Feature Article January 22, 2004
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Conservative party of Canada forms LFL&A riding association
It may have been the dead of winter, but a spring election was on the minds of a crowd of Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party members who gathered on Saturday at the Sharbot Lake High School cafeteria to form a riding association for the new electoral district of Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington.
The
new riding will be created when the House of Commons resumes sitting
in early February. Scott Reid, the current Alliance party MP in the
riding of Lanark-Carleton, and one of the six negotiators in the
merger talks between the PCs and the Alliance, will be seeking the
Conservative Party of Canadas nomination in the new riding.
The new Riding Association encompasses members from the riding Associations of both the PCs and the Alliance in two former ridings, and it has been quite a job putting the four groups of people together into one association.
Former Progressive Conservative MP and MPP Bill Vankoughnet chaired the founding meeting. The task at hand was electing a 30-member board.
A unity slate of 30 nominees was presented to the membership. It included representatives from all three counties in the new riding. This was objected to by one member of the new party, who thought the slate of names should not have been presented in a written form as it was. It was noted that only a few of the nominated people were members of the former Progressive Conservative Party. In a close vote, the motion to set aside the written slate was defeated. Another slate, this one with 12 names (all from Lennox & Addington County), was also presented, leaving 42 candidates for the 30 board positions.
There were several prominent former politicians in attendance, including former Kingston Mayor Helen Cooper, and retired South Frontenac Mayor Phil Leonard. When asked, Phil Leonard would not rule himself in or out of the upcoming federal political race. He did say that the federal government has to make itself relevant to rural municipalities, which is something it has not done in the past.
This is echoed in Scott Reids position that says, rural and small town issues that matter to people in the counties of Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington need to be heard I plan to be the voice for rural Ontario in the next election.
The board of the new riding association met after the meeting to elect an executive, and a nomination meeting for a candidate in the next election is expected to be announced shortly.
McCormick to seek nomination for Liberals
Larry McCormick, incumbent MP in Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington, will be seeking the Liberal nomination for the new Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington riding (LFL&A). The nomination meeting is scheduled for February 21 at the Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake.
A founding meeting for the new Liberal riding association for LFL&A will be held on January 31 at the Piccadilly Hall.
The decision by McCormick to run again, after a successful heart bypass operation last year, sets up the possibility of a battle between two incumbents in the new riding.
We are looking forward to a very interesting election in the new riding, said Mike Remington from Larry McCormicks office. Larry has been a strong MP, and has had stints at various government posts, including one as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture.
Why Sharbot Lake?
Both the Conservative Party of Canada and the Liberal party have decided to hold their meetings in Sharbot Lake, even though the village is far from the population centres in the new LFL&A riding, which includes Smiths Falls, Carleton Place, Perth, and Napanee. Sharbot Lake represents the geographic centre of the riding. Even though it isnt really close for anyone, its not that far from anyone either.
