Certainly it may be both stretching and wishful thinking to try and find many parallels between yesterday’s Liberal sweep in PEI and the federal situation, but as I was reading the Globe’s coverage of the PEI results a number of passages in the article did give me pause…
A form of vindication for Mr. Ghiz after years of Tory attacks, it comes in spite of the continuing personal popularity of Tory Leader Pat Binns, reputed to have stayed on specifically to face him.
…
The loss of Mr. Binns would be a major blow to the party. He is personally popular, the sort of person a neighbour would want to drink coffee with, and the Conservatives built this campaign around his profile. They tried hard to turn the race into a direct contest between the leaders, campaigning under the slogan "Leadership that works."
The Liberals countered with: "Put Islanders first ... for a change."
Personal attacks against the Liberal leader and his leadership skills. A Conservative Tim Horton's leader whose personal popularity outstrips his party's. A campaign built around the leader, and leadership.
Sounds rather familiar, n’est pas? Recommend this Post on Progressive Bloggers
2 comments:
Those are some interesting parallels Jeff, good post.
But let's not forget that PEI is a two-party system and that Binns has been in power for nearly a decade more than Harper.
This certainly shows that the Harperites are crazy to think they can win a seat on PEI anytime soon. Better move that summer caucus while they've got the chance to take it to an actual swing riding.
Greens also out-polled the NDP in this election for the first time. Foreshadows of another federal parallel? ;-)
(Sorry Mark! :-))
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