Currie officially enters the race
Federal race could be more interesting than usual in this province
Former Provincial Liberal Doug Currie will be the Conservative candidate in Charlottetown in the next election.
Currie was a Liberal member of the legislative assembly during the Robert Ghiz and Wade MacLauchlan governments, serving in cabinet in a number of roles, including as minister of health, minister of education and attorney general. He stepped down from provincial politics in 2017 and has worked as the vice-president of corporate services with Holland College since 2019.
In a media statement, federal Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole welcomed Currie’s candidacy.
“I’m proud to be welcoming Doug to our Conservative team as someone with cabinet experience in the health portfolio,” O’Toole said in the statement.
Currie was acclaimed after having submitted an application for candidacy to the federal party.
Despite the switch between parties, Currie says he has no philosophical differences with the federal Liberals.
"I ran for a certain party, but when I was elected. I didn't carry a partisan flag. I worked on behalf of all my constituents and, obviously, in my ministerial roles I worked for Islanders," Currie said.
"For me it's more about being a voice. We're going to need a skilled, experienced, strong voice and an effective voice in Ottawa."
Currie acknowledged that Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole is not well-known to Islanders.
O’Toole won the leadership of the federal party last year, beating former Nova Scotia MP Peter MacKay, with a campaign highlighting his “true blue” conservativism. O’Toole’s leadership victory was due in no small part to support he received on the third ballot from Derek Sloan and Leslyn Lewis, two socially conservative candidates who identified as pro-life.
But when asked about the Conservative leader, Currie argued O’Toole has progressive credentials.
"From the day he took the leadership, he came out very, very clearly and very aggressively on socially progressive issues that are really, really important to me,” Currie said.
“Obviously pro-choice, same-sex marriage. He's been very clear that his party will be a modern and inclusive party."
When asked whether he would support a Liberal bill aimed at criminalizing conversion therapy, Currie said it was too early for him to say.
“I just got acclaimed this morning as of 10 o'clock. I would certainly welcome more discussions like this as we move forward during the campaign,” he said.
During his leadership bid, O’Toole also pledged to slash funding for CBC news and TV programming by 50 per cent.
By contrast, Currie said he would support maintaining local television programming on the CBC, including the nightly Compass newscast.
"If that's important to the residents of this city, if I'm the MP, absolutely," Currie said.
Currie said his “four pillars” of policy priorities for Charlottetown would be health care, the economy, environmental issues and housing. In particular, he expressed concern about P.E.I.’s economic recovery post-COVID.
“That keeps me up at night," he said.
"My father, he's still fixing shoes. He's 82 years old and he's still going to work every day. So, I get small business."
Reached by phone, Liberal MP Sean Casey said he plans to run in the upcoming federal election, whenever it occurs.
The federal Liberals allow sitting MPs to be acclaimed without a nomination contest if they meet certain thresholds for fundraising and door-knocking. Casey said he has met these thresholds.
Casey was complimentary about Currie’s political background.
"Doug and I have a long and favourable history," Casey said.
"I think Doug's biggest challenge is going to be selling the policies of his new party. They stand for austerity. We know that from when Mr. O'Toole was in cabinet. Their climate change policy is weak," Casey said.
The federal Greens and the NDP have yet to nominate candidates in Charlottetown.
Speculation about election timing has been rampant for months. Some suggest a spring election could be imminent.
It is starting to feel as though there may be a federal election this spring, possibly in April or May.
The Malpeque Conservative Association certainly thinks this could happen. They required that anyone wishing to be a candidate in Malpeque submit their applications this week. Jody Sanderson from the North River-York Point area and Renee Pastoor from the Wheatley River area have both thrown their hat in the ring.
The riding is held by Wayne Easter, a Liberal, but he hasn’t indicated yet whether he will re-offer. He has held the riding since 1993, and though he is 71 years old, he is in good health, and he still enjoys being a member of Parliament. It would be quite surprising if Wayne Easter didn’t run again.
Ms. Pastoor was interested in running for the Convervatives in the 2019, but the party opted for Scott Stewart, who came third. He was beaten by both Mr. Easter and the Green candidate, Anna Keenan, who was a bit
of a late starter in 2019.
Ms. Keenan, who lives in St. Ann, near New Glasgow, is expected to run again for the Greens in the up-coming election. She had more than 26 per cent of the vote in 2019. Given that she will likely be better prepared this time, and the fact the Greens are better known locally, she could be a serious contender.
The one surprise in Malpeque is the fact that provincial cabinet minister Jamie Fox is not running. He says he’d have to resign from the provincial government to do so. He thinks it is too soon to nominate for a contest that isn’t going to occur for two or three months.
The Malpeque riding is the rural area between Summerside and Charlottetown, though it extends to north of Charlottetown and runs as far east as Grand Tracadie and Bedford. With 30,000 voters in the riding, it’s the largest in the province. While a number are suburbanites living in the North River and Cornwall area, the rest of the riding is P.E.I.’s most densely populated rural region.
Most Conservatives think that Mr. Sanderson will be their candidate. They expect he’ll do well in the North River-Cornwall area, where he grew up and is relatively well known, but they are not so sure about the rest of the riding.
Mr. Sanderson has been working out of province since graduating from university. He worked as an international banker in Asia and the Middle East. He came back to live here in 2019.
There has been little or no talk about who the Tories will run against Bobby Morrissey in Egmont, or Lawrence MacAulay in Cardigan.
However, in Charlottetown, the Conservatives have a surprising candidate in Doug Currie, who was a former cabinet minister in the Liberal governments of Robert Ghiz and Wade MacLauchlan.
The Tories have not fared well in Charlottetown since Tom McMillan lost to George Proud in 1988. Prior to that they held the seat for more than 20 years. In the last two elections they came third. They were behind the NDP in 2015 and the Greens beat them in 2019.
Sean Casey has held the seat for the Liberal since 2011, before him it was won by Shawn Murphy and Mr. Proud. Though Mr. Casey won handily by more than 4,000 votes in 2019, his vote was down by 12 per cent. And, it is understood that recently he has had a falling out with a number of his supporters.
This year, Mr. Casey will be facing an experienced politician. Doug Currie knows how the game is played, he knows politics and he knows the importance of an efficient organization. For the first time in a long time, the Conservatives have a serious contender. It remains to be seen what impact, if any, Mr. Currie’s switch from a Liberal to a Tory will have on the electorate.
As always, another important factor is the influence the national leaders and national policies have on the local voters. The 2021 federal election could more interesting than usual on P.E.I.