EDMONTON – Meghan McMaster, a 22-year-old musician, recent college graduate and NDP candidate for Edmonton Centre, has no illusions of winning the riding when votes are cast for the June 28 federal election.
Still, she’s knocked on enough doors during the campaign to be convinced that incumbent and deputy prime minister Anne McLellan, the Liberal candidate, probably won’t win either.
“People are really angry at the Liberals,” said McMaster, adding the combination of gun control, government waste and general Liberal arrogance over their assumed right to govern seems to have ignited an anger in the electorate not seen for years.
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McMaster, who works in a retirement home, said nothing has generated more anger than the multimillion-dollar sponsorship scandal, which gained widespread attention in February when the auditor general reported that government friendly advertising firms took advantage of a federal program and charged about $100 million in fees for work that was of little or no value.
“That’s the overriding issue behind all the anger,” she said.
“That’s why they’re so angry at the Liberals.”
A few blocks away at the Conservative riding office, candidate Laurie Hawn is hearing similar sentiments.
Since last July he and his volunteers have knocked on 22,000 doors in the downtown Edmonton riding.
“There is an overriding anger and it’s mostly directed at the Liberals,” said Hawn, a former Canadian Armed Forces fighter pilot.
“There is anger at the waste” and there is “anger at their sense of entitlement,” said Hawn, who added the Conservatives are attracting Liberals to their side.
In this riding, where the race has been historically tight, the candidates need all the votes they can get.
In 1993, McLellan won the election by one vote, but after a recount it was raised to 12.
In 1997, she won by 1,410 votes and in 2000 beat the Reform party candidate by 733 votes.
As one of only two federal Liberals elected in Alberta, McLellan knows she has to fight for a win in her riding.
“I never take the voter for granted,” said McLellan, minister of public safety and emergency preparedness.
She said she hasn’t run into the type of anger the other candidates say they have seen.
“I don’t get a sense they’re angry at me personally,” she said.
“They raise it and want to know, ‘Anne, how did this happen?’ They want to know what happened and why and how you’re going to fix it.”
McLellan said she has noticed a desire for a strong publicly funded health-care system, a greater understanding of Canada’s role in the world and the need for a strong education system.
