SIMCOE, Ont. – Former Liberal agriculture minister Bob Speller sounds like a man who expects to be back at the cabinet table soon, probably in the same seat he occupied until his defeat last year in his southern Ontario riding.
“I decided to run again because I have unfinished business to do,” the 16-year House of Commons veteran said during an afternoon of low-key campaigning.
“I spent years working for the farmers of Haldimand-Norfolk and elsewhere and just as I got into a decision-making position where I could implement my ideas, it was taken away. I’d like to be back there.”
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Conservative Diane Finley, one of the party’s giant killers in rural Ontario during the 2004 election, sounds like a woman intent on remaining exactly where she is.
“All the experts say incumbency gives you a three to five percent boost and I won last year without the name recognition I have now,” she said on that same Dec. 4 afternoon.
“There is a tremendous mood out there to change the government. And I’m proud to run on my record as an MP over the past 17 months.”
Welcome to Rematch 2005, the second square-off between veteran politician Speller and the rookie Finley.
He says it will be a campaign dominated by local issues, including problems in agriculture, the riding’s second most important industry.
“The No. 1 issue is low farm incomes and I think people believe they need strong local leadership to deal with it,” said Speller. “I think people realized what they’d lost after they gave up their chance to have a minister represent them.”
Finley said local issues and representation will be important but many of the “local” issues reflect national concerns – the need to improve health care and education, increasing drug and gun crime in the area, opposition to the gun registry and what she said is an often-voiced desire for change after 12 years of Liberal government.
“These are all issues on which we have strong policies and are the logical alternative,” she said. “Of course, Liberal failures in agriculture will be a big part of the campaign.”
Haldimand-Norfolk is a huge riding that sprawls across rich farmland southwest of Hamilton.
It includes a strong supply managed sector, large grains and oilseeds acreage, many cattle operations, almost all the country’s tobacco production and its entire peanut industry (two farms).
It has traditionally been a Conservative riding and when Speller won it in 1988 during the free trade election, it was considered a major upset for the Liberals.
He won the next three elections, was appointed to cabinet when Paul Martin formed the government in December 2003 and then lost his seat six months later. Every year since 1993, his margin of victory had declined.
Speller, while quick to say he believes his successor Andy Mitchell has done “a very good job,” said he has been frustrated by the government’s inability to communicate a vision on how it will help farmers through the tough times they have faced.
“We are spending record amounts but the message of a vision isn’t getting out,” he said. “We need a support system that responds more quickly. CAIS (Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program) has to be fixed” but the review has not been set up the way he wanted to see it.
Speller said he would not presume to predict whether the Liberals would put him back in cabinet if he is re-elected “but I have a vision and I have every indication that the prime minister would continue to support my ideas.”
Finley doesn’t expect him to get the chance.
Although a rookie MP, she is part of a powerful political family within the Conservative Party. Husband Doug is leader Stephen Harper’s deputy chief of staff and a key election manager.
Expect both Martin and Harper to campaign in the riding.
“I like my chances this time,” said Finley.
