Goodale keeps Liberal name alive on Prairies

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Published: October 23, 2008

Ralph Goodale is often referred to as Saskatchewan’s lone Liberal.

The phrase could just as easily be lonely Liberal after prairie voters rejected the party’s platform and sent only him and a Manitoba representative, Anita Neville in Winnipeg South Centre, to Ottawa.

British Columbians elected five Liberals while Albertans elected none. Canadians as a whole handed the party its lowest popular vote ever.

The distance between Ottawa and the West isn’t lost on Goodale.

“The party needs to be very clear that we take, and we intend to take, the regions seriously,” he told reporters on election night.

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“We have to, I think, work harder on policy initiatives that relate in a particular and peculiar way to the region rather than just perhaps a homogenized national position. We have to work better on the regional subtleties and the nuances that resonate with regional voters.”

He called on the party to spend the time and money to rebuild the Liberal brand in the West.

Goodale’s victory is his sixth consecutive in Wascana. He also served a term in the 1970s as the member for Assiniboia.

He attributed his most recent win to the hard work and dedication of his supporters.

He earned 17,028 votes, or 46 percent of the popular vote, compared to the 12,719 of second-place Conservative candidate Michelle Hunter. The NDP’s Stephen Moore earned 5,507 and the Green party’s Larissa Shasko picked up 1,706.

Voter turnout in the riding was nearly 65 percent.

Goodale singled out this campaign for the involvement of the provincial Saskatchewan Party government, saying it was unusual to have a government so engaged.

“Provinces sometimes take the opportunity of a federal campaign to present an issue or an argument, but I think the degree of the engagement and the partisanship in the engagement this time in this particular riding was a bit extraordinary,” he said.

The provincial government vocally criticized the Liberals’ proposed carbon tax for the financial hit it would have on Saskatchewan.

The federal Conservatives brought in several cabinet ministers to campaign with Hunter, a former Saskatchewan Party candidate who resigned her presidency of the provincial party to run federally.

Hunter did cut into the margin of victory Goodale enjoyed in 2006, when he won by nearly 9,000 votes.

Goodale said the official opposition would be a responsible one. The critical world economic situation requires a “skillful Parliament,” he said.

About the author

Karen Briere

Karen Briere

Karen Briere grew up in Canora, Sask. where her family had a grain and cattle operation. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Regina and has spent more than 30 years covering agriculture from the Western Producer’s Regina bureau.

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