You sometimes wonder if the guy works for the local Conservatives. He seems to step into the municipal fray whenever there is a strong Liberal running. He appears to be running just to draw off some of the Liberal vote. We first wondered about it two years ago when a Liberal had already challenged for the mayoralty. The tactic failed then. It worked yesterday.
The tactic failed two years ago because there were two strong Conservative challengers and he came into the race as the second Liberal challenger. There was no way his one-man campaign could compete with a strong, winning door-knocking campaign across Babel. His campaign at that time was poorly conceived and weak.
But the leftovers from what was a weak mayoralty campaign can look strong in a by-election for a small ward. With a turnout of less than 30 per cent of voters and a field of 11 candidates, the Conservative winner got the council seat with less than 600 votes. In an exercise where the person who pulls out the vote wins, only the Conservative had a cohesive organization. It might have been a small organization but it was determined.
Now wait a minute. You were going to say that there is no party politics in municipal council elections. If you believe that, you must also believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy.Ontario municipalities easily reflect the political parties that provide them with candidates. Babel’s current council only has one councillor whose current party membership might be in question. He tends to wander.
Looking at the posted results from the by-election, it is interesting to note that, of the three women in the running, only one received more than 100 votes. There were really only three candidates: the Conservative and the two Liberals. If it was any consolation, the two Liberals combined got over 200 votes more than the Tory.
It would certainly have been a better race if there had only been one Liberal running. The problem is the schism between the federal and provincial Liberals in Babel. That is a problem that needs to be addressed.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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