C.B.S. byelection campaigning ramps up as advanced polls open
Liberals want to maintain byelection winning streak, Tories hope to keep traditional PC seat
The provincial byelection in Conception Bay South is still one week away, but campaigning ramped up Wednesday morning along with the opening of advance polls in the district.
The Progressive Conservatives will need to take a stand in C.B.S. if they hope to stop a series of Liberal byelection wins.
Advanced voting isn't typically about recruiting undecided voters — it's about getting committed voters to cast their ballots early, said Liberal candidate Rex Hillier.
"The focus on election day is to get everybody out, and if I can get 600, 800, 900 out on the advance poll it means I don't have to chase them on election day, and that's the strategy," he said.
Hillier said the goal for running in the byelection was originally to beat Terry French, or at least make him look over his shoulder in the case of a Tory win, but the goal changed after French stepped down from his seat.
"The goal is to win this seat. It's been Tory for a long time, it's adjacent to the premier's seat, it's important to both parties and we're going to work today as if this is the last day of the election," said Hillier.
The Tories have gotten at least 50 per cent of the vote in the district in every election in the last 20 years, and was held by a high-profile Tory cabinet minister until recently.
Lessons learned
PC candidate Barry Petten is hoping to turn the byelection tide in C.B.S. next week, saying he's learned from recent byelection losses how vital advanced polls can be.
"I think that was probably a flaw in our last number of byelections, that we never concentrated enough on that [advanced polls] and, you see what happened in Virginia Waters - it was a 40 vote spread that could have been a different outcome," said Petten.
Petten added the Tories have learned an important lesson from the Liberal winning streak and are more focused on early voting. They also have a better organization than in the byelections they lost.
"If we're successful I'd like to be able to put this in a bottle and bring it around to the other 47 districts, because there's a way of winning these and there's a way of losing them, and we've learned — we've won so many and we've lost so many," he said.
Cameron Mercer-Maillet is running in the byelection, hoping to win the seat for the New Democratic Party.
Advanced polls are set to close at 8 p.m. on Wednesday. The byelection date is set for Nov. 5.