Yesterday the Liberals announced that George Buri would be seeking the party's nomination in Brandon West. Buri is a former Brandon School Division Trustee and Chair who lost his bid for re-election in the fall.
Turns out he is also a former provincial NDP member. This is what he had to said of the his switch and the two parties:
"I was a longtime Liberal and have supported them federally," "I feel more comfortable with the Liberals at this moment."
"Manitoba Liberals are strong on Brandon issues"
A couple of things strike me about this announcement.
The first interesting thing is the party switch. The Liberals have gotten prominent community members from both parties to run for them this year. They got Marcel Laurendau in St-Norbert from the Tories and now Buri from the NDP. Are these party switches a sign of Liberal renewal?
Is the holy grail of Manitoba politics, the "progressive centrism" as Wesley would call it, up for grabs again? Have the NDP vacated the centre with Selinger and the Tories moved too much for the right? Leaving the middle open for the Liberals?
While a couple of strong local candidates helps them and puts them in the right direction but they have a long and steep hill to climb in the riding and the province as a whole. The Liberals finished with 398 votes or 4.04% of the vote in 2007 in Brandon West. So no one can accuse Buri of switching parties to bolster his electoral prospects.
What does this mean for the NDP and the Tories in Brandon West. The NDP most likely will not be thrilled by the news. The NDP odds of retaking the riding were greatly increased when Borotsik announced his retirement but this announcement of a stronger than anticipated challenge from Liberals makes their job even harder.The PCs on the other hand are probably happy to hear the news as a former NDP member running for the Liberals will probably have the effect of splitting the centre-left vote in the riding.
Given that Buri just recently loss a school division election it is interesting to see how he will fare at the provincial level. I have a feeling that his loss at the school division level was related to the Harrison Middle School issue. It will be interesting if and how this follows him to the provincial level.
* The designation of star candidate comes directly from the Liberal news release. They called Buri a star candidate twice in the release. I know the Tories did not refer to Susan Auch as a star candidate in their release but is it common practice for parties to refer to their own candidates as star candidates in releases? I thought that was more of a tag given by reporters and the media to candidates.
The NDP have been kind to Brandon so you would think Brandon West would go NDP.
ReplyDeleteAlso the fact that the PC MB party has a crippling incompetent leader should also help the NDP.
The NDP have been kind to everyone. Without government money, the reality is nothing would be happening in Winnipeg and the NDP have laid down over a 1.5 billion in the last few years just in construction. You think business forgets this and bites the hand that feeds it , not a chance.
ReplyDeletePC's / Liberals, better luck next time.