What will Selinger endorsement mean for Caldwell?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/03/2016 (3865 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In his remarks to the Brandon Sun on Thursday, Manitoba NDP Leader Greg Selinger made special note of Brandon East NDP incumbent MLA Drew Caldwell and his long service to the city of Brandon and to the larger Westman community.

“I think it’s important that we keep a guy like that, that’s interested in the whole area,” Selinger said.

Well, of course he’d say that. What else would an NDP leader say about a long-serving and obviously loyal NDP politician during an election period? But the real question for Drew Caldwell will be whether an endorsement from the big boss himself will help him or hurt him.

In late 2015, the Sun published the results of a Probe Research poll that asked respondents which party they would most likely to support in the coming April election. In that poll, which did not mention candidate names, the governing NDP appeared in deep trouble.

The New Democrats were polling at just 18 per cent across Westman. And specifically in Brandon East, the NDP came up in third place at 18 per cent, with the Progressive Conservatives and Liberals in taking 41 and 38 per cent respectively. Truly, the NDP have hit an all-time popularity low in Brandon East, an historic fact because the constituency has been an NDP stronghold since its inception in 1969.

In speaking with Caldwell over the last few weeks, he insists that poll numbers from a firm the party has hired in Winnipeg show that he is holding a very slim lead ahead of his challengers, Liberal Vanessa Hamilton and Tory Len Isleifson. We have not seen these numbers, so it’s impossible to confirm what he is telling us. Unless of course he’s willing to share …

But the difference, he says, is that it comes down to name recognition — asking voters to choose by name, not party, makes will give a different result. Thus Caldwell has insinuated that he is slightly more popular than his own party in the constituency.

We have seen a campaign based on such a premise just last year, when Conservative Larry Maguire extinguished pretty much every reference to the Conservative Party and then-leader Stephen Harper on his campaign advertisements. It was a strategy devised after it became apparent that the governing federal Tories were in electoral trouble.

Is this a strategy that Caldwell may emulate? He certainly hasn’t yet. And it’s hardly a secret that he supported Selinger when the party’s rebel five decided to oust their leader more than a year ago. That’s how he regained his ministerial stripes — loyalty.

Certainly Selinger seems to think that Drew is in his orange corner.

“I think he doesn’t separate the two. I think he wears the values of his community and of his party, which are very similar … He wears those proudly, and he’s always looking for a way to make a difference,” Selinger said.

Sure. But is Drew willing to bet his constituency on that notion?

Sun revisits submission policy during provincial election

With any election campaign that we cover, the Brandon Sun is always inundated with Sound Offs and letters to the editor either relating to our coverage or — more often than not — talking about the parties, candidates and leaders themselves.

In the past, we have generally kept all letters and Sound Offs pertaining to an election or byelection off of our pages for the duration of any given campaign. The reason being that we do not wish our pages to be overwhelmed with partisan comments that add little to the political debate.

But for this election cycle, we are revisiting this policy on a one-time basis, at least as it pertains to incoming letters. We will strive to filter out any letters from partisan sources — namely those from people who are known to be working on political campaigns.

As well, any overtly partisan letters that simply flog and berate a party or candidates without any rationale we will refuse to publish. We expect letter writers to expand on issues and argue fair points.

If a political candidate — and only a political candidate — wishes to clarify, correct or contradict something we have reported in our paper or online, we will certainly consider publishing a letter to that effect.

All comments regarding the election that are directed to Sound Off will not be published, as usual.

This policy will affect correspondence referring to the ongoing provincial election.