By David F. Rooney
With the provincial election campaign coming down to the wire on May 14, the leading candidates in this riding will be devoting more attention to voters in Revelstoke this week.
Both BC Liberal Doug Clovechok and New Democrat Norm Macdonald will be attending events and door knocking throughout the city starting on Thursday.
Clovechok and his wife Susan will hosting a women’s night this upcoming Friday starting at 7 pm at Conversations.
“All women are welcome to come and meet Doug and Susan,” said campaign worker Kyle Marsh. “It’s a chance for them to simply meet the candidate or to ask any questions they may have regarding specific issues or policies.”
The BC Liberal will also be meeting people at the Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning and will be holding a barbeque at his campaign office from 1 pm – 4 pm. Everyone who is interested in meeting Clovechok should stop by and have a burger or hot dog.
Clovechok’s also going to be out door knocking in different parts of the city, just as Norm Macdonald will be doing, too.
Norm Macdonald will be touring Downie Street Sawmills on Thursday afternoon and will also attend the Shuswap Columbia District Labour Council’s open house that evening at the Railway Museum.
In between events Macdonald will — like Clovechok — be door knocking in different parts of the city. As the largest city in the constituency Revelstoke is the richest single source of votes in Columbia River-Revelstoke.
All of this activity comes at a critical time in the campaign.
The BC Liberals have been steadily gaining on the New Democrats in the polls and an NDP victory is no longer a sure thing.
The NDP had enjoyed a commanding lead of 47% in popular support a couple of weeks ago but that lead has been steadily dropping in poll results ever since. The BC Liberals have, meanwhile, climbed (according to the Globe & Mail) to 36% from 33%. According to the Vancouver Sun, Ipsos Reid, in a poll conducted for Global TV, reported that the New Democrats were leading the Liberals by 10 points, about half as much as at the outset of the election campaign.
None of the polls being taken right now show exactly the same results but they d show the same trend, a steady tightening of the race between the two main parties.
The Sun’s Vaugh Palmer put it this way: “As to the reason for the shift, the general rule is that however things stand on the day the election writ is issued, campaigns do matter. In this instance, speculation turned to the major event of the week, the televised leaders’ debate on Monday night.
“B.C. Liberal leader Christy Clark, the superior communicator, had presumably done herself some good with viewers, notwithstanding the concerns expressed here and elsewhere about the dubious content of some of her answers.
“NDP leader Adrian Dix, who struck me as having a better command of his material during the debate, had perhaps raised doubts with some viewers with his admittedly awkward and evasive manner.”
The steady momentum demonstrated by that climb in the polls works to the BC Liberals’ advantage. The higher Premier Christy Clark and her party can climb in this last week of the campaign the better their shot at holding on to power. At this point almost anything can happen.
Please click here to read even more about polling during this campaign.
And, last but not least, if you’re going to be unavailable to vote on May 14 don’t forget that you can vote in the advance electoral polling station at the Community Centre. The advance poll starts on Wednesday, May 8, and runs from 8 am until 8 pm every day until Saturday, May 11.
