Here We Groan Again

2006-08-10T13:37:00.000-03:00

August 10th, 2006, and the man who once saved the New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Party has announced an election will be called for September 18th in this The Picture Province, with the writ being dropped on August 19th.

Mr. Lord has a bit of an upstream row ahead of him, although his challengers don't appear to be exactly hard charging bulls either. There's a lot of discontent, particularly with how government itself operates. There have been some "incidents" I guess you might say... Ministers forced to resign, rehired... Tanker's childish pranks... accusations of hub city favoritism, and on... I'm sure many of the gaff's will be recounted in the coming days.

His challenger? Shawn Graham, a young whippersnapper in cahoots with Kelly Lamrock and the New Brunswick Liberal party. Not many people would give Shawn much of a chance last time around, but after a strong showing I suspect they'll listen a little closer in this election. The Liberal party's support seems to be at least as much about discontent with the current government as it is about Liberal support. The bottom line is... the parties right now aren't all that different.

And that other party? I suspect they'll be struggling for anything more than a strong third in a couple of ridings. When former leader and the NDP's only elected member Elizabeth Weir left the party, the by-election barely generated enough votes to even bother running a member. And that was in their "stronghold". It's going to take some very dynamic candidates if the NDP expects to gain even a single seat.

So what's this? Just a way for me to throw a few thoughts up about the election and the candidates.

And me? I've got a bit of history with some of these people you might say, but I'm trying to watch this thing with an open mind...

New Brunswick Election Watch

Here We Groan Again