Ritz has no shortage of opponents — something you are reminded of reading our “letters to the editor” page.
Despite this, when the election was called Aug. 2 the only party in Battlefords-Lloydminster that had a candidate officially nominated in this race was, that’s right, the Conservatives and Gerry Ritz.
None of the other parties had candidates confirmed, even though everyone knew for months that Oct. 19 was the election date. The Liberals’ Larry Ingram and the NDP’s Sandra Arias weren’t announced as their parties’ nominees until days after the election period started.
In the case of the NDP and the Green Party, Battlefords-Lloydminster is the last riding in the province of Saskatchewan to nominate candidates to run under their banners and, in the case of the Greens, we still don’t know who it is as of Sept. 2.
This state of affairs has led to several “Gerry Ritz has no opponents” stories showing up in various media. There was one on the iPolitics website that pointed out that even with two other candidates nominated and running against him, Ritz was still the only candidate to even bother to file nomination papers with Elections Canada to be on the ballot.
This tells you all you need to know about the state of the parties in this electoral district. It tells you all you need to know about the state of democracy here.
It’s stories like these that have made every opposition party in this electoral district look “just not ready” — just like Trudeau. If these parties had been on the ball, they would have had their people in place and campaigning long ago. Granted, the Liberals tried to do that when they nominated Fox in January, but then things went off the rails. Still, they all have no one to blame but themselves.
As for the Ritz re-election campaign, it clearly is on cruise control. That has raised eyebrows in its own right.
In past campaigns Ritz established a campaign office right there on 100th Street in North Battleford. But this time there doesn’t seem to be any “real” office at all. Instead, he’s been running newspaper ads where people are urged to contact his campaign by email and through a post office box number in St. Walburg.
I assume the whole thing is being run out of Ritz’s house. Still, this makes no sense to me, because the Ritz campaign ought to be a juggernaut.
You would think they would want to steamroll the competition with a big office and lots of events, and Facebook and Twitter accounts (like what the Arias NDP campaign has been doing lately), and completely demolish and demoralize their opponents. Yet there hasn’t been any of that.
Despite all this talk about how social media is supposed to be important in politics, I don’t see any Facebook or Twitter accounts from the Ritz campaign. Then again, when you consider what happened to the Liberals on Facebook, maybe this is a wise move.
In any event, this bare-bones approach to running a campaign has actually turned into an election issue, believe it or not, right up there with the Canadian Wheat Board.
Former NDP MP and MLA Len Taylor lambasted Ritz’s St. Walburg post-office box address when speaking at Arias’ NDP nomination meeting a few weeks ago. It has been raised in letters to the editor and on social media posts like one on the Facebook page titled “Let’s Fire Gerry Ritz.”
“This pile of crap is afraid to show his face in his own riding, not even opening an office because he knows protesters will be outside every day,” one post stated Aug. 21.
I think it might be a lot more effective if opponents actually went out canvassing for votes, instead of mounting angry protests outside campaign offices.
As for accusations about Ritz being afraid to show his face, the opposite is true. A quick Internet search confirms Ritz showed up Aug. 17 for a campaign office grand opening.
How about that, all you NDP and Liberal people? Ritz has opened a campaign office after all!
Except the office was for Randy Donauer, in Saskatoon West.
Ritz was also at a “Meet the MP BBQ” event, except this was for Rob Clarke up in Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River.
Local NDP and Liberal people will no doubt vent outrage about this, too. But the reality is they all should be dancing jigs.
Ritz is having to show up to help save Conservative ridings where local Conservatives are in the fight of their lives.
If enough “blue” seats turn “orange” or “red” on Election Night, that probably ends Ritz’s tenure as minister of Agriculture and Agri-foods, and he knows it.
It points to the reality that in this 2015 election, the fight for Ritz is not for his own seat, but for his seat in cabinet on the government side of the House.
It also points to the fact that in this 2015 election campaign, the real action is elsewhere.
Maybe things will get more exciting here in the next few weeks. I hope so. But if this keeps up, this federal election is going to get really boring for all the political junkies in Battlefords-Lloydminster before it is over.
