If I was managing the Sask Party campaign right now…

Update, 2pm: Just got a call from someone saying they had a physical conversation with Bill Boyd, in their Kindersley business, on Monday. I consider this individual extremely honest, so that ends it for me. But, my thoughts below still stand. At the very least, return your phone calls from voters and get some pamphlets printed. I appreciate the riding is safe, but come on. Pretend to make an effort.

Here’s what I would do.

I’d make it a priority to Tweet, Facebook – spin – a picture of Bill Boyd, casually holding today’s newspaper, inside his Kindersley campaign office.

Yes, yes – I realize he’s campaign co-chair and that would place him in the party’s Regina HQ quite a bit.

Sidebar: Skype is a wonderful thing. In fact, when back in government, perhaps busy and expensive travelers like Boyd could take a tutorial.

But I digress.

Even if he’s been spending all his time in Regina, if I was managing the Sask Party campaign right now, I’d still drop a photo of Boyd with that current newspaper. In Regina.

In Saskatchewan.

Because the rumor, which by now is rampant (at least in the types of places no political party wants a rampant rumor to be) is that Boyd is not even in the country. Why he wouldn’t be? You tell me.

Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. I couldn’t make this crap up if I wanted to. If you’re party brass and scoffing at this as the fodder of the unwashed masses – stop that. You’re doing it a lot, and whether you want to see it or not, it’s a problem.

Back to Boyd, for what it’s worth, this anecdote:

A friend went into Boyd’s Kindersley campaign office after work – 5pmish – on Monday afternoon. She wants to volunteer, but her calls weren’t being returned.

Greeted by a lone volunteer, in a stark office, (not exactly the standard hub of campaign activity, though presumably Boyd considers his win in the bag), she was hastily informed that golly gee, darnitall, she just missed him, he’d just walked out the door.

“But he’s been here all day“, Boyd’s volunteer added, which my friend specifically referenced when we chatted later, because she thought it was odd.  She hadn’t asked, and he was forceful.

“I’d give you a pamphlet,” said Boyd’s volunteer, “but we haven’t had any printed yet. When they are, they’ll be mailed out to the riding.”

On Monday at 3:51pm, reporter Sarah Mills posted a story on the CKOM/CJME website stating Boyd had “resurfaced”. After a number of calls from her newsroom to Boyd went unreturned, Mills had finally heard from him, on the same day my friend just missed him at his office, shortly after 5pm.

“He was on the highway between Regina and Kindersley,” Tweeted Mills, regarding where he called her from, around “3ish”.

Yet, my friend “just missed” him at his Kindersley office two hours later, where his volunteer made a point of mentioning, unsolicited, Boyd had been “all day”.

Boyd told Mills he’s not hiding, he’s just been hard at work on the doorstep.

Peddling what, I’m not sure, as there wasn’t a scrap of campaign material in his office to provide a supporter who was standing right there.

Anyway, if I was managing the Sask Party campaign right now, I’d be posting those Boyd photos today, just to put this big misunderstanding (right?) to rest for the remainder of the campaign.