LOCKPORT, Man. – Manitoba Conservative candidate James Bezan raised an issue last week that haunts rural candidates across the country – voter apathy.
In 2008, the three term Selkirk-Interlake MP won more than 60 percent of the vote.
In 2006, he handily defeated Ed Schreyer when the former NDP Manitoba premier ran as a federal candidate in his old provincial seat.
Yet at an April 14 gathering of supportive constituents, Bezan was urging them not to take the election for granted.
“I do believe this is an extremely important election and the greatest problem is complacency,” he told the crowd. “In this riding, a lot of people think I have it in the bag. My greatest enemy right now is not the opposition. It is complacency.”
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It is a worry expressed in rural ridings across the country, where Conservatives have run up massive majorities in recent elections.
How do you convince your supporters to work and vote if they think the result is a foregone conclusion?
“It’s always a danger,” said southern Alberta Conservative Ted Menzies, who has scored overwhelming victories in the Macleod riding south of Calgary since 2004.
“I don’t take this riding for granted, you can’t. I work the riding hard and try to see as many people as I can because if they don’t see me, they might think I am taking them for granted.”
In his Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound riding in the middle of Ontario cattle country northwest of Toronto, three-time Conservative MP Larry Miller bemoans that four in 10 voters didn’t bother to vote in the last election.
He said the challenge of getting the vote out is even greater in rural Canada, where distances to the polls are longer and the outcome is often assumed to be pre-ordained.
“It really bothers me,” he said. “To me, not voting is like quitting, and I’m not a quitter.”
Miller wondered if one solution might be the Australian model that requires everyone to vote, although he quickly admitted it goes against everything he believes in about small government and reducing regulation.
“Maybe it’s too early to be thinking about that, but I don’t know. Something has to be done.”
Bezan has additional challenges to worry about.
His riding north of Winnipeg has been one of the hardest hit by this spring’s floods. Communities have been evacuated and tens of thousands of acres of farmland lie under water just weeks before seeding.
“Floods are a big issue and many constituents raise it,” he said. “This could really affect agriculture here this year.”
Farmers also complain about the effectiveness of government farm supports, although Bezan said high prices have made farmers less critical this year. He said farmers appreciate the government priority on opening foreign markets for farm products but worry about rising input costs.
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