Lifetime Liberal
101-year-old Charlottetown resident has always supported the Grits
When it comes to voting, 101-year-old Lucy Smith always sees red.
Smith has voted Liberal her entire life.
That means she helped elect seven Grits as prime minister of Canada since reaching the former legal voting age of 21 (now 18) on Dec. 7, 1938.
So, Mackenzie King (193548), Louis St-Laurent (1948-57),
Lester B. Pearson (1963-68), Pierre Trudeau (1968-79; 1980-1984), John Turner (June 30, 1984-Sept. 17, 1984), Jean Chrétien (1993-2003) and Justin Trudeau (2015-?) all owe a small fraction of their electoral success to Smith.
So too do the following Liberal premiers of Prince Edward Island: Thane Campbell (193643), Walter Jones (1943-53), Alexander Matheson (1953-59), Alexander Campbell (1966-78), Bennett Campbell (1978-79),
Joe Ghiz (1986-93), Catherine Callbeck (1993-96), Robert Ghiz (2007-15), Wade MacLauchlan (2015-19).
Smith, who was born Dec. 7, 1917 and grew up in Kingston, P.E.I. has always thrown her support behind the Liberals. “It’s a tradition,’’ she says. “That was the way my father voted. We were a family of Liberals.’’
On Monday, the resident of Garden Home in Charlottetown planned to once again vote
Liberal — even if she does need a little reminding of the name of the candidate running under that political banner.
“If he’s Liberal, I’ll vote for him,’’ she says.
Smith has voted in every provincial and federal election over the past eight decades. Each and every time, the same party got her nod. She has never even been tempted, she says, to give another party a shot.
“I’m a Liberal,’’ she says. “I’m a Liberal.’’