Early campaigning
PC caucus not waiting for official start to District 21 byelection
The byelection to replace an empty seat in the P.E.I. legislature hasn’t been called yet but the Progressive Conservative Party are out campaigning already.
The byelection to replace an empty seat in the P.E.I. legislature hasn’t been called yet but it certainly didn’t seem that way Wednesday.
The Progressive Conservative Party of P.E.I.’s caucus spread out in District 21, Summer side Wilmot, throughout the day, knocking on doors and talking with constituents.
The party currently has four people vying to carry its banner in the byelection, whenever it is called, and a nomination meeting has been set for Sept. 12. While the caucus wasn’t espousing any particular candidate Wednesday, it was laying some groundwork for whoever is chosen to represent them. “Our main thing (today) is just to listen to the people and find out what their concerns are. We thought there’s no better way to do it than going door-to-door,” said Matthew MacKay, MLA for Kensington Malpeque. “The Liberals seem to be doing a lot of photo-ops but they’re not going door-to-door like we’re doing this morning, and I find that is where you’re going to learn the most about people’s households is going to talk to them directly.” Some of the newer PC MLAs also said that, beyond the District 21 byelection, getting out and knocking on doors in Summerside was a good experience for them. They remarked that knocking on doors outside of one’s own constituency, where they tend to know most of the residents, was an eye-opening experience. As to what they were hearing on the doorstep, interim party leader Jamie Fox had one word, “taxes.”
“Families are finding it hard to make decisions and then with rising taxes and the cost of products going up, it causes less money to be in their pockets with which they can spend,” said Fox.
The race to fill the District 21 seat is promising to be an interesting one.
The Liberals only re-secured it in the 2015 election by a mere 30 votes and the PCs believe they have a strong chance of taking it this time. “A lot of things have happened between now and that 2015 election,” said Fox.