The great thing about fixed election dates is political junkies can circle dates on the calendar and get excited, while politicians can start campaigning months and even years in advance of the big day.
The worst thing about fixed election dates is political junkies can circle dates on the calendar and get excited, while politicians can start campaigning months and even years in advance of the big day.
The first Tuesday in November of every leap year means it's time to vote for president in the United States. The Iowa caucuses this week aren't the first step in that process but the home stretch for candidates that lay out a four-year plan and budget to run for the party nomination.
Many Canadians moaned about the endless 2015 federal election campaign but it was brief compared to the campaign-style work the national leaders had been doing since January.
And so it begins for the provincial election.
It's not until next May but the B.C. Liberals and NDP are already hard at work, in the trenches and out in front of the cameras. Arguably, Shirley Bond never stops campaigning, especially through her relentless posts on Facebook and Twitter. She has written the how-to book for politicians on social media. She is everywhere, all the time, doing everything.
The outright campaigning to be the next ruling party of B.C. started Tuesday, however, with two byelections in Greater Vancouver. Normally, byelections don't have too much weight to them. The governing party almost always gets hammered from a cranky electorate wanting to send a message to the premier of the day.
In fact, here's a great trivia question for B.C. political nerds: in the 24 provincial byelections held over the last 34 years, the governing party has only won twice and it was the same person both times. Name the winner.
Give yourself a gold star and step to the head of the class if you answered Christy Clark.
She won the 2011 byelection in Vancouver-Point Grey, Gordon Campbell's old riding after she won the leadership race to succeed him, defeating the NDP's David Eby. When Eby beat her in the 2013 general election, she ran and won again in a byelection later that summer for Westside-Kelowna.
Back to Tuesday night where history, except for Clark, repeated itself once more, with the Liberals coming out losers on both ends.
Vancouver-Mount Pleasant was no surprise. If the NDP can't win there, John Horgan and his gang might as well give up their seats in the Legislature. That was Mike Harcourt's riding and then it was Jenny Kwan's turf for five terms. Kwan was one of only two NDP MLAs to survive the annihilation of 2001, when Campbell and the Liberals swept to power.
The one to watch was Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, a secure Liberal riding with a longtime allergy towards the NDP.
At least until the riding voters spoke up Tuesday.
They chose Jodie Wickens, a young political rookie who has only lived in the riding for 11 years, over Joan Isaacs, a well-known community volunteer and political activist who has lived in Coquitlam for more than 30 years.
Not quite David versus Goliath, but certainly an upset.
The result, however, could be a blessing in disguise for Clark and a short-lived victory for Horgan. In 2013, when it looked like Clark and the Liberals were doomed for the opposition benches and Horgan's predecessor, the absent-mined professor Adrian Dix, was destined to be premier (the opinion polls! the pundits), the Liberals rolled up their sleeves and got to work, while Dix and the NDP took a victory lap.
Tuesday's result should be just the latest reminder to Clark, her caucus and her team that spring 2017 will be as much or more of a dogfight than it was in 2013. The fundraising, the team building, the candidate recruiting and the campaign infrastructure, all areas the B.C. Liberals have excelled in over the NDP, will now swing into high gear.
Clark and Horgan may be separated by political ideology but they both love to scrap, trading shots fair and foul, especially on the campaign trail.
Voters may think that campaign hasn't started yet but they're wrong. The fighting is never stops in the back alley. Now it's just moving out into the main streets, sooner and sooner before election day.
