By Stephen Vance, Editor
On Tuesday evening the four Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound candidates in the upcoming federal election will be in Meaford for the first of two all candidates meetings being hosted in the municipality this week by the Meaford & District Chamber of Commerce.
If the candidate debate held in Keady last week offers any hint of what Meaford voters might encounter at these two candidate meetings, they will be pretty ho-hum affairs.
To be fair, the debate in Keady – which was hosted by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture – focused strictly on agricultural issues, and while the event drew a crowd of approximately 120, there were no questions which stepped outside of the agricultural scope, so the candidates couldn’t really get into issues beyond food policy, product labelling, and the threat of genetically modified alfalfa to our dairy industry.
After the debate in Keady – which felt more like a candidate love-in with all four candidates declining even the slimmest of opportunities to attack their fellow candidate’s platforms – incumbent Conservative candidate Larry Miller told The Independent that the campaign in our riding has been intentionally quiet and civil when compared to other ridings, and certainly when compared to the national campaign.
Given that the leader of Miller’s party, our Prime Minister, has often found himself treated like the nation’s favourite punching bag over the last several years, a quiet, civil campaign at the local level probably benefits Miller. Rather than defending the policies and performance of his party, Miller can instead focus on his own performance and the service he has given to the riding since having been elected in 2004.
Not that Miller necessarily sees a need to shy away from defending his boss.
“There can be some misgivings out there, but without getting into the other parties, some of my fellow candidates- I wouldn’t want to be running under their leader, and that’s all I’m going to say,” Miller told The Independent when asked if he felt that the national campaign hurts his local campaign.
It is interesting to note that in spite of the continued anti-Harper sentiments expressed in national and local media, and on blog sites and message boards from across the country, Harper consistently tops all party leaders in approval polls. Not that the numbers are anything to write home about, but he still fares better than the other major party leaders in approval ratings.
So what can we expect at the Meaford debates?
The four candidates have each approached their campaigns in very different ways.
Conservative candidate Miller has seemed very relaxed and confident, and his campaign has been relatively quiet. Miller is able to talk to his own performance in Ottawa and in the riding over the last six years. He is popular and respected by many in the riding, and that combined with being the incumbent certainly works in his favour.
Liberal candidate Kimberley Love is running for a seat in parliament for the first time. Love has been on the campaign trail for the better part of two years, with a seemingly endless calendar of events that she has attended, and she is certainly well read and has appeared ready to discuss and debate any issue. Although she is in an uphill battle against Miller, Love has expressed confidence that she and her party are the right choice for this riding, and for the nation.
Karen Gventer is the NDP candidate, and though she is soft-spoken and at times invisible in this campaign, she knows her party’s platform inside and out. Not only that, she is clearly very proud of her party, its leadership, and the proposed policies they have developed. Though historically the NDP has not done well in federal elections, they do have a reputation for developing policies that are later adopted by other parties and ultimately become part of our national policy.
Emma Hogbin is carrying the Green Party banner in our riding this time around. Hogbin is young and enthusiastic, and she is passionate about her party and its policies. She has the benefit of the foundation laid in previous federal elections by Green candidates Shane Jolley and Dick Hibma each of whom posted impressive results in their respective election campaigns.
But what each of these candidates lacks is a rallying cry.
In fact nationally there is no one issue that can draw masses to either get behind or fight against, and this perhaps is why we are likely headed for yet another minority government. In previous elections we’ve had issues like free-trade to align ourselves for or against, but we haven’t had that in recent elections.
Sure in our riding three of the candidates could choose to attack Prime Minister Harper. They can talk about the way he runs his caucus or highlight the surplus that existed prior to his party taking the reins of the country, and the massive deficit that exists now, but given approval numbers, that doesn’t seem to move people.
The fact that Canada’s economy has continued to plug along and outperform most other nations during what has been described as a global economic downturn also gives opposing parties little ammunition.
So we are left with a wide range of issues that are all important, but not large scale enough for any one party or candidate to build a movement upon.
If you are attending the candidate meeting at the Meaford & St. Vincent Community Centre tonight and have not yet decided who you will be voting for, you’ve likely got a tough job ahead of you since we have the benefit of having four quality candidates running in our riding, each of whom feel strongly about the policies of their respective parties.
Your best bet? Listen closely to the discussion amongst the candidates, pay attention to how each candidate addresses issues that are important to you, and in the end, think about which of the four you would like to see representing the interests of this riding in Ottawa.
Then brace yourself for yet another minority government, and prepare to head back to the polls in a couple of years when this cycle starts all over again.
