It’s too early to tell what impact an RCMP investigation into the provincial nominee program will have on the election, says a UPEI professor.
Political science professor Peter McKenna said it’s hard to tell if the issue will have any traction over the next few weeks.
“The real issue here is can this be incontrovertibly linked to the (Premier Robert) Ghiz government?” he said.
McKenna was responding to a report in the Globe and Mail that the federal Citizenship and Immigration Department received information about the PNP, which it referred to the RCMP and the Canadian Border Services Agency.
The Liberal campaign was moving along uneventfully for the first two weeks of the campaign until the story broke, he said.
“It’s a bump along the road.”
McKenna said the story will take the Liberals off the party’s message track for a few days, but it’s an open question as to whether or not it will have a lasting impact.
He also said most Islanders have already made up their mind as to what they think about the PNP and some people are tired of hearing about it.
“I don’t know how much traction there is in pushing this seemingly dead horse further down the road,” he said.
McKenna said he didn’t think the program was a major electoral issue for most voters at this time.
“None or very little.”
That could change if evidence comes out that connects Ghiz to how the PNP units were allocated, he said.
McKenna said the latest news doesn’t help the Liberal campaign because Ghiz now has to explain the government’s position and thinking on the investigation.
“It’s not a good day for the Liberals, but it’s not a game changer,” he said.
This isn’t the first time a police investigation has landed in the middle of an election campaign.
During the 2006 federal election the RCMP informed the NDP it was investigating an alleged leak of an announcement that changes were coming to income trust taxation rules.
A letter from the RCMP named then finance minister Ralph Goodale in the investigation, but he was later cleared of any wrongdoing.
The RCMP public complaints commission also said the decision to name Goodale likely influenced the election.
McKenna said the RCMP doesn’t always make investigations public and he wondered why the PNP investigation was during an election campaign.
“They’re not supposed to be interceding in political affairs,” he said.
Postmedia News columnist Stephen Maher said the Goodale incident left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths.
“The Liberals thought that cost them the election and the government of Canada,” he said.
A lot of people thought the way the RCMP handled the investigation during the 2006 election was questionable and the idea of the police interfering in an election isn’t something anyone wants, he said.
But he said the police face a dilemma because there have been cases of police holding off on announcing an investigation is underway until after an election, which might have deprived voters of information.
Maher said in the end it’s up to Islanders to decide what they think of the investigation.
“Voters will have to make their own judgment as to the meaning of it all.”
twitter.com/ryanrross
Geez.... you sound like ya knows it all. First stop Oleary ELementary, next stop Harvard. You should be teaching all of us with your wonderful knowledge, oh great savant.