Tory Trails »

Welcome to Tory Trails, a blog devoted to coverage of the 2008 New Brunswick P.C. leadership race.

So far, three candidates have entered the race to succeed Bernard Lord as leader of the party: David Alward, Bruce Fitch and Robert MacLeod. It's not expected that any other candidates will jump in.

There's considerable debate along partisan lines these days about Tory chances in the next election. You hear Liberals invoke the seemingly iron-clad rule that New Brunswickers never defeat a one-term government (a rule they didnt invoke in 2003, of course). Tories are just as adamant that this particular Liberal government has behaved so badly that it's heading for defeat.

That debate aside, the next leader of the PC Party is the only person other than Shawn Graham who stands a chance of being premier of New Brunswick at the end of 2010 so that makes this race worthy of our attention.

One rationale for this blog is that there may be developments or observations about the race that don't quite make the cut as a news story for a CBC newscast, but that are still worth noting, even briefly. This is where those moments will be noted.

With only three candidates, and candidate meetings instead of debates, the Liberals will try to portray this race as lacklustre. Certainly the candidates have shown no inclination yet to play hardball with each other. They're all wedded to the Bernard Lord years one way or another; no one's running as a maverick. All signs are the contest will be gentlemanly, even placid. But let's wait and see.

A few ground rules or guidelines:

By its nature, this blog will be of interest to political partisans. I want to be loose with comment moderation, but I would prefer that we avoid a flood of mindlessly partisan-style comments along the lines of "my candidate is the BEST" or "the other guy SUCKS."

As with my Campaign Trail election blog in 2006, you must provide your full name to have your comment approved. Some other bloggers see this as contrary to the spirit of blogs. But just as CBC frowns on doing anonymous interviews and broadcasting listener/viewer feedback without names attached, this bloggers view is that if you want to enter the public debate, you should do so publicly, by identifying yourself.

If you've got something you want to tell me and you prefer to remain anonymous, you can always e-mail me directly (there's a link on this page) and I can figure out if there's another way to bring you into the conversation. Gossip and tips are always welcome, though I'm not going to post them without checking them first.

Lastly, most posts here will be shorter than this one. I promise.

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