A Different Kind of War
October 22, 2007 | 03:08 PM
To quote George Bush, this campaign is a "different kind of war," a much different campaign that the one four years ago. That campaign was virtually over within the first few days.
Elwin Hermanson famously had already said "We'd be crazy not to look at offers" referring to the possibility of selling SaskTel if the right deal came along.
The Nazi cartoon (depicting Hermanson as a Nazi-like figure) was all the chatter on the election trail and folks were still talking about the so-called Saskatchewan Party "hit-list" -- a list of people "with NDP connections" kept by the Saskatchewan Party and accidentally leaked to the NDP.
Those three things were defining features in that campaign, but mostly it was Hermanson's comments on the Crowns.
It all boiled down to a single issue: Can the Saskatchewan Party be trusted with the Crowns?
This time, the policy fronts seem to be much more broad and as of yet there isn't a single compelling issue dominating above all. The issue of the NDP's drug plan and its sustainability is the closest thing to a defining issue so far. Mostly the parties are duking it out, policy by policy.
This is a policy wonk's campaign so far (debating drugs, tuition, property tax, democratic reform) reminiscent of the Federal Conservatives successful campaign in 2006. At that time the Conservatives set the agenda by announcing one policy after the other... policies that became the subject of debate (eliciting clever beer and popcorn comments from Liberal spinners) and ended up making Stephen Harper sound less scary to voters.
Makes you wonder if the Saskatchewan Party is taking a page out of the Conservative's handbook here in their attempt to “de-scary” themselves and convince people that contrary to the NDP's campaign, they're not wolves just friendly little puppies.
One NDPer told me that whereas last campaign was kind of like an "air war" with a single big bomb (Crowns) dominating and winning the campaign for the NDP. He says this time it's a ground war -- street by street, house by house, policy by policy.
Both the NDP and Saskatchewan party seem to agree it's a bit of an adjustment but they also both seem to believe this is a winnable campaign.
Comments: (1)
This election seems to be about whether or not the NDP's election promises are "fully costed", rather than about their or any other party's promises or positions.
After 13 consecutive balanced budgets, 16 credit rating upgrades since 1995, and a reduction of the debt-to-GDP ratio from a high of over 60 per cent in the early 1990s to a projected 27.0 per cent in 2006-07 (all numbers fully verifiable), I'd expect the NDP to better defend themselves against accusations of financial irresponsibility, but then I guess that's just another peculiarity of this "different" election.
Posted October 25, 2007 06:04 PM