| Apr 28, 2011


Conservative - Scott Reid

Green - John Baranyi

Independent - Ralph Lee

Liberal -Dave Remington

NDP - Doug Smyth

Conservative - Scott Reid

The first question that came to mind when interviewing Scott Reid is what motivates him to seek term after term in a Parliament that seems to get closer and closer to a political stalemate with each passing year.

“I’ve got a series of policy objectives I’d like to see put in place. That’s what got me into politics in the first place, and it sometimes takes a long time to bring some of these things about. Issues related to democratic reform, property rights, and rural emergency care are all long-term objectives of mine,” he said when interviewed earlier this week.

Many of Reid's policy objectives stem from the political ideology that Reid developed when he was a student and a policy adviser to Preston Manning, and later, to Stockwell Day.

But one very practical idea that he has become identified with came, indirectly, from one of Reid’s political opponents, former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

Reid was a first-term MP from the upstart Canadian Alliance party after narrowly defeating a Liberal incumbent in 2000, when he took exception to a $20,000 salary hike for MPs.

While almost all the other MPs took the raise, Joe Clark and Scott Reid decided not to. Reid consulted his constituents and the response he received urged him not to return the $20,000 but to donate it to a local charity instead.

Someone suggested buying defibrillators, which cost $8,000 at the time, and that was the start of a public defibrillator program that has since spread throughout the riding.

“They are a relatively inexpensive way to make a real difference,” Reid said.

Now, 10 years later, defibrillators are a common sight throughout the riding and the Conservative party platform in this election includes putting defibrillators in every hockey arena across the country.

While democratic reform has been a harder sell, particularly in parliamentary elections, Reid has been able to push his own party in that direction in the way they elect their leaders, through rule changes that curtail the influence the party bureaucracy has in the selection of a leader.

His party favours an elected Senate, and if that comes about it may bring opportunities for a voting system to be established that is something other than the “first past the post system”, which has seen the preferred party of about 40% of the population run the government for most of the last century.

Property rights are another of Scott Reid's long-term objectives.

Reid believes that it is only fair that full and complete compensation be paid to landowners if, for any reason, their ability to make profit from the use of their land needs to be curtailed for the public good, whether it is for road construction, protection of habitat, or any other reason.

This goal was a founding principle of the Lanark Landowners Association, which was started up at Scott Reid's kitchen table and has been the springboard for the political career of Randy Hillier in Ontario.

Reid shares office space with Hillier, the current Ontario MPP for LFL&A, and it is in the Ontario legislature that the push for property rights is now focused.

Scott Reid has been associated with Prime Minister Stephen Harper for many years. He worked on the Harper campaign to become leader of the Canadian Alliance Party and was heavily involved in the amalgamation talks between that party and the Progressive Conservative Party, which led to the formation of the Conservative Party that has been in power since 2006.

Scott Reid said that contrary to how he is often portrayed by opponents and the national media, Stephen Harper is someone with a lot of “people skills and a great deal of patience. You can't lead a political party for that many years without being able to work with people. Stephen Harper has been working for 25 years towards bringing Canada a smaller government that allows individuals more opportunity to live their own lives and control their own future. That has been his focus from the start and remains his focus today.”

Scott Reid remains a student of the democratic process and at dissolution he was the Deputy Government House Leader and chair of the Human Rights Committee.

Green - John Baranyi

John Baranyi is soft spoken for a politician.

When speaking as a Green Party candidate he is careful to research his answers to questions and to ensure that he has a thorough understanding of the Green Party program.

He takes a deliberate approach to politics because of his commitment to the political process and to making sure that environmental issues are bought to political campaigns each time around. This election is his third federal election. He ran as an independent in Lanark Carleton in 2000, and for the Green Party in 2004, and he also ran for the Green Party in the 2003 Ontario election.

“Elections bring an opportunity to discuss ideas that don’t always get aired at other times,” he said, “and the Green Party's message is an important one.”

While the environment was a top issue in the 2008 campaign, “there has been less talk about environment and climate change in this campaign from the other parties as they focus on economic recovery. It's my job to keep reminding people that environment and economy cannot be separated from each other,” he said.

John Baranyi has been strong in pushing the tax shift policies of his party.

“We need to stop taxing the good and start taxing the bad,” he says, “you do that by taxing carbon and cutting payroll taxes, Canada Pension Plan payments, Employment Insurance, and others. We need to encourage more hiring and more Green industries and less energy intensive activity.”

This, Baranyi said, would mean a higher gas price equally balanced by lower income taxes, making it revenue neutral; net taxes do not go up.

“The party platform is extensive on this,” Baranyi said, “ and it includes provisions for rural and lower income people to help with the tax shift. We recognize, of course, that rural Canadians do not have access to public transit. We have incentives in place, however, to help with the purchase of hybrid and electric vehicles, which would make a difference.”

John Baranyi is originally from Elliott Lake, where he still has family. He has lived in Lanark County for many years with his wife Christine Kilgour and their family. Since 1993, with Christine, he has been running Pulse Foods, a company that prepares frozen, gluten-free, vegan entrees that are sold across the province.

As this campaign has developed, Baranyi says that he has been well supported by the national party in spite of the fact that the party leader, Elizabeth May, has been less visible nationally than she was in 2008.

Not only was May not included in the televised debates, which was not her idea and which she fought in court, to no avail, but she has also focused her efforts on winning the BC riding of Saanich/Gulf Islands.

“I think she has done the right thing,” said Baranyi. “The best thing for us and for the environment would be to have her voice in the House of Commons. I have been well supported by the national party. The party has a very good set of policies on all of the issues. We are not a one-issue party. We do take the future of the planet into account at all levels, but social and economic justice go along with that as well.”

While he is sympathetic to a lot of the positions that the New Democratic Party takes, Baranyi said that the Greens are able to attract voters from other quarters, including disaffected Conservatives, who would never support the NDP.

“I don't know if our vote percentage will go up in this election in our riding, but in general the support we have had here has been going up each time the Green Party has run. People come to us from all of the other parties,” he said.

Independent - Ralph Lee

Send a message to Ottawa

Ralph Lee is a relative newcomer to Eastern Ontario. He moved to Carleton Place about 2 years ago when his wife got a teaching job in a Perth area public school, and he set up a general law office in Carleton Place.

When interviewed this week he said that he has fallen in love with Carleton Place and the surrounding region, and at the same time he has grown increasingly disenchanted with the way the political process has been developing in Canada.

His political experience goes back to his university days at Concordia in his native Montreal, where he served as the vice president of the student union.

“What I liked about student politics was the way we could work hard and really accomplish something for our efforts,” he said.

One particular project at Concordia was the opening of a student advocacy centre, which he was at the centre of.

“That centre is still around. It has a $100,000 budget and employs a number of students,” Lee said. “So, I see that political effort can have a long term impact if the conditions are right.”

The political conditions in Canada right now are anything but right, according to Ralph Lee. In the run up to the current election, Ralph Lee was talking to another lawyer in Carleton Place, expressing his frustration that in a country with a number of major problems, federal politics had descended to partisan bickering and name calling.

“He told me I should run, and I began thinking about it,” Lee said.

He says that he wasn't sure until the election was called, but, “When all the parties said they didn't want the election and began blaming each other, it justified my original reason for wanting to run.”

Included in Ralph Lee's platform are measures for rural health care, a seniors' bill of rights, and tax-free enterprise zones in rural Canada for small business start ups.

But the reason he is running, as an independent, lies mainly in his belief that the constituents in LFL&A are not being served by any of the political parties.

“Four elections in seven years, at a cost of $1.2 billion. It's pathetic,” he said, “The voters should send a message telling the government that enough is enough. Although some things are getting done in Ottawa, it is not enough, because the parties are mired in partisan bickering. Let’s look at the track record of the NDP, the Liberals and the Conservatives. None of them are serious about changing the political culture in Ottawa and it needs to change.”

While the opposition parties have tended to lay the blame for the political stalemate in Ottawa at the feet of Prime Minister Harper, Ralph Lee doesn't agree. “I think they all bear an amount of responsibility for the dysfunctional situation in Ottawa. There is enough blame to go around to all of them,” Ralph Lee said.

He said that he does not treat his candidacy lightly and that in the reception he has received at voters' doors and at all-candidates’ meetings he has found that the electorate is sympathetic to his views.

“I'm running to get elected,” he said, “and people responded. They agree that rural doctors need to be encouraged; that rural business needs a hand; and that seniors are important and deserve respect. I have a serious platform and people are listening.”

Liberal - Dave Remington 

In the fall of 2008, David Remington ran an energetic campaign in LFL&A in his first attempt to unseat Scott Reid as MP, and he received less support than he needed - a lot less.

With just under 12,000 votes he finished in a distant second place, over 18,000 votes and 34% percentage points behind Reid.

Given the volatility of the political scene in Canada after that election, the LFL&A Liberal Association decided early in 2009 to select a candidate so that whenever the next election was called they would have someone in place.

David Remington stepped forward again, and for over two years, since March of 2009, he has been travelling the riding on evenings and weekends, preparing the ground for the campaign that finally arrived in earnest this month.

“People call me the Ever Ready bunny; I keep running and running,” David Remington said when interviewed on a rare day off from campaigning. “I feel that this is a winnable riding for our party. That's a big motivation for me.”

Visiting with people in the numerous communities that make up the sprawling three-county riding is the kind of thing that Remington enjoys, and it fits with his ideas not only about campaigning, but also about the job of a member of parliament.

“I always think that you have to earn the support, try to represent the style of an MP that I would like to be, which is one who remains in the community. I think it means a lot to people; they appreciate the fact that I keep going. That's what I feel is happening in this campaign. Green, NDP, and Conservative supporters are coming to us every day.” he said.

Even in the Conservative stronghold territory of Lanark County, which is home to about 45% of the voters in riding, Remington says he has been well received this time around.

“I was going door-to-door in the village of Lanark last week, meeting with store owners and homeowners, and I had a very good response. The last time around people just thought I was brave to be there. So I think things have changed. It feels like a totally different campaign.”

David Remington's own political career started in the municipal world. He served first as a Napanee councilor and then as mayor. Later, he served as parliamentary assistant to Larry McCormick in the Hastings, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington riding. He has a background in small business and has been working as a program supervisor for the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth.

He considers his political style as that of a consensus builder. “My style is to be able to work across party lines, putting the resident ahead of party politics. I'm not really partisan; I'm really not. Some people are very partisan, but that's against my style. And I think the reaction at the door - and I've knocked on about 2,000 doors - has been that people don't like the fear mongering that the Harper government has been doing in his push for a majority. They want to know that their politicians are willing to work between party lines.”

In terms of issues that are dominant in his riding in this election, Remington said that health care and the economy have been at the top of people's minds.

NDP - Doug SmythIn the LFL&A riding, which was created in 2004 and has seen one provincial and three federal elections, the NDP has run a distant third in all of them, closer in support to the fourth-place Green Party than to the second-place Liberals.

In this election, it was one week into the five-week campaign when the local NDP association chose Doug Smyth as their candidate.

Smyth is a newcomer to politics. When interviewed, he said he has been living in Carleton Place for over 15 years, after working in a management position for a number of major corporations, General Electric, Domtar, and Procter and Gamble, in Toronto and Edmonton. He now works with the Eastern Ontario division for Wagonmaster, a technology company for the automobile servicing industry.

“I was looking for a way of giving. I had a little bit more time available, even though it hasn't worked out too well on that score, and since I feel the NDP is taking a nice fresh approach to the difficulties the country is facing, I contacted the local office and put my name forward,” he said.

Smyth said that he appreciates the NDP approach to the major issues facing local voters.

“A lot of people in this riding are struggling, living from pay check to pay check and trying to avoid slipping into real poverty and worrying about keeping their jobs. The impact of the HST has really hit home this winter. Only the NDP understands these kinds of problems, and is willing to look at heating oils and gasoline pricing,” he said.

Smyth also thinks it is appropriate to halt the drive for tax relief for large corporations. “The corporations are now sitting on large pools of money. Their profits are going to be phenomenal this year, and tax relief from Canada will not make them invest in new production here when there are cheaper conditions all across the world. Studies that show that tax relief for corporations creates jobs are all dated, and the business world is now totally global. The NDP plan to help small business is more realistic because that is where the jobs are being created. We needed to have competitive corporate tax rates, but we reached that point about $60 billion ago,” he said.

Doug Smyth also believes that of the national leaders, Jack Layton has the advantage of “being the sort of guy that will work day and night for us. I feel I can trust him with the future of my family.”

He said that the issues that are coming up in terms of the ageing population and the future of health care will require “the best minds working together to bring lots of input into how to deal with these problems, and this is not how Stephen Harper works.”

While thus far the campaign has been a charmed one for NDP National Leader Jack Layton, in spite of health problems that were slowing him down at the start, his LFL&A candidate has had some problems.

Doug Smyth was out campaigning for the first week of April, but from the start he knew he would have to miss the third week, including the all-candidates’ meetings in Kaladar and Perth, because of a long-standing work commitment in Toronto. Then he got hit with a health issue of his own. He developed a muscle problem with one eye that has left him with double vision and dizziness, hopefully temporary. That kept him on the sidelines for the following week, so he has not been able to get out for door-to door campaigning and has missed three more all-candidates meetings - in Verona, Napanee, and at a student forum at Sharbot Lake High School.

As it stood coming into the final week of the campaign, Dough Smyth said he hopes to attend the meeting in Carleton Place on Wednesday, although he said, “I will look a bit like a pirate because I will be wearing a patch over my eye.” 

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