MORDEN, Man. – Two weeks ago, Morley McDonald was driving his regular route between eastern Sask-atchewan and Minnesota, hauling down potash and bringing back soy meal and corn.
But now, he’s driving the icy roads of Portage-Lisgar as the Tory candidate in the election.
It’s not what the long-time local party organizer thought he’d be doing this month, but after failing to convince former MP and agriculture minister Charlie Mayer to stage a comeback, McDonald seems comfortable in the role.
“I’m proud to do it. I am proud of Joe Clark,” said McDonald, 58.
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Still, McDonald said it’s a bittersweet campaign for local Tory faithful who lost an “integral part” of their team, Brian Pallister, who carried the Tory flag in 1997 and made a run for the national leadership, but this summer “decided his chances were better on a different horse.”
McDonald is one of three candidates hoping to come up the middle in a vote-split between Canadian Alliance candidate Pallister and independent incumbent Jake Hoeppner.
Many Tories will stick with the party, he said. “Just because the wind has changed doesn’t mean they’re going to do it either.”
He’s trying to convince others who are leaning toward the Alliance to vote strategically.
The CA won’t win enough seats in Eastern Canada to form the government, argues McDonald. But the Liberals may not win enough to form a majority.
In a minority government, he believes Clark and a small team of Tory MPs can mediate what could be a raucous House of Commons.
“In government today, you can’t have that kind of acrimony to get things done,” said McDonald.
Liberal candidate and Morden mayor Gerry Gebler is also fighting for the middle ground.
He’s a businessman well known in the region for being a watchdog on health-care reform who said he decided to run because he opposes CA policies on health-care funding.
Gebler, 57, said his biggest challenge in the campaign is convincing the people of Winkler to vote for him: the nearby city has a long-standing rivalry with Morden.
Although the “remote possibility” of the Liberals or NDP profiting from a vote-split is adding interest to the campaign, NDP candidate Diane Beresford is pragmatic about her chances.
The teacher from Notre Dame de Lourdes wanted to run in the right-wing riding to raise awareness about funding for health care, education and the environment.
“I see it as a public duty to continue to raise these issues,” said Beresford, 48, a former president of the Manitoba teachers’ union and vice-president of the Canadian Teachers Federation.
Brandon University political scientist Meir Serfaty is skeptical that McDonald, Gebler or Beresford can make gains on higher-profile candidates Pallister and Hoeppner during such a short campaign.
Polls suggest die-hard Tory support in Manitoba is fading, he said, but added the electorate is “volatile” and anything could happen.
“I think (the Tories) are just too far behind to come up on top.”
Serfaty thinks the riding will end up sending Pallister to Ottawa because discontent about the Liberal government is greater than local affection for Hoeppner.
Hoeppner will have few opportunities to create change as an independent MP, he said.
On the night he was named CA candidate, Pallister remarked that Portage-Lisgar is a “poster child for vote splitting.”
He said the value of Hoeppner’s independence has been overstated.
“It really is an exercise in futility, frankly, to get anything done by yourself in politics,” Pallister said.
“You cannot bark at the moon and think you’re going to change anything.”
