Sunday, September 28, 2008

If people are "dying to vote Liberal", then why today's panic event in Toronto?

Since the beginning of thre campaign, Jack Layton has been holding Saturday rallies in big cities. The televised rally from Vancouver yesterday was by far the biggest and best so far. The visuals were great with candidates and supporters all around energetically waving “Jack Layton - Strong Leader” signs. For his part, Layton looked relaxed and in his element after spending most of that week fighting Harper in BC where the two leaders are neck and neck.

On the other side, there is Stephane Dion, whose campaign frantically tacked on an event in Toronto to their normally low-activity campaign Sundays … that’s right, TORONTO - the city that has been giant red blob on virtually ever elections map since 1993. As CTV’s Graham Richardson reported yesterday:

Jacqueline: With more on why the Libs are "not" taking the day off -- I’m joined by CTV’s Graham Richardson. So Graham, the Liberals have usually been taking Sundays off. Why this event in Toronto tomorrow, all of a sudden? Is it because of what’s happened in the polls?

Graham: [Dion’s campaign] is very different from what you just heard from Jack Layton and different from what Stephen Harper does, gathering partisans around him as a show of force and support. We saw a bit of it last night in London, but generally we're not seeing a lot of that at all. The question is where are the Liberals? Where are they going if they are not coming here? This is the big story in the election campaign. If that Liberal vote is collapsing, where is it going and who is going to get it?

[…]

Jacqueline: Based on the latest polls it appears that the NDP are based to form the official opposition based on what we see right now, doesn't it?

Graham: Polls can change and if that happens it would be extraordinary, if Mr. Layton ends up in that seat. We're a long way from that. Clearly if momentum and surges are to be measured, it is not on this bus. Mr. Dion says that people are dying to vote Liberal, he is ignoring polls and he has scrambled to add a Toronto event to shore up what should be the safest place for Liberals in the country, this in Toronto.

Sure, with two whole weeks left to go there is a lot that can happen in the campiaign. But Liberals have cause to be wary. The last time Dion was lagging in the polls, the sollution he came up with was his carbon tax.

1 comment:

James Curran said...

With all due respect, Graham hasn't started one single report without first dissing the Liberals. Not one. So, his opinion means absolutely nothing imho.