PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Oneterm Conservative MP Randy Hoback thinks he knows why his Prince Albert riding has been safe Reform /Conservative country for the past 13 years.
“I think it is a combination of social issues and a basic belief out here that you have to pay your bills,” said the former chair of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.
“I think people here see that as a fit with us.”
NDP challenger Valerie Mushinski, trying to win the riding for the third time, begs to differ.
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“I think increasingly this riding does not identify with the way the Conservatives run the country,” she said. “(Constituents) think there is a better way to deal with crime than building bigger prisons. They think we need a just society and not just a society. I really feel a resurgence of interest in our party. I think I have a good chance.”
Hoback took 57 percent of the vote in 2008. Mushinski took 29 percent.
Whatever the outcome May 2, the history of one of Canada’s most politically interesting ridings is a story written by all three of the main parties contesting this election.
It is a riding of prime ministers and one of the rare constituencies that turned on a sitting prime minister.
Liberal William Lyon Mackenzie King sat as the Prince Albert MP for 19 years through four elections before being defeated in 1945’s wartime election by CCF candidate E.L. Bowerman, whose son Ted later served as a provincial cabinet minister under Allen Blakeney.
Despite losing his own seat, King’s Liberals won a majority and he returned to Ontario to find another political home.
Later, the riding became the base for Progressive Conservative John
Diefenbaker, who held it for 26 years after 1953, serving for six years as prime minister from the city.
Wilfrid Laurier was also elected in the riding but never represented it in the House of Commons.
In his time, leaders could run in several ridings to make sure they won one and as prime minister, Laurier always chose to represent Québec- st.
That prime ministerial past still surfaces, said Hoback.
He recounts tales from constituents about the days Diefenbaker visited their small communities by helicopter to campaign.
“The ghost of Diefenbaker is definitely still in the riding,” he said.
The NDP held the riding for 13 years following Diefenbaker’s death in 1979, followed briefly by a Liberal and then 13 years of Reform and Conservative MPs.
Although the vast riding is largely rural, both major candidates say rural and agricultural issues are playing little role in this election.
“I would say it is pretty quiet on that front,” said Hoback.
“Mainly farmers are keen to get their machinery out and get seeding. It is a late spring, there is water in some areas and they want to get going.”
Good market prices are making them happy and keeping them largely quiet on agricultural policy issues.
Mushinski said NDP policies favouring retention of the Canadian Wheat Board and the need for a rail freight costing review draw good response from farmers but she agreed the rural debate has been low key.
“I just think farmers are tired of raising their issues because nothing ever seems to happen.”
