DAUPHIN, Man. – An imminent rail-line abandonment in the sprawling western Manitoba riding of Dauphin-Swan River provides a snapshot of politics in a close election race.
Liberal candidate and incumbent MP Marlene Cowling, selling a good-news agenda, sees it as an opportunity.
“I can understand that people affected are uneasy about change,” she said in her campaign office. “But there are good things happening in that area.”
Ethelbert lies in the middle of that area, expecting to see the last CN train pick up grain around May 31.
Read Also
Canola oil transloading facility opens
DP World just opened its new canola oil transload facility at the Port of Vancouver. It can ship one million tonnes of the commodity per year.
Progressive Conservative candidate Lorne Boguski, having lunch in a town cafe, tried last week to make the most of it.
“People are going to be hurt here, farmers will have farther to haul and the local MP has done nothing,” he said.
Cowling insists the closing of the rail line is necessary to build an efficient system. She mentions the potential for tourism, or even a short-line railway.
“We have said the railways will no longer be subsidized at the expense of taxpayers,” she said. “We have a good reeve there, forward thinking. I think they will come out of this all right.”
The reeve of Ethelbert municipality, Maxine Plesiuk, is not so sure.
As a supporter of Boguski, she also has little time for Cowling.
“I have on different occasions asked her for help on this,” Plesiuk said.
“She says she has been working for farmers here. That’s not what I’d call it.”
The rail abandonment is an issue but far from the only one in this vast and volatile riding.
All candidates expect the result to be close.
Cowling won in 1993 by a few hundred votes because of an opposition split. Reform came a close second.
The two parties with deep historical roots in the riding saw their votes slip as the New Democratic Party came third and the incumbent Tories fourth.
This time, Cowling runs for re-election bragging about millions of federal dollars spent in the riding, her support for the Canadian Wheat Board, the Liberal promise to shore up health-care spending and the prospect for more rural development and jobs.
Reform candidate and Dauphin mayor Inky Mark insists he is well ahead, running hard on the argument that Cowling has represented Ottawa rather than local voters and that Liberal gun registration plans are wrong.
“Like all of rural Canada, one of the big issues with voters here is the lack of accountability of Liberal MPs,” he said. “We are giving them a chance to recall us if we do not represent voters.”
He has been campaigning in the air, flying his own plane to the far reaches of the rural riding which extends from poor native communities in northern Manitoba to affluent farming communities north of Brandon.
And he has been campaigning hard on gun control. In his Dauphin office hangs a sign: “Remember C-68 when you vote. National Firearms Association.”
Boguski, mayor of Roblin, is counting on voters to forget or forgive the Tory past and to see Jean Charest as the leader of the future and national unity as the fundamental issue.
“If that happens, I think we can win,” he said last week. “If not, I think it is a horse race.”
For New Democrat Betty Findley, the record of the incumbent is a major issue. “I believe there will be a ‘get rid of Marlene’ vote this time because she has not represented her constituents well.”
She criticized Cowling for supporting gun registration when the majority of constituents oppose it and condemned the Liberals for ending grain subsidies and allowing rail-ine abandonment.
“Manitoba used to be the lowest cost place to ship grain from and thanks to the Liberals, it is now the most expensive,” she said. “They will answer for that.”
NDP campaign manager Virginia Jamieson figures those issues, along with jobs, health care and pensions, will bring NDP voters home.
“But I do think it is a close race.”
