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John Baranyi - Green Party
Larry McCormick - Liberal Party
Scott Reid - Conservative Party
Ross Sutherland - NDP
Bill Vankoughnet - Independent
How Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington reflects the election as whole.The Federal Election in our own back yard.
The new riding of Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox & Addington is the conjunction of Lanark-Carleton, one of only two ridings that elected members of the Alliance party during the last election, and Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox & Addington, a riding in which the Liberal candidate won, but the combined vote of the Progressive Conservatives and the Alliance party was substantially higher than the Liberal vote.
Further indicating the strength the united Conservative party can expect in LFL&A is the fact that former Alliance MP and now Conservative Party candidate Scott Reid won his Lanark Carleton riding largely on the strength of his showing in Lanark County. When you add all of this to the much talked about collapse of the Liberal vote in Ontario over the past few weeks, the struggle for re-election by HFL&A incumbent Larry McCormick would seem to be a long shot at best.
There are other factors at play, factors that are peculiar to this new riding. The merger of the Progressive Conservatives and the Alliance party was not particularly smooth in this riding.
The founding meeting of the new riding association, presided over by Bill Vankoughnet, featured a proposed unity slate that was presented to party members at the same time and in the identical format as the blank ballot form that members were to fill in.
This led to questions by a group from the meeting who came from Amherstview with their own slate. A motion was proposed to collect the unity slate information and carry on, but it was defeated.
In the end, a mix of people from both slates were chosen for the 25-member party executive, but the mistrust that developed, coupled with the refusal by the national party to allow Bill Vankoughnet to seek the nomination, which took place a couple of weeks after, made the nomination process messy and divisive.
Many former Progressive Conservatives, especially those from the old HFL&A riding, are either sitting out this campaign, or are working against the Conservative party.
Those working against the party are supporting Bill Vankoughnet in his bid to return to federal politics as an independent. Vankoughnets presence on the ballot has the potential to split the vote in much the same way as the vote was split between Progressive Conservatives and the Alliance party, except for the fact that Vankoughnet is not supported by any party apparatus and is not as well known among voters in Lanark as he is in Frontenac and Lennox & Addington.
Ross Sutherland for the NDP and John Baranyi for the Greens are both experienced candidates who have developed personal followings through the provincial election process which took place only last fall. Neither party is particularly strong in this small c conservative riding, where both the Liberal and Conservative candidates oppose the gun registry and same sex marriage, for example. Still, Sutherland and Baranyi will take votes away from the Liberals, mitigating the impact of Bill Vankoughnet in the campaign.
Who to vote for?
The best way is to find out about the candidates, and weigh their merits against each other. There have been many All-Candidates meetings in this election, including three sponsored by the Frontenac News. We complete our election information with articles on all five of the candidates. They are listed below in alphabetical order by last name.
There is a sixth candidate in LFL&A. His name is George Kolaczynski and he represents the Marijuana Party. The News has attempted to contact Mr. Kolaczynski to invite him to the All-Candidates meetings and to include him in our election profiles this week, but we were unable to do soJohn Baranyi - Green PartyLarry McCormick - Liberal PartyScott Reid - Conservative PartyRoss Sutherland - NDPBill Vankoughnet - Independent
