Head Tale

Well, the race is over and Dwain Lingenfelter did end up winning as most people projected.  Though Ryan did make it a nail-biter in the end with Link getting 55% of the vote to Ryan's 45% on the second ballot. 

As I posted on Facebook, I'm not as disappointed as I thought I might be if Ryan lost and there are a number of reasons for this:  

1) The enthusiasm I saw generated in the room today by Ryan's floor show, his speech and his supporters was amazing. 

2) The fact that Ryan managed to come within a thousand votes of beating Link (where'd I hear that number before? ) is almost unbelievable when you consider where each of them started from. 

3) The fact that the other two contenders came over to Ryan after being eliminated (Deb Higgins after the first ballot) and withdrawing (Yens Pedersen) and Ryan gained 1700 votes on the second ballot while Link gained less than 700 shows that Link won the immediate prize but that the platform and approach that Ryan put forward were the ones that are connecting with a wider range of people and will lay the groundwork for the party's long-term direction. 

I don't know – I probably shouldn't be writing too much right now as I'm still trying to process what the Link win (and how close it was) means – for the party, for the future, for all of the young supporters like myself who are feeling some real mixed emotions right now.

Through-out this whole race, I've enjoyed the CBC coverage and especially the comments from readers since you'd get a real mix of Link supporters, Meili supporters, Sask Party muck-rakers chiming in. So here's a link to their story about Link winning the leadership.