I've been spending a lot of time the last week driving around the riding of La Verendrye. It's going to be one of the "close" ridings on Tuesday evening.

My impressions from the last week is that PC challenger Bob Stefaniuk will win this riding quite handily. Stefaniuk signs outnumber signs for the NDP incumbant Ron Lemieux 2 to 1. If it's any indicator of how the candidates have fund-raised, it's a significant hurdle for Lemieux to clear.

On Saturday night I was out in La Broquerie for a friends wedding social. Most of the folks I spoke with expressed disappointment with the last four years of Gary Doer's reign. One local small-business person claimed that Lemieux has all but stopped showing his face in the riding.

Lemieux also has his to explain his record as Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation. The abysmal job Lemieux has done on this file is highlighted by the emergency closure of the Portage la Prarie overpass which had become too unsafe to be used. Furthermore, the NDP proudly announced $4 billion for infrastructure which should have been done four years ago. Why didn't Lemieux push for this extra spending when he became the Minister in charge of this file?

History is working against Lemieux as well. La Verendrye went to the PC's for 26 years from 1973-1999 when Lemieux was elected. Before that, it had gone to the Liberals from 1932-1973. Will voters decide that this experiment has gone on long enough?

Change is in the air, all over rural Manitoba, and Ron Lemieux is going to be just one of several NDP casualties on Tuesday.

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D.J. McGuire over at The Shotgun points out some significant flaws in the most recent Probe poll. The first thing that jumps out is that the Liberals have 16% support provincially. If the Liberals could pull down 16% on Tuesday, Jon Gerrard would be extremely pleased, but it just ain't gonna happen.

Probe is way out of line with this poll. Tuesday night will probably come down to the wire. With the long weekend on the horizon, people will have one last chance to get away and see what's happened to Manitoba's roads, lakes and parks under the reign of Gary Doer and the NDP. Hopefully they remember that on election day.

Labels: Bob Stefaniuk, Fun With Polls, Gary Doer, Jon Gerrard, Liberal Party, Manitoba, NDP

With a provincial election right around the corner, most political junkies look forward to debates. In a shameless move, Gary Doer is refusing to debate his opponents.

It makes sense with a record as pitiful as Gary Doer's. While Doer's promises about healthcare go unfulfilled, he's quite content to sit out the campaign and attempt to coast to victory. It would be uncomfortable for Doer to have to face questions about why his government did nothing when they knew that Crocus was being run as a pyramid scheme. Or having to explain to a provincial television audience why healthcare funding isn't reaching the front lines. How much credibility would Gary Doer have with environmentalists when they realize that despite promising that Manitoba will meet it's Kyoto targets, our Greenhouse Gas emissions are growing faster than any other province in Canada?

Gary Doer knows that Hugh McFadyen and Jon Gerrard would have a field day attacking his record, and Doer knows it. So rather than proudly taking responsibility for his career, he tries to hide what he's accomplished.

Labels: Gary Doer, Hugh McFadyen, Jon Gerrard, Manitoba, politics

Gary Doer must think that Manitobans are complete idiots. Today, he announced that he plans to open a new Mental Health Emergency Room at the Health Sciences Center, along with promises of more doctors.

The only problem is, Manitoba is already short of doctors, and it's not because of a lack of funding either.

Ask yourself this, if Gary Doer is serious about opening a new ER, why is it that the ER at Miseracordia was converted into a walk-in clinic? Why is the Emergency Room at Grace on the brink of closing down? Why will the ER in Roblin be closed this weekend?

Also a good question, is where the hell are we going to find all of these new doctors Gary Doer keeps promising us? We're already short dozens of doctors, yet Gary Doer keeps promising us more, even though he can't fill the current spaces... what the hell is going to change? Gary Doer's been making the same empty promises for eight years now, and he has been unable to come up with a single new idea.

Healthcare funding has almost doubled since the NDP took office, and all they have to show for it is fewer ER's, and a massively bloated Winnipeg Health Authority. Gary Doer has failed on the healthcare front, and he should keep his idiotic promises to himself, because Manitobans aren't as dumb as he thinks we are.

Read what Liberal leader Dr. Jon Gerrard has to say on the subject. See, he's an actual doctor who's worked in the profession, whereas Gary Doer is just another college dropout with union thugs to keep him propped up.

Labels: Gary Doer, Jon Gerrard, Liberal Party, Manitoba, NDP