The promises are coming fast and furious on the campaign trail in Manitoba as politicians hurry to get their message out to voters — but a number of factors, including the weather, may give the incumbents an edge, experts say.
Each of the three major parties has made major announcements during the first few days of campaigning since Friday's election call.
On Monday alone, the NDP promised to hire 700 new nurses if re-elected, the Conservatives vowed to reduce the provincial sales tax by one percentage point, and the Liberals said they'd make Manitoba a "have" province by 2020.
Paul Thomas, a political science professor at the University of Manitoba, said the parties are racing to make an impression on Manitobans.
The election call favours Gary Doer's incumbent NDP, Thomas said, noting that with the vote scheduled for the day after the Victoria Day long weekend, the opposition doesn't have much time to get its message out.
"He's making it more difficult for them to get people aware of the fact that the election's taking place, given the general disillusionment and lack of attention to politics in this province," he said.
The beautiful weather helps Doer, too, Thomas said.
"It seems like a small thing, a trivial thing, but if people are in a pretty good mood about the weather and about the onset of summer in a few week's time, it may lead to a kind of sense of optimism," he said.
"Maybe there's a general sense of, well, things aren't so bad and why would we go to the trouble either of voting or, perhaps, of kicking the scoundrels out just because we've got an election?
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Shannon Sampert, a political scientist at the University of Winnipeg, said Doer's personal popularity may not encourage voters to get to the polls. Recent surveys suggest the NDP leader is one of the most popular first ministers in the country.
"He's a rock star.
We have great weather. And we also don't have any kind of burning issues," she said. "Nothing so far has ignited the electorate, getting them engaged and getting them interested.
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It's up to the opposition to find the issue that will turn Manitobans' interest from the garden or the cottage to the election, Sampert says.
"That's what the Conservatives are going to have to look for, is something that's going to make this an interesting campaign — not only for people to be interested, but the media to cover it," she said.
"There's only so many days where media can talk about polling numbers and issues like health care and hiring more nurses before people get pretty bored with that and are sort of looking for conflict and interesting kind of issue for them to put their teeth into for this election.
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The clock is ticking: 28 days remain until election day on May 22, a Tuesday.
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