We’ve been hearing federal election hype for far too long now and Sunday Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it official.
So, with the writ dropped, Canadians can look forward to 11 weeks of electioneering. I guess we’re down to 10 and a half, but there is still a long road ahead.
In the early running Conservative Gerry Ritz won’t have to work too hard in Battlefords-Lloydminster. He was uncontested for the party’s nomination and we are unable to confirm if the New Democrats have a candidate in place.
The Liberals, who had an interesting candidate until a Facebook gaff wiped Ray Fox’s name off the ballot, have yet to replace him.
At least on the local level, it is a ho hum campaign so far. And it’s difficult not to be fatalistic about the outcome of the vote in the Northwest.
Ritz has held office since first being elected as a Reform Party MP in 1997. He was then re-elected as a member of the Canadian Alliance in 2000 and the Conservative Party in 2004 and has decisively won every election contest since.
In the 2008 election, Ritz was something of a ghost in his riding and on the national scene as he weathered the storm caused by intemperate remarks made during an outbreak of listeriosis that infected prepared meats. He still won the seat by a whopping margin.
Nationally, pollsters are putting Tom Mulcair and the New Democrats in a neck-and-neck race with the Tories. It’s doubtful that trend will induce the type of shift in voter choices to knock Ritz out of Parliament.
But we all watched in wonder as the NDP toppled the Conservative dynasty in Alberta this year, so nothing is outside the realm of possibility.
The danger of such a long campaign, and an almost cut and dried outcome, will be the scourge of voter apathy. The Conservatives’ huge war chest, that some say is what has prompted to early call, may become more of a liability than an asset. A prolonged attack on the NDP’s Mulcair might result in a sympathy vote, with the ballots being marked in favour of the NDP.
The Conservatives have been taking runs at Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s credibility for weeks if not months. Maybe those attacks will also backfire. But first, Battlefords-Lloydminster needs some choices.
Readers to the east of the Battlefords are in a new riding — Carlton Trail - Eagle Creek. Readers will have to wait for John Cairns to return from vacation for any kind of in depth analysis of what’s going on in that area. My Internet research skills are just too paltry to sort it out for you.
