NDP will be better prepared: Cleary

The NDP candidate preparing for a rematch in St. John's South-Mount Pearl says his campaign will be better financed and more powerful than a previous run that ended with a close second-place finish.

Ryan Cleary was officially nominated Monday night as the riding's NDP candidate, heading into the May 2 election.

"We're more prepared. We're better organized. This will be a whole different campaign," Cleary said.

A journalist, Cleary took 40 per cent of the vote in 2008,  and trailed victor Liberal Siobhan Coady by just over 1,000 votes.

Both Cleary and Coady were boosted by Danny Williams's "anything but Conservative" campaign, which drained support from the federal Tories.

Cleary and his supporters, though, think St. John's South-Mount Pearl can be taken from the Liberals, forming a pair of urban seats with incumbent Jack Harris in St. John's East.

"We're pretty pumped to have two fully funded, fully functional, fully staffed campaigns in the city and surrounding areas," said provincial NDP president Dale Kirby, adding that the core support in the city is stronger than last time.

"We're a lot more prepared than we were last time, and we're a heck of a lot more prepared in St. John's South-Mount Pearl."

Only last fall, Cleary had not only decided  to not run in the upcoming election, but also to resign from the party altogether, citing a need to revive his journalism career.

He changed his mind  over the last two weeks, saying that many people had encouraged him to run again.