10 Responses for "It must be the day after Homecoming…"

1. Dr. Leo Spaceman September 28th, 2008 at 9:24 am 1

   Give the students a break, better than in past years… :p

2. Amanda Judd (Green) September 28th, 2008 at 9:25 am 2

   … I am a student.

3. Amanda Judd (Green) September 28th, 2008 at 12:47 pm 3

   Yeah, they’ve been canvassing in this riding since January I believe.
   They just want to unseat Peter Millken, it would be quite the coup.

4. Dr. Leo Spaceman September 28th, 2008 at 7:03 pm 4

   Sorry Judds – Not to imply anything, I’m a post-Grad too but yeah this is tame as compared to years past. Hey I went for a run by Aberdeen at like 1, and everything was pretty much back to normal. Hear Hear!

5. Louise September 28th, 2008 at 7:34 pm 5

   Don Rogers is quite distinctive looking. If you’d met him once, you’d know him. He must be really bored this year, with not running for any offices.

6. Gareth September 29th, 2008 at 5:56 am 6

   It seems to me that the Abrams camp is winning this campaign but their biggest issue is convincing Kingstonians that they will actually win. Kingston voters can be very complacent and much like Milliken himself-they expect him to win. If the Abrams camp can convince voters in this riding that they ARE going to win, they WILL win.

7. Amanda Judd September 29th, 2008 at 6:53 am 7

   Considering Milliken won with about 46% last time, I’m not sure Abrams will be able to convince voters that he can win.
   Besides, the core of the town fears the conservatives. There are a lot of artists, a lot of students, and a lot of free spirits who cannot imagine a Tory blue future in Kingston.

8. Gareth September 30th, 2008 at 6:09 am 8

   Amanda, you have just named off a number of groups that: 1. Don’t have a high voter turnout and,
   2. If they do vote, they would vote NDP or Green.
   Where is Millikens support? Check anywhere but around the downtown core and there seems to be very little support for Milliken. I agree that there are some groups that won’t vote for Abrams but they are also less likely to vote for Milliken as well. If your group and the Downes group are able to pull those votes, this race will be very interesting.

9. Dr. Leo Spaceman September 30th, 2008 at 7:36 am 9

   Gareth,

   I hate to burst your bubble but… Milliken signs easily outnumber everyone else on private property. I can’t speak for west of Gardiners, but east of Gardiners and in the downtown core its around a 4-1, 5-1 margin on private property (I run alot). Being a 20 year incumbent means you don’t have to run a visible campaign. Abrams might be more “active” (or what you call winning) but thats out of necessity and not a sign of momentum.

   Another thing to consider is that since 1997 Milliken has consistently got about 28,000 votes with little variance. Even with the Liberals down in Ontario between 5-8 points, the Conservative support has grown very little between -1 and 2 points. I can’t seen Milliken getting less than 25,000 votes (even in the direst of circumstance, he’ll probably do around 27,000-28,000 as he always does) and Abrams doing much better than 17,000-18,000. The Greens and the NDP will do a bit better. But this is a pretty safe Liberal seat. Those are just the facts…

   P.S. Dont you think if the Conservatives think they had a shot you’d see Harper or Dion come to town? Says a lot that they’ve bypass Kingston altogether… they know its safe until Milliken leaves…

10. Gareth October 6th, 2008 at 7:31 am 10

    Leo,
    I think you need to have longer jogs. The west, east of downtown, north and the rural areas ( otherwise known as the majority) is heavily blue. The signs downtown are as you say 4or5 to 1 in favour of Milliken, but there is a much smaller percentage of signs downtown. I agree that Milliken will carry the downtown- but by a smaller margin than before. The left is running 3 strong candidates this year and that will take some steam away from Milliken. Instead of jogging maybe you should take a 30 minute drive and get the real story.