Q:

Move page title using local xml

Is it possible to move the page title on cms pages to the left column of a 2 column left layout?
But, purely using local.xml and not editing the templates?

A:

Yes of course, bu not page title, you can move content heading. In that case local.xml cannot affect to cms page, because of it is loaded before cms.xml. You should edit cms.xml as following:
<cms_page translate="label">
    <label>CMS Pages (All)</label>
    <reference name="left">
        <block type="core/template" name="page_content_heading" template="cms/content_heading.phtml" before="tags_popular"/>
        <remove name="catalog.compare.sidebar"/>
    </reference>
    <reference name="content">
         <block type="page/html_wrapper" name="cms.wrapper" translate="label">
             <label>CMS Content Wrapper</label>
             <action method="setElementClass">
                  <value>std</value>
             </action>
             <block type="cms/page" name="cms_page"/>
         </block>
    </reference>
</cms_page>

You should change layout of cms page via admin. 

