On May 1, just before the Alberta election that saw the NDP sweep to power, I posted a tweet with a graph supplied by the website iPolitics in which I said, “Saskatchewan now the most devoted Conservative voters in Canada.”
Indeed, the graph showed that in Saskatchewan, the federal Conservatives enjoyed the support of 49 percent of voters, ahead of Alberta with 42 percent and Manitoba at 37 percent.
Things have changed.
The CBC poll tracker assembled by threehundredeight.com’s Eric Grenier now shows support for the Conservatives in Saskatchewan and Manitoba at 38.7 per cent. The poll tracker combines the two provinces. In Alberta, the Conservatives still dominate at 48.4 percent support. However, the three main parties remain in a statistical tie nationally. So we have a race, even in much of the Prairies.
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The Western Producer will be watching that race closely.
We’ve made plans to travel thousands of kilometres throughout the Prairies and the agricultural regions of Ontario to check the pulse of farmers.
Mary MacArthur, based in Camrose, will be on the lookout for key ridings, as will Barb Glen, who is based in Lethbridge.
We’ve tasked Karen Briere of our Regina bureau with criss-crossing key agricultural areas to look at a variety of issues. Next week, she’ll scout southern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba to talk to farmers about what’s on their minds. The following week she’ll be in the Battlefords and Prince Albert. Then it’s off to Alberta.
At the end of September she’ll be in southern Ontario, looking at the 40 rural seats that are typically Conservative, after which she’ll attend the Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s debate in Ottawa Sept. 30.
Karen will look at issues affecting prairie farmers, including the effect the Trans-Pacific Trade Talks are having on the election in areas in which supply management reigns.
Election night itself is a Monday, our production day, so we’re still looking at how far into the night we can keep our reporters at work and our editors at their keyboards.
This election promises to be a long, grueling battle, and we’ll be there exploring the important issues.
brian.macleod@producer.com
