Riding a ‘barometer’ of Senate woes, Trudeau effect

Brandon-Souris should have been a Tory cakewalk.

It’s a riding the Conservatives have held for all but four of the last 60 years, one they won with nearly two-thirds of the vote in the last election, one few expected to turn into a messy, neck-and-neck throwdown after backbench MP Merv Tweed resigned suddenly over the summer.

Instead, Brandon-Souris has earned national attention, in part because the Tories could suffer a damaging loss to Justin Trudeau’s Liberals on Monday, and because the riding has become a barometer for every provincial and national political story right now — the Senate expense scandal, meddling by backroom Conservatives in the Prime Minister’s Office, the Justin effect and even the provincial NDP’s PST hike.

And, in the waning days before Monday’s vote, it’s turned predictably nasty as the Tories try to bolster their base.

Conservative candidate Larry Maguire has mailed out flyers claiming Justin Trudeau would make marijuana more available to kids and slagging Liberal candidate Rolf Dinsdale for playing in a punk band with a raunchy name.

Those were followed by an unusual letter from Prime Minister Stephen Harper dropped in mailboxes all over the riding that begged voters to elect Maguire instead of Dinsdale, who Harper said returned to Brandon only to run.

“The strongest candidate is Mr. Maguire,” said Harper during a visit to Winnipeg Friday. “He is the only one with roots in the riding.”

Maguire, a well-respected provincial MLA from Elgin, became the party’s acclaimed nominee after Tweed’s former assistant, Chris Kennedy, was disqualified for mailing in his nomination papers late and forgetting his $1,000 deposit cheque.