NS Election

While I could talk to you about the 52 NDP Candidates, or the 52 Green, PC, or Liberal candidates, I'll let each party do that, as they are more than willing. I want to talk today about the 4 independents running for office in the coming election, and just a little information on them.


First, the most famous, Ernie Fage, who has his own Wikipedia page. In short he's a former Tory who was disgraced, and is now trying to hold on to his solidly-Tory riding. His margin of victory as a Tory in 2006 was so great, that even if half of his 2006 voters (minus one) vote for him, and the other half (plus one) vote for the winning Tory candidate, Mr.Fage would still finish in second place. (In fact, even a combined Liberal-NDP candidate would only beat him out by 100 votes)

Next is Milton Countway, running in one of the 3 ridings with retiring PC legislators. He is a local (rural) "town" councillor who likely has some smarts in running in a riding without an incumbent.

Stemer MacLeod is running in Cape Breton. He did the same thing 3 years ago, and managed to capture an astounding 120 votes, and 3 years before that, capturing 264 votes, and again, 4 years before that, getting 137 votes. Despite one webpage stating that he has "No online presence" I was able to find out his name is Stewart, and his mother was born in 1930 (putting his age somewhere in the range of 60-40) Apparently he's also run for school board (and lost) Apparently, he's been doing this (running and losing) since 1993.

Lastly is Jonathan Dean, leader of the Atlantica Party which sounds sort of like a non-religious Reform Party. They want recall, referenda, and fixed election dates. They want to merge the atlantic provinces, and use proportional representation. While much of this appeals to me personally, they also support private healthcare, and all sorts of deregulation (cough, walkerton ontario, cough) While the party does seem a tad too far to the right, it is not radical like some fringe parties. The problem here is not so much the party but the fact that the entire thing seems to just be a single person with a lot of time on his hands. Honestly, I'd have taken these guys more seriously if they had managed to run more than one candidate. How many political parties have gone from nothing to something while having, at any point, just one candidate in an election?