“We keep a finger on the pulse of the Atlantic region, we’re on top of all the issues and we mean business,” said NDP MP Ryan Cleary (St. John’s South-Mount Pearl, Nfld.), his party’s chair of the Atlantic caucus.
The New Democrats, who hold two of seven seats in Newfoundland and Labrador, held their annual summer caucus in St. John’s, Nfld., on Sept. 5 and 6. Members of the NDP team also visited each of the seven ridings in the province as they try to boost their popularity in the area.
“Winning 32 seats in Atlantic Canada, and then taking that massive wave that’s going to start in the East and move it out West. That’s the goal,” declared Mr. Cleary.
In Atlantic Canada’s four provinces, six seats are held by the New Democrats, 12 by the Liberals, and 14 by the Conservatives for a total of 32 ridings. The 2011 election brought the NDP two more seats in the region than they had held in the prior Parliament while the Liberals lost five seats and the Conservatives gained three.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, the Liberals led in popular support during the last election with 37.9 per cent. The NDP were in second with 32.6 per cent support and the Conservatives had 28.4 per cent.
Conservatives won the most popular support in Nova Scotia in 2011, at 36.7 per cent. The Liberals had 28.9 per cent while the NDP came in third with 30.3 per cent support.
The NDP were second to the Conservatives in New Brunswick with 29.8 per cent of the popular vote in the province compared to the Conservatives’ 43.9 per cent support. The Liberals won 22.6 per cent of the popular vote.
New Democrats fared worst on Prince Edward Island, where they garnered only 15.3 per cent of the popular vote, compared to the Liberals and the Conservatives who gained 41 per cent of the popular vote each.
The federal NDP has no seats in P.E.I. and one in New Brunswick.
Events took place on Thursday and Friday last week and included about a dozen MPs teaming up with provincial NDP legislators and provincial NDP leader Lorraine Michael to host town halls and other meetings. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, B.C.) and local MP Jack Harris (St. John’s East, Nfld.) hosted an event in his riding on the future of health care on Sept. 6. The same night, Mr. Cleary Matthew Dubé (Chambly-Borduas, Que.) and Mylène Freeman (Argenteuil-Papineau-Mirabel, Que.)—all of whom were elected last year—were at Memorial University, leading a discussion on youth engagement in politics.
In Conception Bay South, which is in the riding of Avalon, held by Liberal Scott Andrews, the NDP hosted a talk on Old Age Security and Employment Insurance. Pensions critic Irene Mathyssen (London-Fanshawe, Ont.) along with Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe (Pierrefonds-Dollard, Que.) and provincial NDP legislator George Murphy were there.
On Friday Sept. 7, Mr. Cleary as well as NDP MP Mike Sullivan (York South-Weston, Ont.), NDP MP Marjorlaine Boutin-Sweet (Hochelaga, Que.) and local Member of the House of Assembly New Democrat Gerry Rogers hosted a public forum on housing at St. John’s City Hall.
Also that day, Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemount-La Petite Patrie, Que.) and local politician Dale Kirby were in Marystown, in the riding of Random-Burn-St. George’s, held by Liberal Judy Foote, for a town hall meeting.
In Port Union, which is in Liberal MP Scott Simms’s riding of Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor, NDP Human Resources critic Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, Ont.) and Newfoundland provincial leader Lorraine Michaels met the public to talk about jobs.
In Corner Brook, on Newfoundland’s west coast in the riding of Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte, represented by Liberal Gerry Byrne, the NDP held a town hall on the environment with critic NDP MP Megan Leslie (Halifax, N.S.) and MHA George Murphy.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair (Outremont. Que.) also attended a local rugby game and the party held an old-school Newfoundland kitchen party at a local St. John’s pub last week, inviting the public and entertaining them with music from punks-turned-politicians NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.) and NDP MP Andrew Cash (Davenport, Ont.).
But Liberal MP Mark Eyking (Sydney-Victoria, N.S.), his party’s Atlantic caucus chair, warned the NDP would have to “do your homework” to gain any traction in the region.
“Atlantic Canadians are pretty astute politically. A drive-by doesn’t really work that much,” he said, while joking that he appreciated the extra tourism in the area.
Conservative Atlantic caucus chair Scott Armstrong (Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley, N.S.) noted that while every political party wants to have a high profile in all the regions, the Conservatives have an advantage over the NDP in Atlantic Canada.
“We’ve made a huge investment in the area of the shipbuilding contract, as well as several others, so that’s a good opportunity for us to capitalize on politically, because people see us as investing in this region,” he said.
Mr. Armstrong added that a number of Cabinet ministers, including Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield (Fredericton, N.B.), Revenue Minister Gail Shea (Egmont, P.E.I.), Defence Minister Peter MacKay (Central Nova, N.S.) and Intergovernmental Minister Peter Penashue (Labrador, Nfld.) have high visibility in the region.
Mr. Armstrong, who said his party’s regional caucus had met recently in Goose Bay, Nfld, and would meet again on Sept. 19, pointed to the Conservative’s own electoral gains in the area.
“Look at the success we had in the last election, our caucus grew significantly. We’re hoping to continue to do that. We see momentum in Atlantic Canada for us,” he said.
But Mr. Cleary charged that the Conservatives have given up on Atlantic Canada.
“There are a number of issues where we feel Atlantic Canada is under attack. There’s also a line of thinking that the Conservatives have basically written off Atlantic Canada, because instead of focusing on the 32 seats here, or what seats they have that are here, they’re going after the 30 new seats that are being added to the House of Commons,” he said.
Mr. Cleary said that the party’s Atlantic Canada caucus would continue “fighting the Conservative government on a number of fronts” including the proposed elimination of owner-operator fleet separation, changes to employment insurance and Old Age Security, as well as cuts to the Coast Guard.
Memorial University political science professor Christopher Dunn said that the party’s large base in Quebec actually makes a natural starting point for growth in Atlantic Canada.
“There’s a lot of social, economic and political characteristics that are shared by the five easternmost provinces. The Atlantic, plus Quebec, I think is a new way of looking at Canadian federalism,” he explained.
Prof. Dunn added that while it is “a bit of a struggle in rural Newfoundland” for the NDP “there is some ground to be tilled there.”
“If there’s one party with momentum, it’s the NDP in this province. If you’re talking a look at the poll results that were apparent this year, and contrast them to how the party was doing two short years ago, at which point they were around consistently around seven to eight per cent in the popular vote.
“Now contrast that with federal NDP coming in at 55 per cent in northeast Avalon and in the rest of the province coming in around the 30s. It’s kind of a dead-heat with the other parties. Figures like that are a big leg up from where they used to be,” he said.
In Nova Scotia, the NDP have been governing the province since 2009. Led by Darrell Dexter, the party’s 31 seats make it the first NDP government in the province, and the first ever east of Ontario.
A number of polls conducted over the summer have indicated that the NDP has made gains on the East Coast. One by Forum Research, released June 28, showed the NDP at 33 per cent support, behind the Conservatives by just two points. The Liberals were at 28 per cent support.
Another released in July by EKOS Research, also pointed to a three-way race between the parties in the area, with the NDP second to the Liberals in Atlantic Canada.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, a recent Environics Research poll shows the party doing particularly well. It pegged levels of NDP support at 49 per cent, compared to 34 per cent for the Liberals and 17 per cent for the Tories.
The NDP’s popular support in the province in the 2011 federal election was 33 per cent. The Liberals held 38 per cent of the popular cote while the Conservatives had 28 per cent.
“This falls into the strike-while-the-iron-is-hot-department,” said Prof. Dunn. He added that visiting now staves off the public perception that political parties only drop in around election time.
“The party has been making significant inroads in Atlantic Canada,” Prof. Dunn stated.
But Mr. Eyking said that Mr. Mulcair’s remarks earlier this summer about the natural resources sector contributing to the death of Canada’s manufacturing sector via a strong Canadian dollar—known as the Dutch disease—were a misstep in Atlantic Canada.
“We embrace it, we see it as a positive thing for Atlantic Canada,” he said.
“The NDP, they have to be really careful of their policies. If they’re going to make any tracks at all in Atlantic Canada, they’re going to have to start thinking of Canadian policies, instead of just trying to grab some votes in Central Canada,” he added.
Prof. Dunn said he doesn’t think the comments will negatively affect Mr. Mulcair’s chances in the area.
“Nobody follows public policy to that degree,” he said.
Mr. Eyking also said that the Liberals have a historical bond with Atlantic Canada that the NDP doesn’t.
“Atlantic Canadians know what the Liberal government has done for them over the years. It has listened. You take fisheries policies, agriculture—many of the programs that were put in place were from the Liberal government and they don’t forget it,” he said.
Prof. Dunn said that it’s due to the strength of individual constituency-oriented MPs like Liberal Scott Andrews (Avalon, Nfld.) and Scott Simms (Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor, Nfld.) that the Grits have been able to hold onto seats in the region.
“But that won’t last forever,” he said.
He said that on the policy side, it’s acceptable for now that the NDP hasn’t been extremely outspoken federally about specific policies on Atlantic Canada.
“I think for the time being it’s sufficient to do what they are doing, which is to highlight a few major points and be strong at the provincial level,” he said, adding that provincial popularity would fuel federal support, and vice versa.
“Absolutely the focus in Atlantic Canada has to be on jobs and growth,” said Mr. Armstrong of the government’s priorities.
As billions of dollars in shipbuilding contracts and an federal loan guarantee for the Lower Churchill Falls hydroelectric project coming into the region in the next years, Mr. Armstrong said that the future is bright for both Atlantic Canada and the Conservatives.
“There’s great opportunity over the next couple of decades in Atlantic Canada. The future is definitely bright and our government is supportive of that, and we’re hoping to turn that into political support at the polls,” he said.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Jessica Bruno
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