From the Roseann Danese's Windsor Star Blog - Election Notebook:After announcing his intention to run for mayor, Dr. Dave Wonham has pretty much been a no-show during this election campaign.According to several different sources, phone calls were still being made as late as last week by Wonham's campaign to numerous people in local Liberal and Conservative circles, seeking a campaign manager. The failure to find a local campaign manager would seem to explain the delay in hiring Mykytyshyn and his late entry into the race.
Except for a brief appearance as a delegate when city council approved the east-end arena, Wonham has remained invisible. There are no signs. No billboards. No press releases. Just a webpage that Wonham claims gets 1,000 hits a day.
“I haven’t been hiding,” he said. “We decided we’re going to do a two-week splurge.”
Wonham hired a professional campaign manager from the Toronto area. His name is John Mykytyshyn and he says he has more than 25 years of political consulting experience.
“I’m told it’s the last 10 days to two weeks that count,” Wonham said.
Mykytyshyn promises a spirited challenge to incumbent Mayor Eddie Francis. “Part of what we have to do is give people a choice.”
Mykytyshyn is certainly no stranger to politics. Along with long time provincial Tory John Capobianco he founded the Conservative Leadership foundation.
He has landed in hot water during previous Provincial and Federal campaigns. In 1999 he was fired by the Progressive Conservative Party over a controversial poll (scroll down to "Pollster fired for asking questions"). In the 2000 federal election he received his 15 minutes of national fame after being quoted calling Atlantic Canadians "lazy", amongst other things.
We could be in for an interesting stretch run in Windsor.
