Ed Fahlman stood in front of his Weyburn home on the holiday Monday, speaking in the code that voters use when they want to be polite to a politician they do not support.
His issue was the Liberal gun registration law. As an owner of a dozen guns, and a worker in the Weyburn Co-op where sales of guns have fallen since the Liberals passed C-68, he is angry.
The 45-year-old Fahlman is not a gun owner like those prone to raising images of Hitler and police states when they talk about gun control.
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But he opposes the registration plan.
So when Liberal Bernie Collins, surprise winner in 1993 and now Souris-Moose Mountain Liberal candidate, came calling in search of support, Fahlman interrupted spring window-washing to talk. He was polite, careful with his comments.
“I’m concerned about C-68,” he said.
Collins had heard it before. He had his answer.
He noted he had voted against the legislation and if sent back to Ottawa, would work hard to change the law.
Fahlman stuck to his position, although he was critical of local Reform candidate Roy Bailey, whose party has been championing repeal of Bill C-68.
That left Collins hopeful that this voter in a close race still had not totally decided against the Liberals: “I hope people judge me on my own stands.”
But back on Fahlman’s lawn after Collins left, the news is not so good for the Liberal candidate who won by a few hundred votes in 1993 and now faces a strong Reform challenge.
“This is the issue on which I decide my vote,” Fahlman said.
“I appreciate what Bernie Collins has done but I will vote Reform. Last time, I supported the Liberals.”
It is voter decisions like that, based on individual issues, which make incumbent MPs nervous as they campaign for the June 2 election.
In Saskatoon-Humboldt, New Democrat candidate and former CBC radio host Dennis Gruending encounters a lot of “I’m voting for the CBC” signs in parts of his riding. He makes a point of reminding these voters of his own credentials and the stand of his party.
Another vote lost for incumbent Liberal Georgette Sheridan, whose party broke a 1993 pledge of stable CBC funding.
It is an issue that may be decisive for no more than a few hundred voters, but in hard-fought elections, every vote counts.
Every party has those soft-spot issues.
In Saskatoon, NDP candidates are chased by activists of the “Citizens Concerned about Free Trade” group who accuse the New Democrats of selling out by accepting existing free-trade deals as reality from which any new government must work. Changes are possible but the deals cannot be torn up.
Reform candidates face their own questions about policies pursued and controversial positions. And despite their emphasis on the future, some voters will not allow Conservative candidates to downplay their recent past.
In the search for one vote at a time, these are the issues at play as candidates watch voters slip through their fingers.
