TORONTO – Paul Martin, the new federal Liberal leader and prime minister-in-waiting, is vowing that his success in wooing the West will be the ultimate test of his time in office.
“In Western Canada, new voices are rejecting calls to build firewalls, wanting instead to exert the influence on the national stage that the West’s size and success warrant,” he said in his acceptance speech Nov. 14 to the thunderous applause of 10,000 Liberals at the leadership convention.
The 10th Liberal leader and soon-to-be 21st Canadian prime minister has told western audiences that whatever else he accomplishes, if the West does not feel more at the centre of politics and policy when he leaves office “I will consider my term a failure.”
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He said he will make MPs representatives of their voters in Ottawa, rather than Ottawa’s representatives back to the constituencies.
Martin also faces the hurdle of winning support from farmers in rural western ridings now largely owned by the Canadian Alliance.
Former Reform party leader Preston Manning said westerners have a right to be skeptical.
“It depends on how the government responds to the aspirations and not just the complaints that will make a difference,” said the politician who created a regional populist party with a demand that the West wants in.
He said Martin has a 10-year record in government of voting against democratic reforms.
“Maybe he’s had a change of heart and mind on the road to 24 Sussex but he has to prove he has changed.”
Regina Liberal MP Ralph Goodale, expected to be one of Martin’s senior ministers and key aide in the western campaign, perhaps as deputy prime minister, has heard the skepticism.
Goodale argues that Martin has a chance to turn the West into a Liberal stronghold, as Wilfrid Laurier did after 1896 and William Lyon Mackenzie King did a generation later.
“One of the things we have to do is connect better with rural Canadians, particularly in the West, at a level that shows we understand, we care, we’re sensitive and we’re flexible,” he said.
For Manitoba farmer and Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen, the last point is key. The new government has to listen more closely and quit imposing solutions on farmers.
“Farmers now are a little disillusioned with the way the process has been working in the past where the partnership was committed but they didn’t feel it was happening,” he said.
For Greg Ashley of Winnipeg, who ran unsuccessfully for party president, it is a matter of showing that the national government is prepared to examine western frustrations.
“Are freight rates too high? Can you get to Regina by air without going through Alaska?”
For former Manitoba farm leader Don Dewar, now running for a Liberal nomination, the solution is obvious.
“Send more Liberals to Ottawa from the West and the government will hear the message from the inside.”
