Candidates in the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding were off and running this week in the third federal election in four years.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked Governor General Michaëlle Jean to dissolve Parliament on Sunday, Sept. 7 and called the vote for Tuesday, Oct. 14.
Squamish Mayor Ian Sutherland, fresh from the Liberal Party nomination meeting the day before, said campaigning on the federal level will be an entirely different experience for him.
"There's a whole lot to be done in a very short period of time," Sutherland said. "It's going to be a lot of hard work, but the challenge is a good one and I believe it's a good chance to show the differences between the various parties and the various candidates."
Sutherland said he expects to find out from people as he travels through the riding what the main issues are.
"Certainly, going into this, the economy is a big issue all across Canada and this riding as well," he said. "The environment is a big issue and I really think things that haven't happened are a big issue, some of the broken promises, like the Kelowna Accord, the daycare program, income trust, the very fact that we're having a snap election when the government made a big deal about the fact that there'd be a fixed election date."
Sutherland will be facing John Weston, the Conservative Party candidate, Dana Larsen, the New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate, and Blair Wilson, the incumbent MP, who was elected as a Liberal in 2006 and joined the Green Party at the end of August after sitting as an Independent for 10 months. Wilson resigned from the Liberal caucus after allegations of improper campaign spending surfaced, but Elections Canada cleared him of any serious wrongdoing.
Wilson was back in West Vancouver on Monday after campaigning with Elizabeth May, Green Party leader, in Guelph, Ont., Montreal, Que. and New Glasgow, N.S., May's home riding.
"The Green Party has membership and followers from one end of the riding to the other end of the riding," Wilson said. "What's needed now is to merge my group of supporters who are much more structurally focused on putting together campaigns, with them. The nuts and bolts of how to put it all together are the strength of my supporters. You combine that with just the mass number of volunteers that the Green Party has and we're going to be a force to be reckoned with once we start firing on all cylinders."
After initially refusing the Green Party inclusion in the leaders' debates, May received word on Thursday the Green Party will be allowed to debate. Apparently the support of citizens across Canada for May's inclusion caused the Conservatives and NDP to reverse their opposition to the Greens.
Weston lost the 2006 election by fewer than 1,000 votes and has been campaigning ever since.
"Integrity has been raised by many people when I meet them at the doorsteps," Weston said. "People want a candidate to represent them in Ottawa who speaks the truth and who's not merely an opportunist, somebody who will represent the constituents rather than merely represent himself."
Wilson's move to the Green Party is "clearly an opportunistic move," Weston added.
"It was surprising that the Green Party, which many of us have admired for their principles, have accepted someone who didn't meet the moral standards of the Liberal Party," Weston said.
The New Democrats are more ready than they've ever been, said Larsen.
"I plan on focusing my campaign squarely on the Conservatives, on their failures and why Jack Layton would be a better prime minister and a better leader for Canada than Stephen Harper," he said. "I think the NDP is campaigning to actually form government this time and we're actually campaigning to win this riding this time as well."
The big issue will be the economy, Larsen also said.
"From our perspective, the Conservatives are doing a terrible job of managing our economy and things are starting to go downhill," Larsen added. "The environment is very important and we're seeing the Conservatives putting that at a low priority. We want to put some real solutions in place and make big polluters pay for the messes they make."
