While most of the country is in the midst of their third week of the campaign, here in Guelph we’re in the midst of the eighth.  By the time October 14th rolls around, Guelph will have had one of the longest running campaigns in Canadian history, at eleven and a half weeks.  As a result, most of the campaigns in town have taken a more low key tone for the first few weeks.

 Most campaigns have taken things a little slower since the General Election was called, and they have been working on maintaining their momentum… repairing and replacing arterial signs, recharging their batteries, preparing for the next round of the campaign.

So far, it’s been an interesting campaign.  All of the parties had the city plastered with arterial signs within five hours of the by-election writ being dropped.  Lawn signs followed shortly thereafter, and all of the parties have a significant number on lawns throught the city.  The majority of NDP and Green party signs are fighting it out on lawns surrounding the core, while the Liberals and the Tories fight it out on lawns surrounding the rest of the city.  I’ve seen more signs out than ever before, and know for a fact that the Tories have more signs up than any other campaign before.

Though this is a liberal riding, it’s far from clear who will come out victorious this time around.  The Greens are putting forward a very strong effort, the NDP and the Tories both have star candidates, and the Liberals are hurting under the leadership of Mr. Dion.  Will it be enough for someone else to wrest this from the Grits?