In the federal riding of Brandon-Souris — and in three other federal ridings — voters will elect a new MP Monday. Brandon-Souris holds the promise of a big upset. It’s been Conservative or Progressive Conservative for pretty much forever with one exception. In the Kim Campbell wipeout election of 1993, the Progressive Conservative candidate at the time, Larry Maguire, lost to the Liberals. Well guess what? Maguire’s name is on the ballot again, this time as the Conservative candidate, and he could lose what should have been a sure thing to Liberal Rolf Dinsdale.
The Liberals, sensing that this could be a big steal for them, purchased a special front page ad today in the riding’s big paper, The Brandon Sun. This is a controversial practice for newspaper publishers — it’s often used for car ads or other special advertising campaigns — but it’s been used a few times. The NDP placed a “front page ad” in Halifax Metro in the recent Nova Scotia provincial election and the Christy Clark Liberals did the same with the Vancouver 24 Hours paper in the B.C. election. Both those other ads, though, had the word “advertisement” somewhere on that front page which appears to be absent from the false front above. The Brandon Sun says:
@davidakin You're welcome. The 4-page wrap (we do them regularly with other advertisers) is more obviously a 'flyer' in real world form
— The Brandon Sun (@thebrandonsun) November 22, 2013
and
@MaritimeState The ad wrap uses a different font and very different style from our regular front pages.
— The Brandon Sun (@thebrandonsun) November 22, 2013
Here’s the “real” front page:
Meanwhile, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau — who has campaigned in the riding during this by-election — has penned a letter to voters there:
Great letter from @JustinTrudeau to people of #BdnSouris, asking for their support to elect @RolfDinsdale Nov. 25. pic.twitter.com/NCeoC0FknF
— Stephen Montague (@sdmontague) November 22, 2013
That letter comes after Prime Minister Stephen Harper — who has not been in the riding during the by-election — penned his own letter to voters alternately slamming Trudeau and touting his own record.