Weekend of the big boys

Prime Minister Paul Martin and Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper will be in North Bay this weekend.
Photo montage by Phil Novak, BayToday.ca.

Call it the weekend of the political big boys.

Prime Minister Paul Martin makes a campaign stop in North Bay on Sunday, the day afte Conservative Leader and aspiring PM
Stephen Harper comes to town.

Martin will be in the Founder's Room at the Clarion Resort Pinewood Park starting at 12:30.

Harper, meanwhile, will address party faithful at the Davedi Club Saturday at 2 p.m.

Political scientist Nelson Wiseman, a professor at the University of Toronto, says the leaders are coming to North Bay for two different reasons.

Nipissing-Temiskaming MP Anthony Rota defeated Conservative Party candidate Al McDonald by 2,544 votes in the 2004 federal election.

Wiseman said Martin's visit this weekend is a sign the Liberals are on the run.

"I think Paul Martin is coming to the riding because he's concerned about losing the seat, while Harper is visiting because he thinks his party can win it, particularly when the results last election were close," Wiseman said in a telephone interview.

"You spend time in ridings that are in trouble."