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| Todd Smith announces his candidacy for the Progressive Conservative nomination in the provincial riding of Prince Edward - Hastings (photo by James Phieffer for jamesphieffer.com) |
While the lack of enthusiasm surrounding the idea of past candidate Eric Den Ouden running was clear to anyone looking, the question still remained who would be the candidate – or would den Ouden end up with the nomination if by no other means than inertia, as the summer campaigning season approachesi and the need to nominate someone became clear. And den Ouden had the fact he had sold a number of memberships working in his favour, as well as some support in the party and probably a not insignificant number of members who were unsure of where they stood on the issue due to a lack of information.
So a den Ouden candidacy was not outside the realm of conceivability. And then Mr. den Ouden decided to do something which maybe he saw as advancing his cause, but if so backfired severely, even as it forced the issue to a conclusion. He went public. He took an issue that was basically an internal matter (although by no means a secret one – he broke no confidentiality rules that I know of) and made it a very public one by going to the Intelligencer even as he sent messages seeking support to other members. By doing this, he alienated many of those who might have been on the fence – an inadvertent form of a scorched earth campaign. And the one thing a scorched earth campaign does is eliminate any possibility of a soft landing – he would either win, or he would be all but done as a person of eminence in the local party.
