By Jason Hailman
Paul Martin’s indications of a winter election mean the federal Ottawa Centre riding could go another eight months without a member of Parliament.
“I think it’s a bit of a slap in the face for the people of Ottawa Centre, because it will mean they will go unrepresented for more than a year,” says Green Party candidate David Chernushenko.
The seat was vacated when Mac Harb was appointed to the Senate last September. With the byelection date set for Nov. 29, Ottawa Centre will have been unrepresented in Parliament for 14 months.
Besides Chernushenko, Ottawa Centre candidates include Liberal Richard Mahoney and the NDP’s Ed Broadbent. The Conservatives should select their candidate Mar. 30.
“It’s an abuse of power that Paul Martin would not see fit to make sure that while Parliament is sitting there’s a byelection so that Ottawa Centre has a representative,” says Broadbent’s campaign manager Rob Sutherland.
“There’s an awful lot of people who have problems in this riding, and right now no one’s taking care of those problems.”
Mahoney says he stands behind Martin’s decision.
He says the late byelection date makes sense, because otherwise Ottawa Centre could be faced with two elections in a short period of time.
“What the prime minster has done, picking Nov. 29, has ensured that the people of Ottawa Centre will go to the polls at the same time as the rest of the country,” he says.
He expects that Martin will call a general election soon, so he says it’s unlikely that the byelection will happen at all.
The cost of a byelection is also high, and Mahoney says he doesn’t think it makes sense to spend taxpayer money on an extra election.
“According to Elections Canada, the cost of the last byelection in this country [in the St. John’s West riding in 2000] was over $530,000,” he says. “So that money, paid for by the taxpayers of Canada could be used for all sorts of other things.”
The candidates all agree that the uncertain campaign deadline is challenging. Spending limits are the same whether the campaign runs 30 days or eight months, so they must budget their funds carefully.
Another major challenge is keeping the public’s interest in election issues; many people aren’t even aware of the early start.
“A lot of people don’t actually believe there’s a campaign on,” Sutherland says. Many people think the NDP is violating election laws by promoting Broadbent too early. “You tell them there’s a campaign for November, and their first response is, ‘Oh he can’t do that, that’s illegal.’”
People might lose interest if the campaign drags on too long, Mahoney says. “I mean, I’m interested in public policy and politics all the time, but most people, in order to get them to focus, there needs to be some immediacy of the election.”
For Chernushenko, the long campaign might get the Green Party’s message out to a greater number of people.
“Our challenge is getting to enough people and the more time we have to get to people, the more voters we seem to be swinging to our side.”