Whistling Past the Graveyard

In response to the damning Sigma Analytics poll, NDP Provincial Campaign Manager Dale Schmeichel sends an email to the party faithful;

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Our Polling Results Show a Steady and Significant Improvement

Dear (member) – You may have read or heard about the polling results recently published by the Leader-Post and the StarPhoenix that imply we are seriously trailing the Sask Party.

Our polling results over the past year show a steady and significant improvement in our position

I wanted you to know this poll was conducted during the height of the media coverage of the Potash Corporation takeover discussions. As is often the case, polling done during such a period of unusually prominent coverage of an issue of widespread public interest seems to have given the Sask Party a large “blip” in support.

As I have said at Council meetings and in reports to Constituency meetings and Provincial Executive meetings, our polling results over the past year show a steady and significant improvement in our position that is at odds with the published results of this recent poll. The NDP will form government by winning 30 or more seats. We never led in a poll across all fifty-eight seats in 2003, but you will remember those Election night results.

Keep Talking to Your Friends and Neighbours

I encourage party members and workers to continue to talk to friends and neighbours about the issues of importance to Saskatchewan people such as improving accessibility to health care, controlling increases in living costs such as rental rates and costs of utilities and the need to return Saskatchewan to prudent fiscal management.

Specifically on the potash issue, we need to remind people that it is Dwain Lingenfelter and the NDP that are insisting that no matter who owns the potash company, the people of Saskatchewan deserve a better deal than they've been getting so far. You can read more about our Plan for Potash to have all the details at your fingertips.

Form Government in 2011

We will be doing a new round of polling in the coming months and I remain confident those results will show a return to a more normal situation which will confirm we are competitive and on the path to form government in November 2011.

Dale Schmeichel
Provincial Campaign Manager

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This is the same Dale Schmeichel that claimed all of us would be surprised by the Saskatoon Northwest by-election, alluding to a possible NDP win or a better than expected outcome for the NDP. Sask Party candidate Gord Wyant absolutely trounced NDP candidate Jan Dyky, actually gaining almost 6% more of the popular vote than in the 2007 general election.

Schmeichel was also behind the NDP hit piece on Wyant, that actually hurt the NDP campaign, rather than helping it.

I thought Schmeichel was smarter than this. But then again, in light of the poll and his position in the NDP campaign, what else is he going to say?