TOFIELD, Alta. – When five-term Conservative MP Leon Benoit went into Tilly’s Family Dining restaurant Sept. 17 looking for votes, some of the conservative Reform populism that first sent him to Ottawa six elections ago came back to bite him.
Benoit, for 13 years an opposition MP denouncing the sins of Liberal governments, is campaigning for the first time as a government MP with a record to defend. www.producer.com/standing_graphics/fed_election_icon2008.jpg” width=”90″ height=”185″ align=”right”>
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“Certainly some of the Reform excitement is gone and that is a bit of an issue for us,” he said after his Tilley’s visit.
“There were some questions raised.”
Why didn’t the minority Conservative government get rid of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly, making it a confidence issue if necessary when the election-shy Liberals were holding their noses and letting the government get its parliamentary way rather than trigger a vote?
Why wasn’t the gun registry abolished?
Why did the Conservatives decide not to legislate abortion restrictions or challenge same-sex marriages?
“I certainly get those questions,” said Benoit.
“I tell them I have fought those battles and made those points.”
In Macleod riding south of Calgary, incumbent Ted Menzies says he also hears frustration from longtime party supporters who expected a Conservative government, minority or not, to act on those Reform issues.
“When the wheat board issue is raised, for example, I tell them I, too, am frustrated we didn’t get it done,” said the former president of Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.
“I tell them if we win a few more seats and we can get at least one of the parties to support us if we are in a stronger minority, hopefully we can get it done in the next Parliament.”
Despite the new experience of having a government record to defend and some unfinished business to explain, it is widely expected that the Conservative party will continue to score overwhelming victories throughout rural Alberta Oct. 14. Since the 1930s, conservative parties have politically owned the Alberta countryside.
“In Alberta, it is part of your identity to vote Conservative, part of being Albertan,” said University of Calgary political analyst David Taras. “Even people who move here quickly adopt that as part of a rite of passage in their new home.”
Political opponents often concede the obvious long before votes are cast.
“The people of this province are liberal in many ways but they vote Conservative,” said Vegreville-Wainwright Liberal candidate Adam Campbell, who concedes selling the party’s carbon tax plan is a burden even though he believes in it.
“It makes life much easier here if you are a Conservative. It is the way people conform here.”
Conservative incumbent candidates like Kevin Sorenson in Crowfoot and Brian Storseth in Westlock-St. Paul see it a different way.
Voters support them, they say, because they see the Conservative party supports western rural values and interests and the farm economy.
“People in rural Alberta appreciate hard work and they recognize that we work hard for them,” said Storseth.
“I think after seeing us govern in a minority for 30 months, people are confident now that we can govern,” said Sorenson.
One sign of Conservative confidence is that most Alberta candidates are spending time outside the province campaigning for other more vulnerable candidates.
Humphrey Banack, a Camrose-area farmer and president of Wild Rose Agricultural Producers, says he doesn’t want the government to conclude that because it will sweep rural seats, farmers are content with government policies and performance.
He said there are issues that range from the adequacy of safety net changes and the need for regional flexibility in programming to what he considers an arrogant Conservative approach in trying to force changes to the Canadian Wheat Board mandate.
“We believe it should be farmers’ choice based on a clear question and not some manipulation by the government,” he said. “To say farm ridings elected all Conservatives so that means we want to end the wheat board single desk is invalid. There are lots of reasons voters vote.”
