Feature Article June 10, 2004
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LFL&A road show beginsAs the candidates seeking election in the new riding of Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington gathered together on the stage at Sharbot Lake High School, some of them were meeting for the first time. They wont be strangers for long, as a series of nine All-Candidates meeting are planned in all corners of the large rural riding. By the end of this week, they will have had six opportunities to answer questions in a public forum and they will likely be very familiar with each other.
The turnout for the meeting, which exceeded 100 people, was impressive if only because the meeting happened to coincide with the seventh game of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Because of riding redistribution, the two parties with the best chance of winning the riding, the Liberals and the Conservatives, are both running incumbents, Larry McCormick (L) who now represents people in Frontenac and Lennox and Addington, and Scott Reid (C) who now represents Lanark. As well, independent candidate Bill Vankoughnet served as MP for 14 years and MPP for 4 years. Ross Sutherland for the NDP is running in his second election within a year, as is Green party candidate John Baranyi, so the comfort level of the candidates with the process and the issues raised at the meeting was quite high.
In their opening statements, all of the candidates that represented political parties borrowed heavily from the familiar party lines that have been developed in the National campaign, with Scott Reid talking about accountability, Ross Sutherland about a green and prosperous future, Larry McCormick trumpeting health care commitments and funding dollars announced for Eastern Ontario in recent weeks, and John Baranyi mentioning proportional representation and sustainable development. Both Larry McCormick and Scott Reid said they had been and would continue to be willing to buck their party lines in order to be representatives of this rural riding.
Scott Reid said LFL&A is probably the most rural riding in Ontario, and said I think its really important to understand that we as rural people are appraised of the situation that there are fewer than 70 truly rural ridings in the country and that means that we are in a perpetual minority position, no matter which party or parties form the government.
This theme was taken up by other candidates throughout the evening, specifically when questions came forward that dealt with provincial matters, such as the Ontario Nutrient Management Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Bill Vankoughnet went so far as to characterize the Safe Drinking Water Act in Ontario as a deliberate attempt to destroy rural Ontario. None of the candidates, save John Baranyi of the Green party, had positive things to say about these provincial Acts, but Larry McCormick told people the draconian aspects of the Safe Drinking Water Act would not be applied if people fought it by wroting their MPPS. The comment caused one audience member, United Church Minister Patsy Henry, to interrupt, saying they have written letters and tried to fight Bill 170/03, but it hasnt helped.
On more directly Federal matters, a question that has been coming to the fore in this campaign, concerning the scope of the Supreme Court and the appropriateness of potential use of the notwithstanding clause in the constitution in the face of decisions that go beyond the comfort level of parliament, Scott Reid argued that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a strong, useful document, and if the Supreme Court limited itself to interpreting the charter within the narrow context of what he called it initial intent rather than the broad use that has been made of the charter in matters such as same sex marriage and other issues, it would be less controversial. This provoked strong disagreement from Ross Sutherland of the NDP, who spoke in favour of the Supreme Courts influence. Larry McCormick pointed out that he had voted against his party on the issue of same sex marriage. Discussion of this issue and others such as gun control and capital punishment did not surface on this particular evening, although they certainly will later on in the campaign.
The question of the future of the Canadian Military was addressed in a couple of questions. While the candidates again stuck to their party lines, Scott Reid pointed out that Canada was lucky that its involvement in the Afghanistan war has not turned out to be as costly in terms of deaths and injuries to personnel as the Iraqi war has been for those who participated in it. It was not some great skill of Jean Chretiens; it was just luck, he said, but other candidates did not agree, saying they would never support Canada entering a war that was not sanctioned by the United Nations.
There was a fair bit of informal discussion between the candidates during the meeting as well, and less acrimony than one might expect in an election that, on a national level, is purported to be too close to call.
