Rodney MacDonald

Some political musings to ponder this week. No provincial election has been called, but can there be any doubt the bloodletting has already begun as we witness election-style campaigning by all three political parties.
This past weekend’s campaign strategy sessions by both the New Democrats and the governing Conservatives left no doubt in my mind a spring election’s not too far away.
I’d put money on a June election date.
Premier Rodney MacDonald and his band of merry cabinet members have been prancing about the province over the last several weeks, droppings millions of dollars from town to town. The premier’s also promising millions more in highway work and infrastructure improvements over the coming years. All of this is taking place without the benefit of a budget and any public debate.
And while he’s freely spending money, some of which he does not yet have from the federal government, and denying it has any connection to any electioneering, MacDonald’s also pounding home a message about the financial risks posed by an NDP government. The risky NDP, state the Conservative campaign attack ads now running on radio stations around the province.
At the Tory campaign strategy session last weekend, the premier again said, “One of the biggest threats to our province’s prosperity is the NDP.”
This from the leader of a government that has managed to push Nova Scotia’s debt to over $13 billion.
The New Democrats are now running their own radio ads pointing out issues like emergency room closures in the Conservative strongholds of rural Nova Scotia and suggesting the government, by attacking the NDP in its ads, is hiding from the real issues facing the province.
And we finally heard NDP leader Darrell Dexter say it aloud. “I want to be premier,” he repeated several times to an enthused crowd of N’Dipper’s at the party’s annual meeting in Halifax. The knock on Dexter has been the perception he’s been content to be opposition leader. In what was clearly election-mode, Dexter made it clear he wants to lead Nova Scotia, telling the crowd it was “time for genuine change.”
The Tories have been in power 10 years now under John Hamm and Rodney MacDonald.
The Liberal campaign got a head start over its two rival parties. For several months now the provincial Grits have been running newspaper, radio and television ads getting leader Stephen McNeil’s mug familiar to Nova Scotians. The campaign’s credited with a Liberal surge in the polls that has put them in second place, ahead of the Conservatives by either one point or six points, depending on the poll. The NDP has a comfortable lead.
 McNeil has also been scoring some political points with his opposition to gas regulation and support for the purchase of the Irving lands many worry will fall into the hands of speculators and foreign owners.
With war chests filled, leaders primed and plenty of issues on which to feed, and despite no official election call, let there be no doubt, the race is on.
rickhowe@halifaxnewsnet.ca