From the Lester playbook

As the days of Podunk Decision 2005 wind down, the incumbent mayor has reached back to the days of Peter Lester to get his message across. Herb Pond began a series of information notes in the Daily News on Monday, A Fragile but Tangible Recovery refreshed the publics memory about the history of this term as mayor. The Cruise Ship dock, the construction of NWCC, lobbying on behalf of McMillan Fish when it appeared that they were going to not rebuild in Prince Rupert, all of that and more took up about one fifth of a page on both Monday and Tuesday.

Pond touched on the frustrations of not being able to get the Pulp Mill up and running yet, his hope that with China Paper "on the hook" (as he put it) the mill will soon start up and bring much needed relief to the city . He recounted the city's flirtations with the world of aquaculture. In the Pond verses, he recounts that Fish Farms offered up the only ray of hope in those darkest days of the city. Marine Harvest the only bit of investment that had come knocking on the door, with a prospect of year round jobs. He then says with a bit of understatement, that it became clear that open net technology and the people of the north coast were not ready for each other and Council moved on to other things.

It was interesting to note a contribution to the Daily News by the Prince Rupert Environmental Society , just one page over from Ponds thoughts was an advertisement, that listed those candidates that were against the idea of open net fin fish farms on the North coast. Pond's name was not on the list of those calling for a moratorium .

As for the Pond puclicity push, it's a case of everything old is new again. If one thinks back to the days of Lester, a similar tactic of getting the candidates message to the people was used as the election day came close. We had the same kind of print reminders of the incumbents achievements and previews of the plans to come. Lester at the time, would also take advantage of the Letters to the Editor pages, frequently appearing to pen his third person accounts of life in Podunk. So far Pond has managed to remain in the first person and on message.

His cause of late has been to keep that old gang of his together, Pond has done some valiant spade work for his current group of councilors, continuing on the theme that they have had to make the tough decisions that have us on the right path (in his opinion). It has almost become a crusade of Pond's to try to bring his "team" along with him on election day.

It will be interesting to see if Part Three on Wednesday, the rebuilding of our future, is the final installment of the Pond Trilogies or if we receive bonus material on Thursday and Friday. We also anxiously await the Rendell rebuttall''s.

One thing is certain, the ad reps at the Daily have had a pretty good month in sales.