Gallant’s held riding 15 years
Tory’s foes include an ex-combat medic and a retired labour lawyer, writes Bruce Deachman.
THE CANDIDATES
Conservative: The 55-year-old Cheryl Gallant has been the incumbent since 2000, when she became the first woman in the history of the riding to be elected to federal office. She was a member of the Canadian Alliance before it merged with the Progressive Conservative party.
Since 2006, she has received more than double the votes of her nearest competitor in every election.
Before her election, Gallant was as an insurance executive and administrative director at a legal practice in Pembroke. In her time in government, she has served as deputy House leader of the Official Opposition, chair of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association, and a member of the standing committees on National Defence and Industry, Science and Technology. She and her spouse of 30 years have four daughters. Website: cherylgallant.ca Twitter: @cherylgallant
Green: No candidate nominated yet.
Liberal: Jeff Lehoux is an ex-combat medic with the Canadian Armed Forces, which he joined in North Bay in 1994 at age 16. After five years in the infantry and rejoining civilian life in 1999, he re-enlisted following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Lehoux broke his leg in 12 places when a road collapsed while he was out on convoy in Afghanistan. This injury forced the now38-year-old out of service.
Since then, he has been an activist involved with ecotourism, educational farming and healthcare initiatives in the central African nation of Cameroon. He was also responsible for delivering anti-parasite medication to many sub-Saharan African children. Website: jefflehoux.liberal.ca Phone: 844-464-5333 Twitter: @JeffLehouxforMP
Libertarian: Steve Fortin was born in Pembroke and lived there until he was 23. He worked as for Vancouver Coastal Health as both a nurse and in a supervisory position. In 2010, he returned to Pembroke to be near his family. He now works as a nurse, helping people overcome addiction. He has two children. Website: libertarian.ca New Democrat: Dan McCarthy, a retired labour lawyer, ran unopposed for the NDP nomination in the riding. A one-time high school teacher in Montreal, he graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in his 30s.
McCarthy, who grew up in Winnipeg, received an endorsement from Winnipeg Centre NDP MP Pat Martin.
His wife, Felicite Stairs, ran in the same riding provincially in 2003 and 2007, finishing third both times. They live in Burnstown, Ont. Website: danmccarthy.ndp.ca Phone: 1-888-518-7703
THE RIDING
The boundaries of Renfrew Nipissing-Pembroke — and the riding’s name — have changed a number of times in past 40 years, with the current ones dating back to 1989.
The largest community in the riding is the city of Pembroke, but the riding includes Renfrew, Petawawa, Arnprior and Barry’s Bay. Statistics Canada’s National Household Survey data show that only about five per cent of the population of 99,770 are immigrants. Visible minorities make up just under two per cent of the population. Almost 10 per cent of the population claim North American aboriginal origins.
2011 RESULTS
Gallant won with more than 53 per cent of the vote, a significant drop from the 61 per cent she garnered in 2008, but still almost triple the vote of Independent candidate Hec Clouthier, who came in second with just under 19 per cent.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Although Gallant is much less likely these days to inflame voters with controversial statements, the potential is there. In 2002, she was accused of making antigay remarks to then-Foreign Affairs minister Bill Graham. In 2004, she criticized an amendment to the Criminal Code that would protect sexual orientation from hate propaganda, suggesting it would protect pedophiles and make parts of the Bible “hate literature.”
She compared abortion to the beheading of a war hostage in Iraq, and in separate remarks in 2011, was critical of federal spending on search-and-rescue operations at sea, and compared then-Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff to former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
And while Gallant’s seat appears a safe one for the Tories, it bears remembering that it was a “safe” Liberal seat for more than half a century before her.
Too many Canadians are forced to leave their jobs and drain their savings to provide essential care to ailing loved ones. Not only is this unfair, but it hurts our economy. — Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau