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Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eashoa' M'sheekha who wrote (4696)	11/4/2000 12:33:36 AM
From: Eashoa' M'sheekha	Respond to of 10042

Voters reject NDP and go back to the Tory future. By Don MacDonald herald.ns.ca WHEN THE MOMENT of truth came Tuesday in the polling booth, Nova Scotians chose the devil they knew over the one they didn't to form their new government. In an election deemed too close to call in advance, voters turned to John Hamm's tried and true Tories over Robert Chisholm's untested New Democrats and Russell MacLellan's tired old Liberals. Voters showed they had a comfort level with the Conservatives, who maintained their rural roots and made stunning inroads into metro Halifax seats last night. And the Tory surge in metro came mainly at the expense of New Democrats, who saw their dramatic gains of only 16 months earlier washed out by a sudden Tory tidal wave. After six years of often tumultuous Grit rule, the electorate had become ready to throw the rascals out. They began the task in 1998 by humbling the Grits to a bare minority, and finished the task last night by cutting them down to little more than a rump. But while ready to give up on the Grits, voters were uncertain where to turn to next. The electorate first flirted with the New Democrats, whose first-place tie with the Grits last year had appeared to make them the heir apparent. Entering the election on June 18 as the perceived front-runner, the New Democrats managed to remain competitive in what became a tight, three-way race during most of the campaign. The Tories had entered the donnybrook locked in third place. They were also vulnerable to potential voter outrage for triggering a rare summer campaign, and open to possible punishment for having propped up the minority Grits for 15 months. The Tories not only escaped such blame, but plowed ahead with what seemed the impossible task of gaining power. But as the Tories gained speed, New Democrats saw their hoped-for momentum collapse at the last moment. The biggest blow came from controversy over Mr. Chisholm's failure to 'fess up about a past drunk-driving conviction. It had already been a tough sell to convince Nova Scotians to embrace social democracy, especially with Tories and Grits all too eager to flame the fires of political divisions with comparisons to a Bob Rae or a Glen Clark. The last-minute controversy swirling around Mr. Chisholm made the task even more difficult. As support for the Grits eroded slowly and NDP strength stalled at the last minute, the Tory bandwagon picked up speed in the last two weeks of the campaign. For John Hamm, his election triumph last night stood in stark contrast to the caucus mutiny that came close to unseating him from the leader's chair only months earlier. When all but one of his fellow MLAs refused to endorse him in public, Hamm put the cat among the pigeons with a surprise call for a party-wide review of his leadership. The strategy worked wonders - not only did it silence his caucus but it caused the often-divisive Tory party to rally around their leader with an astonishing endorsement of 94 per cent. So when Hamm led his party to defeat the unbalanced Liberal budget in mid-June, the Tory campaign focused mostly on their leader and his pledge to bring strong leadership to a province governed for months by a minority legislature. Russell MacLellan ran a far better campaign this year than last. In fact, had he and his team performed as well in 1998, his Liberals might have posted a modest majority 16 months earlier. That would have avoided the gruelling grind of running a minority government and the rare summer campaign that finally sent the Grits packing last night. Nova Scotians finished the job on Tuesday they had seriously begun 16 months earlier - turfing the Grits from office. In the end, Nova Scotians returned to the old familiar Tory fold, rather than take a gamble on something far too brand new. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE END~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~