As someone who has lived for quite some time in the Maritimes, I know as well as anyone who was not actually raised in that beautiful part of the country that jobs are hard to come by. The collapse of the fishery and the coal mining industry has challenged the people of the Maritimes to look for other ways of making a living. Not easy to do, and it comes at a cost. A cost that Nova Scotians of Central Nova would be willing to pay, but that Elizabeth May, who wants to be the next MP from Central Nova, might not. That according to David Hamilton, treasurer for the Nova Scotia Liberals in Central Nova (misspellings as they appeared):
There is another problem with having a green mp for this riding. Antigonish and Guysborough have teamed up to get a huge industrial project going, to the tune of $4 billion, if this gets off the grond, it help could turn things around for poor old NS. The problem is that it is currently receiving alot of flack from an enviromental board and so far their arguaments (from an enviromental economics point of view) are highly flawed, but do stick because of the very low level of education on enviromental economics. We are talking 3000 construction jobs and 600 full time jobs that aren't social service jobs, IN GUYSBOROUGH of all places and I'm having a hard time viewing Ms. May [Green Party leader Elizabeth May] getting up and supporting something like this. All Pete [Conservative MP Peter MacKay] has to do is say he wants it done and combined with the likelyhood that he has a higher chance of ending up in government then Ms. May, Pete will end up having the largest win he has ever had here. We will be practicaly handing him the victory, if we don't run.
Indeed, Hamilton figures that running on the environment is not a vote-getter in this economically stressed part of the country:
Well I'm pretty excited that we've hit 50 members. From what I've been reading here it seems that the principles is what most people are concerned with. I would just like to remind both the liberals and the greens that there is much more to politics in CN then just principles and philosophies. I have stated on a discussion board that the main priority for voters here isn't the enviroment but the excessive outmigration. How ever these issus have gone unaddressed by the locall MP and the NDP candidate for the past two elections (who came within 3000 votes of winning). If we (the liberals) field a candidate this issue will probably formulate the bulk of our local campaign.
Not that Hamilton thought much of Elizabeth May's chances in Nova Scotia given traditional voting patterns:
Ok, for those of you new to politics inside NS, there is something you may need to know. Traditional voting is something not to be underestimated, a huge chunk of people vote based on what their family's traditional party is. These people give each of the three main party a power base. If there is a candidate for that party, he or she can expect a significant portion of votes due to the traditional base. Right now the NDP are going to run a campaign and we (the liberals) have not altered our plans as of yet. If any one of those parties mentioned field a candidate then Ms. May has got no chance at all due to the traditional vote since she needs both the Liberal votes and the NDP votes to win. The greens only had less then 2% of the vote here last time.
These were posted before Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion announced a deal that would see Elizabeth May of the Green Party run in Central Nova opposed only by the Conservatives and the NDP, with the Liberals bowing out of the race.
These notes were also posted before that announcement, on March 6:
OK, theres is going to be a fundraising dinner with Gerarad Kennedy on March 22nd, tickets are $100.
Here is the announcement of that Central Nova fund-raiser with Gerard Kennedy:
Thursday, March 22
Central Nova Fundraising Dinner with Gerard Kennedy
Black Doors Dinning Room, Morrison Hall, St.F.X.U.
Reception 6:30
Dinner 7:00
Tickets: $100
Contact: Allan Armsworthy 863-4041
Now a hundred dollars is not chump change in any part of Canada, and certainly not in Nova Scotia.
Follow me on this.
Elizabeth May become leader of Canada's Green Party on August 26, 2006. Soon after, Stephane Dion calls her to offer his help:
Green Party leader Elizabeth May is maintaining the deal struck between her and Liberal Leader Stephane Dion was not made behind closed doors.
May asserted Friday on CTV's Mike Duffy Live that Dion phoned her after she secured her position as Green Party leader and offered his help.
She and Liberal strategists have downplayed the political dealings that may have taken place in the last few days, saying the two leaders exchanged half a dozen phone calls, but there were no "backroom discussions."
Recall that Stephane Dion announced his run for the Liberal Party leadership on April 7, and would not win until December.
"This wasn't done in the backrooms. This was done above board and in front of the cameras," maintained Liberal strategist Scott Reid while on Mike Duffy Live from Toronto.
Really? I wonder if Stephane Dion would have won the leadership of the Liberal Party if Liberal delegates knew he was already discussing with Elizabeth May how to best get her a seat in parliament.
In any case, Elizabeth May announced her intention to run in Central Nova on March 17, 2007.
Five days later, Gerard Kennedy is in Central Nova collecting $100 cheques from Nova Scotia Liberals who were unaware that Stephane Dion and Elizabeth May were already plotting to sell their votes. Maybe the idea to not run a Liberal candidate hadn't been decided yet. Maybe it had. We don't know, but then the two have been talking for almost a year about mutual support, so is it a stretch to think that Elizabeth May's choice of Central Nova as her riding was part of the plan all along?
In a sense, I hope not, because the image of someone like Gerard Kennedy carrying the Liberal banner and holding open the money bag to collect cheques from hard-working Nova Scotians knowing full well their money would not be used to elect a Liberal in their riding is almost stomach-churning. Did Gerard Kennedy know that there would be no Liberal candidate in Central Nova as he was collecting the money? If he did, and if someone asked him point blank about Liberal plans, would he have told the truth, or just prevaricated while grabbing the cheque? Did someone ask him that question at the fund raiser? If so, what did Kennedy say? Just who knew what the deal was going to be and when did they know it, and what did they tell the party faithful being hit up for donations ahead of the announcement?
Could Gerard Kennedy have known? Hard to say, but remember that Gerard Kennedy and Stephane Dion had entered into an agreement to help Dion win the Liberal Party leadership. It wouldn't be a stretch, then, to believe that Kennedy is one of Dion's confidantes. And even if Gerard Kennedy didn't know, what did Stephane Dion know when he wished Gerard Kennedy luck for his trip?
Was the timing of the announcement driven, in part, by the timing of this fundraiser? Get the money first, wait a bit, then drop the bomb on the Nova Scotia Liberals, now short a hundred bucks and one MP.
And yet, I have to ask these questions. Of course, no one is going to answer me. Hopefully someone in the media can check into this and get some answers. I think Nova Scotians of all political stripes deserve to know the answers. No one likes to be treated like a chump. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that David Hamilton and his fellow Liberals were chumps for quite some time, perhaps longer than any of us realize.
