The Kingston and the Islands election race got off to a slow start, with only the Tories having any presence whatsoever for the first week. This week, however, we’ve seen the Liberals and the NDP finally get their candidates nominated, soon followed by their signs on public property. I guess only the Green Party has decided to follow their “green challenge” of keeping signs off public property.

The private lawn sign war is much more interesting, though. Out in the west end suburban area, Abrams (CPC) signs are all over the place. It seems there’s one on every street. The Whig has printed that he has been out canvassing since January, so he certainly can’t be criticized for not working hard. A drive through the Rideau Heights area also shows more Abrams signs than one might expect

The real interesting story, however, is how well the Greens are doing vs. the Liberals downtown. Walton (Green) ran in 2006, so he may have a bit of an organization going, and he seems to be winning the sign war in Sydenham Ward and over much of downtown. The other surprise down this way is how few signs Milliken (Liberal) has up in Sydenham Ward and downtown, an area he usually dominates. Perhaps he is laying low because of the thrashing he has been taking in the local media, as seen here.

Milliken is the clear favourite, winning by 19% last time over the Tories, but one has to wonder with the way things are going nationally, the recent Eastern Ontario numbers from Nanos that put the Tories ahead of the Grits 40/29, and the good start out of the gate for Abrams if we may have more of a race here than ever before. Only time will tell, the real race is only just beginning…