Calgary battles hard fought
Trudeau made major effort to win support in traditional Tory ridings
When Trudeaumania swept the nation in 1968 and the Liberals won a single seat in Calgary, Neil Armstrong had yet to set foot on the moon, colour television was a luxury and home computers were a dream.
Trudeaumania struck again Monday, this time with Justin Trudeau — son of Pierre Elliott — at the helm, steering the Liberals from third party status to a majority government.
It took another Trudeau to capture a seat in Calgary — a city the Grits have been unable to crack in 47 years, since Pat Mahoney won in Calgary South in 1968, losing just four years later.
Monday’s stunning election saw the Liberals not only win a majority, but also fight tight battles in Calgary Centre, Calgary Skyview and Calgary Confederation.
At a trendy downtown bar, party faithful — many clad in Liberal red shirts and garb — hooted, hollered and hugged as Canada’s so- called natural governing party returned to power after nearly a decade in the political wilderness.
“There is a shift from Conservative to Liberal; it’s central, socially progressive, fiscally conservative, which is the right balance,” said supporter Patrick Hlavac- Winsor.
Trudeau had made a concerted effort to woo Calgary voters in the months leading up to the longest federal election campaign in living memory.
Over 78 days, Trudeau stopped in Calgary no fewer than three times — including a final stop on Sunday — pumping up supporters and candidates, wooing Mayor Naheed Nenshi with promises of infrastructure funding, and drawing large crowds in Stephen Harper’s home turf.
This occurred in a city where many still harbour resentment over Pierre Trudeau’s much- reviled National Energy Program in the 1980s — although that disdain is dissipating, said David Taras, a political analyst at Mount Royal University.
“The ghost of the NEP still walks the streets of Calgary, but fewer and fewer people see that ghost,” Taras said. “There has been a generational change, policies have changed, the economy here has changed and there is much more prosperity.”
Canadians should expect a Liberal government will be focused on urban issues, Taras added. “Urban transportation, LRT lines, university campuses, research and development … and Calgary will be part of that.”
Daryl Fridhandler, a longtime Liberal supporter and adviser to former Calgary mayor Dave Bronconnier, said he wasn’t convinced the party would make a breakthrough in the city.
He attributed the long- awaited breakthrough in Calgary to local campaigns running a strong ground game and to Trudeau’s presence.
But many Tory supporters in Calgary aren’t happy with the prospect of a Liberal national government.
Frank Atkins, the University of Calgary economist who supervised Harper’s master’s thesis, sees Trudeau’s plan to run a deficit akin to the big- spending Liberal governments of the 1970s.
“God help the economy,” said Atkins.
Another Conservative supporter, Loren Hawley, said, “It’s going to be over reach, it’s going to be high taxes . . . jobs are going to move elsewhere . . .
“This is an over, and over, and over again story.”