News today of "the man who would be king" Frank Coleman's move to step away from the opportunity to become Premier was a shocker to many. There had been rumors in some circles for some weeks that it would be a bad strategic move for him to continue on to take the top job based on his luke warm public reception, bad communications choices, and the faltering condition of the PC Party. If we take Frank at his word, and really how can we not, then it was a family emergency and not the building stress related to his upcoming coronation that led to his departure. So what then of the PC's?
Since the later days of Dunderdale's reign many have been touting that the tide will turn from blue to red for the next general election. I've heard this from interested but non-partisan folks as well as from a good many big "L" Liberals. The fortunes for the PC's seem to just keep getting worse with every cycle of the moon and it's difficult to say what it might take for them to get a credible leader following this latest foolishness.
After all Coleman was supposedly hand picked by the great DW himself despite what each had said publicly. Now Dan's man has stepped aside and we are left with some folks who didn't feel strongly enough to take a run at it just a couple months ago. Good with that I say.
Then, of course we are just coming off the heals of the Liberal convention in Gander which was apparently very well attended. I didn't make it out myself but luckily Facebook and Twitter kept me in the loop for most of it. You can bet that even before this Coleman pull-out Gander was chocked full of Liberals who feel it's all just a matter of time before they're vacuuming the blue out of the carpets and spreading the red around. It certainly is true that the liberals have had a very good public profile, positive poll results, and some known candidates express serious interest in running for them.
But lets not forget the debt. As opposed to the PCs who have buckets of cash the Liberal Party is still rolling pennys. On top of that is that fact that the tories could still get a relatively strong leader, and they get to choose the date of the election. Plus they hold the public purse strings until that election is called. And finally it would be very unwise to assume that because the sky seems to be falling on them right now that they are too stunned to do anything about it. While most of the elected PC members won't be joining Mensa anytime soon they do employ people who know how to develop a strategy, and deliver a message.
This race is far from over. The tories will seriously have to get their act together if they expect to make a real run at holding government. At the same time the Liberals can't expect this to go down without a battle.
At the end of the day I do think the people have had enough of the current crowd, and it is largely do to their own hubris that they will lose. But the Liberals should fight tooth and nail to prove that they are worthy of the responsibility to form a new government that actually listens to the people and not one that dictates to them. At least that's my hope.
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