LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – The retirement of a political legend like local Reform MP Ray Speaker inevitably leads to some opposition dreams.
After more than 30 years in the provincial legislature and the last four in Parliament, Speaker is bowing out.
Last time, he drew more than 50 percent of the vote, winning by more than 13,000 votes.
This time, Speaker is on the sidelines, a political elder statesman helping his Reform replacement Rick Casson.
“I will do what I can to help,” he said last week.
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This leads to opposition bravado, assuming the 1993 vote was as much for Speaker as it was for Reform.
“I really think this is a tight race,” repeat Liberal candidate John McGee said last week. “I really think we can win this seat.”
Progressive Conservative first-time candidate Greg Weadick makes no such claims, but he does say many traditional Tory supporters who made Lethbridge a safe Conservative seat for decades are considering a Tory vote again.
“We are getting many calls from people who say they held their nose and voted Reform last time but they are coming home,” he said.
At the centre of this dreaming is Casson, 48, a Picture Butte resident and manager of printing services at the University of Lethbridge.
“The campaign is going very well,” he said last week. “I know the opposition see an opportunity here, but I just don’t see it.”
Casson seems as concerned about the responsibility of replacing Speaker as he is about the results June 2.
“I consider it a blessing to be replacing Ray because after 35 years in politics, he retained a level of integrity that is rare,” said the new candidate and Speaker protege. “People tell me I have big shoes to fill and well I know it. It is a plateau to try to reach.”
Casson said he is winning support with promises of MP recall, free votes and accountability.
He said the riding is split on the issue of the Canadian Wheat Board. Some like the Reform idea of a voluntary board, some prefer the existing monopoly and a few are border runners, testing the law by exporting outside the board through Coutts, Alta.
“I would say that issue is split,” he said. “But when you see people get so worked up that they are willing to break the law, it is time to change the law.”
Liberal candidate McGee agreed the riding is split on the wheat board issue, but argued the Liberal proposal to democratize the board and retain its single-desk status is a good compromise.
And while Reform and Conservative candidates identify an anti-gun control sentiment as good for them, McGee said a poll has revealed most people in Lethbridge support the gun registration bill.
Other issues involved
“If people were to vote just on that issue, which I don’t think they will, we would win the riding,” he said.
Tory candidate Weadick said on the wheat board issue, he is careful not to endorse a dual market as a simple answer, even though some Conservative candidates in other ridings are promoting that as the meaning of the Conservative call for more board “flexibility.”
He said the interests of all farmers must be considered before a few, who can capitalize on private sales, are given special status.
“I think the Reform policy of a dual market is very simplistic, arrived at before they had considered all the implications,” Weadick said.
