MORDEN, Man. – Through driving rain and spectacular lightning they came, 1,300 strong, to anoint a familiar face to run for a brand new party.
Normally, such a highly charged nomination meeting would be an omen of success for the election to come.
But this is Portage-Lisgar, a sprawling riding smack dab in the middle of Manitoba, with a long, proud history of electing right-wing representatives.
And this time, there are three men staking out territory in the right, and two other candidates hoping to break through the middle.
Read Also
No special crop fireworks expected
farmers should not expect fireworks in the special crops market due to ample supplies.
Even the most fervently partisan are hedging their bets about what will happen in this unique race that pits high-profile personalities against traditional party loyalties.
At the jam-packed Canadian Alliance nomination, party members chose Portage business owner Brian Pallister to carry the flag.
Pallister has a high profile in the riding. He represented part of it provincially as a Tory cabinet minister, and ran here in 1997 for the Tories.
Pallister, 46, also took on Joe Clark for the leadership of the party, but left the Tories in August after failing to build a national strategy for avoiding the very situation he finds himself in right now.
“We were once together, then we were apart: here we are tonight together again,” said Pallister on a stage festooned with the entwined green colors of Reform and the blue of the Conservatives.
“Don’t you love reunions?”
Like any reunion, this one had its tensions.
In the top row of the stands in the small hockey arena, clearly separate from this group that once was his political family, sat Jake Hoeppner, the dark horse of the local campaign.
He was the first Reform MP elected in the province, ousting local Tory hero Charlie Mayer in the 1993 election. Then, surprising pundits, he topped Pallister in 1997.
After a quixotic series of lawsuits and a painfully public battle with Reform leaders, Hoeppner, 64, was booted out from the ranks of the party last summer, and sat as an independent in the House of Commons.
Did his presence feel awkward for former supporters like CA riding official Don Sawatsky?
“That’s a hard question to answer,” said Sawatsky of Oak Bluff, Man. “Mr. Hoeppner was a friend of mine, but he started to go a different direction.
“I would think it must send shivers down his spine to see 1,000, 1,500 people here.”
On the contrary, Hoeppner was cheerfully shaking hands and making time with reporters.
“Half of these (people) are my supporters,” Hoeppner said at the meeting.
He takes credit for forcing change within the Reform party that eventually led to Preston Manning’s demise and the rise in the CA’s popularity, but he also scoffed at the new party.
“I hear spin doctors just like I hear in the other parties,” he said, after Pallister and the other candidates spoke.
“People want honesty and trust. People don’t want spin doctors.”
Hoeppner said he wants to win one more term to work on farm and justice issues. He said his quest has attracted ample funds and volunteers from supporters like Bert Cummer.
Cummer, a disenchanted Reformer from Roseisle, Man., said he trusts Hoeppner because he didn’t get “brainwashed” when he moved to Ottawa.
“I stood behind Jake because he stood behind the policies and principles of what he was elected on. What else can you ask for from a person?” said Cummer.
A few paces away from where Hoeppner kibitzed with TV cameras, making time on CA turf, retired farmers and Pallister supporters Ken Turnbull and Clarence Latimer admired his moxie.
“I think he’s got a lot of courage to show up here,” said Turnbull.
Added Latimer: “He tried to say it just like he seen it.”
Winkler farmer Jack Froese said he thinks former Tories will flock to the CA with “class act” Pallister at the helm, although he’s not counting out the Hoeppner wild card.
“I still think it’s going to be a close race,” said Froese, explaining Hoeppner represents the values of the region, and gets past the mistrust many people have of party politics and polished politicians.
“I’ve seen him in Ottawa” on lobbying trips with the Manitoba pulse growers, said Froese: “He’s a hard-working fellow.”
Many in the riding wish Hoeppner would have squared up his differences with the CA last summer so he could have been on this stage instead of sitting to the side in the stands, said Froese.
“He’d be a shoe-in.”
