Me Thinks Peter MacKay is Running Scared
Cheap shots like “I’ve been here, I haven’t been taking a train across the country,” lead me to believe “Potato patch” Pete might be running just a tad scared. I would be too if I had to face off against Elizabeth May and I knew that in the last election I had won with just 41% of the vote. I wonder if he saw that time she knocked a Tory into 3rd place and came 2nd in a bi-election before all this great press she has been getting?
Does anyone remember that time when Peter MacKay was a party leader for like three minutes? Remember 2003, he lied to everyone and said he was not a merger candidate, and even signed an agreement with David Orchard because he was that desperate to take the helm of the Progressive Conservative party? You know, the party three proud Nova Scotian Prime Ministers (Tupper, Thompson and Bordon). If he had lost as was expected, the right may not have united and Prentice and Harper would have been fighting over who was the better Conservative. What could have been…
I guess considering it was just six months of his life before he broke his promise and hopped into bed with Harper maybe it is hard for him to remember too. He may be the only leader of a party elected at convention never to face the electorate, having folded his party before there was an opportunity to do so.
The point I’m trying to make, is that Peter MacKay, a man who saw his party fall from relevence under his short tenure before handing it over to Harper is hardly one to talk about the pressures of leadership and the responsibility of a leader to visit other ridings. It should also be noted his vote percentage has also fallen in the last three elections.
I guess as the Foreign Affairs Minister and later Defense Minister MacKay doesn’t need to travel away from home, or at least doesn’t want to talk about it so often.
To be fair, the only time I ever heard MacKay speak from Central Nova was that time Belinda Stronach crossed the floor and after locking himself in his office on the Hill for the afternoon, Peter flew home to spend time with his dog and tend his father’s fields… I suspect after the 14th, MacKay will be back in the potato patch and it will be Elizabeth May who sent him there. At least this time, he won’t have to fly all the way back after an embarrassing incident on the Hill.
Tags: Central Nova, Cheap Shots, Elizabeth May, Green Train, Peter MacKay, Potato Patches
October 5th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
I saw that interview on QP, and MacKay even refused to say May’s name, or address Taber’s questions as they were asked multiple times in different ways. He had his talking points, and was not going to stray from them. Which makes his “Taliban Peter” quote even more significant, in that it’s probably Conservative party strategy.
October 6th, 2008 at 1:16 am
Not sure about that. He is way out in front in polling numbers and May is still in 3rd place. Both Mckay and Lorifice have the advantage of being from there and having strong riding associations.
I understand that at least one liberal executive member of the liberal riding (that went the way of the do-do bird) is actively working in McKay’s campaign.
May has 11 days to pull a rabbit out of the hat and it is not going to happen.
October 6th, 2008 at 1:22 am
Jan – Cool, MacKay’s winning in a poll eh? Way in front? Just one problem… I can find no valid polling of Central Nova voters online, and I’m sure anyone with partisan affiliation would never portray facts in any way that was not completely honest, but please do share a link to these numbers so that I may correct the record and suggest that Ms. May will be in Elmer’s potato patch with MacKay’s dog when all is said and done.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
[...] Jack” Layton? It seems Taliban Peter MacKay is going to give Stephen Harper quite a headache this week. And that’s fine with me, because it should make electing Elizabeth May that much [...]