Well that was embarassing...

The last polls of the New Brunswick campaign actually had the PC lead narrowing somewhat...ranging from 4 to 10 points. My rolling average had the PC lead on 7.44 points. David Alward's PCs actually ended up winning by 14.44 points. My projection called for 35 PCs, 19 Liberals, and 1 NDP. The actual result was a PC landslide, 42 to 13, with no NDP candidate elected.

In my defence, the polling conducted was wildly off.

In their defence, the last poll finished a week before election day.

Shawn Graham was the author of his own defeat. Proposing to sell the provincial power company to the separatist province was always going to be popular. Just ask Shawn.

Seriously, it wasn't so much that Alward ran a good campaign, as Graham shooting himself in the foot. Multiple times. All Alward had to do was demonstrate that he had at least normal intelligence. He already had an almost unbeatable advantage - he wasn't Shawn Graham.

Mr. Alward shouldn't drink too much in the coming days. He already has a provincial hangover to deal with, with the nearly $1 billion in debt Graham's government accumulated. He doesn't need a physical hangover on top of that.

Also, with 42 MLAs, Alward's going to have a hard time picking the cabinet. But then again, it's one of those problems you WANT to have, as opposed to the problem of whether to resign or not. Hi Shawn - er, rather - bye Shawn!