Rhino's Ramblings - Voting KFC

By Robert Thomas Opinion/Commentary

Well with a great sigh of relief the 43rd federal general election is in the books.

For better or for worse what has to be one of the nastiest campaigns is now history and more than a few politicians and partisans need to take a couple of long hot baths to wash the filth off of what is best described as a gutter campaign.

Despite what most might say and think the initiators of the name calling was not the Conservative Party but the Liberals and it was initiated right here in Saskatchewan and in this riding.

As veteran Liberal politician Ralph Goodale took a shot at Moose Jaw - Lake Centre - Lanigan MP Tom Lukiwski for his infamous comments made 29 years ago following a provincial leader's debate as well as old House of Commons comments on same sex marriage.

It was all part of a campaign strategy by Goodale to win the progressive vote in his highly affluent Regina Wascana riding. Whether it be polls or just by his actively being out in the community - almost every weekend during his term - Ralph knew he was in trouble and the Liberal war room dove into the archives for the dirt.

From there it all devolved into an attempt by the Liberals to paint the Conservatives as homophobic, racist, anti-immigrant and basically biggots.

It all seemed to be working until the infamous blackface photos and videos came up and there was the “a ha” moment Justin Trudeau had skeletons in his own closet.

From there it seemed the entire election turned into one of digging for dirt, looking for something in their opponents’ kindergarten class photos and yearbooks hoping to get the goods to sink a political career.

As I personally told people “Jesus Christ himself could have done something wrong as a toddler and spoiled his chances to be elected.”

That is how nasty this election was.

I personally witnessed people screaming at others, whom they consider long-time friends, that voting for a certain Party meant they were fools, idiots or much worse.

For more than a few they forgot what democracy was suppose to be about.

We even saw it on the Internet in our local social media platforms where political staffers (albeit volunteers) staged a bit of a coordinated attack on their opponents or worse yet called real undecided voters fools for even considering the other guy.

I will let them all in on a little secret when it comes to elections in the Moose Jaw - Lake Centre - Lanigan riding belittling prospective voters potentially open to your ideas is not going to win you votes. In fact it is going to send them voting for the other guy.

Winning elections should never be the case of “the other guy is worse than us” but actually going out there attending events, knocking on doors and making yourself accessible to the public.

And additionally learn and know your voters. Work for us instead of attacking us.

Above all take a really good look at who you are trying to represent. Run federal then run federal don't use it as prep work for a provincial run.

Nationally for instance - the demographics will tell you - millennials are the largest group out there but when it comes to Moose Jaw, according to Statistics Canada and recently released population estimates, they are actually third.

On election night I spoke to Tom Lukiwski about the large Advance Poll numbers over 10,000 and how I had a friend, big into progressive politics, who worked one of these polls tell me there were large number of seniors voting and he did not recognize them.

For me that told me and our newly re-elected MP agreed large numbers of those who voted in Advance Polls had voted Conservative.

I would think he would know, as I intentionally showed up late, after most of the media was gone (CTV's Marc Smith and CHAB alumnus was just wrapping up shop) to get into the nuts and bolts of what really happened here locally.

Quite simply the well oiled Conservative election machine had gotten out their vote and for all intensive purposes the entire soiree was over on Thanksgiving weekend unless some massive disaster struck the local Conservative campaign.

The extended polling hours of the Advance Polls adds an entirely new dynamic to political campaigning as it has in many ways created a campaign within a campaign. Gone are the days when you had to swear out a form declaring you would not be able to vote on election day to get an advance ballot now you are encouraged to walk right in.

It also allows Parties with a large and active ground crew to identify not only those who have more than likely voted for you but it also allows campaigns to focus on supporters from the past who have yet to vote and the undecided or swing voters.

When I spoke to our newly elected MP we also spoke about Chey Craik and his campaign for the People's Party Of Canada (PPC).

In our own own newly re-elected MP's words Craik ran a very honest, straightforward and clean campaign. Most importantly Craik knocked on doors and worked hard for every vote he earned.

There is one thing Lukiwski did notice, and something I noticed when I pitched in some writing to the area community newspapers, the PPC candidate had a lot of signs up In rural areas but many were on public property a sign that the support may be lacking.

Our talk turned to the PPC and the likelihood of that Party lasting much longer and Lukiwski said he honestly did not think so given with no seat there was no way to bring in money and the PPC had lost its podium.

Lukiwski's words took me back to a different election when I remembered asking newly re-elected Rosetown - Kindersly Progressive Conservative MP Bill McKnight about the performance of the newly minted challenger Elwin Hermanson of the Reform Party.

At the time McKnight was highly dismissive of the upstart Reform Party saying they were done.

The key difference was in the tone of the response where McKnight was almost openly hostile to my questions whereas Lukiwski's tone last evening was not one of annoyance (perhaps even reconciliation) when I asked my questions about his views on the PPC's future.

Will the PPC survive to fight another election and become what the Reform Party became to the Progressive Conservatives splitting the right wing vote and effectively destroying the Red Tory movement? It's a question still up in the air.

But I can tell you from watching him Maxime Bernier is no Preston Manning. And yes I have met both of these men.

During its infancy Manning would regularly stop in at my office in his father's - Ernst Manning - hometown of Rosetown and literally talk for hours during Reform’s infancy.

These were the days of when Manning was driving alone, they had no press person, and Gerry Ritz believe it or not was a loyal PCer and even owned a portion of the local media.

Reform had targeted one area whereas the PPC spread itself out nationally. It could well be the difference if the PPC will survive to see another election.

And before you say oh there is the local Conservative writer in reality I use to get under the skin of many who called me publicly some really nasty names just because I asked the hard questions the local establishment (PCers) did not like. It's just part of the job.

I do the same with all of them.

So how does this all figure into Moose Jaw and the election we just had?

It's simple we live in very different political times when the national war rooms of Political Parties continually dig for dirt on their opponents and then at the appropriate time they sling it. They are in my opinion not providing campaigns of hope and alternatives but rather campaigns of controversy. And it sickens voters.

Let's see our candidates back out on the doorsteps listening to voters' concerns.

Let's see this information free flowing back to the campaign's national war rooms and responses coming back.

Let's hear policy about things which matter to so many here locally.

Things like the proposed natural gas electrical generating station, the crystal meth epidemic, seniors struggling, fixing our core infrastructure, the economy and jobs. Let's see answers to local questions and concerns.

To all national Party election war rooms please change the focus from, in many cases, picking the least worst Party to picking the best candidate.

In the meantime when it comes to the name calling and mud slinging I think I can speak on behalf of myself and perhaps many voters and say - cut this crap out or next time I'm voting KFC and many are likely to follow.