Federal Laziness - Word of Mouth Hits a Dead End

One final word of mouth comment about our our recent federal election campaign In Canada before we  move onto other higher brow debates ie. Gretzky vs. Lemieux, Myers vs. Carrey, Lightfoot vs. Young. 

Reg Alcock (pictured above) is this campaigns' winner of "best word of mouth blunder in a 6 week campaign". With a high profile position as the Head of the Treasury Board and a riding that he won handily less than 2 years ago by 6,500 seats how did poor old Reg lose by 110 seats to a political neophyte - see article from the Winnipeg Sun for the gory details).

Sure, incumbent Liberal party arrogance was pivotal in losing seats across the county but two much more vulnerable ridings adjacent to Reg's still pulled through. The real story and tragedy (or perhaps insanity) is that Mr. Alcock spent exactly 3 days campaigning in his own riding. Just enough effort  for 2 kindergarten class photo-ops, 1 Kiwanis bakeoff and 1 glad-handing past Portage and Main.

It's comforting to know that even in this mass advertised, three party, "hero leader" world, local ties and commitment still matters for something. Lyndon Johnson used to say a "handshake was worth about 250 votes". If only Reg Alcock had heeded this insight.