Stronach race grabs spotlight
YORK REGION Liberal minister won riding as a Conservative Incumbents from both parties are running again
Conservative MP Peter Van Loan is as lonely as the Maytag repairman in his federal riding of York- Simcoe.
There was a time when Van Loan had some nearby Tory company: high-profile leadership candidate and fellow MP Belinda Stronach. But Stronach, representing Newmarket-Aurora, crossed the floor of the House of Commons in May to join the governing Liberals and become a cabinet minister. Now, Van Loan’s riding is the only one of seven not painted Liberal red in York Region, which stretches from Toronto north to Lake Simcoe, and from Woodbridge east to Markham.
“ I don’t think I will be alone much longer in York Region,” Van Loan predicted. “ I think after the election, we will see some new faces.”
York- Simcoe is a sprawling jurisdiction created from three ridings: York North, SimcoeGrey and Barrie- Simcoe- Bradford. In the 2000 election, the Liberals won all three, but Progressive Conservative and Alliance candidates claimed a combined 49 per cent of the votes.
This paved the way for Van Loan’s election win in June 2004, and it may make it difficult for the Liberals to make substantial inroads this time around.
Last time, Van Loan, a former president of the provincial and federal Tory parties, beat Liberal Kate Wilson, a registered nurse, by 4,580 votes, taking 45.2 per cent of ballots cast. A land development lawyer by trade, Van Loan will once again square off against Wilson and community activist Sylvia Gerl of the New Democratic Party. But the most- watched race in York will be in Newmarket- Aurora.
There, newly minted Liberal Stronach will face what will likely be a fractious electorate sitting in judgment on her shocking defection.
“ I think you’ll have lots of fun things happening there,” Van Loan said. “ You’ll have Liberals voting Conservative and vice versa. I think it will be all over the map.”
Lois Brown, a former assistant to MPP Frank Klees, will run against Stronach for the Tories, while Ed Chudak, a teacher and activist, will represent the NDP. Newmarket- Aurora was created in 2004 from parts of the old York North and Vaughan- KingAurora ridings. The riding has a sizeable manufacturing base, with Magna, owned by Stronach’s father Frank, operating the largest plant. Average family income tops $ 97,000. This affluence extends to the other ridings in York Region, one of the wealthiest areas in Canada, with a strong manufacturing and technology sector.
In last year’s election, Liberals carved out decisive victories of between 10,584 and 20,117 votes in the five York Region ridings they captured. These included MarkhamUnionville, where Revenue Minister John McCallum trounced Conservative Joe Li by more than 20,000 votes, and Vaughan, where veteran MP Maurizio Bevilacqua won by more than 19,000 votes over Tory Joe Spina.
All incumbent Liberal MPs in York Region ridings will be running again this time. They include Stronach, McCallum, Bevilacqua, Bryon Wilfert in Richmond Hill, Lui Temelkovski in Oak RidgesMarkham and Susan Kadis in Thornhill. The only York Region riding where the Tories have yet to nominate a candidate is Thornhill. The New Democrats still have to hold nomination meetings in several York Region ridings. The Grits hope Canada’s booming economy will be the focus this time around for voters, Bevilacqua said.
“ I think there’s a great deal of optimism in my riding,” he said. “They are asking themselves, ‘ Are we better off than we were in 1993?’ and the answer is ‘ yes.’ ”
Bevilacqua is running against Tory Ted Matthews, a party organizer, with the NDP candidate yet to be announced.
In Oak Ridges- Markham, Conservative candidate Bob Callow has some unfinished business he wants to take up with the Liberals. After losing decisively to Liberal newcomer Temelkovski in 2004, Callow — who was defeated when he ran for the Alliance in the since- redrawn Oak Ridges in 2000 — is once again ready to hit the hustings.
This time around, Callow said, public anger over the findings of the Gomery commission into the Liberal sponsorship scandal will be his ticket to a seat in the House of Commons.
“ This election is going to be about integrity, integrity, integrity,” he said. “ I think the government has lost its moral authority to govern. Honour has to be brought back into politics.”
Also running in Oak RidgesMarkham is consultant Pamela Courtot for the NDP. Markham- Unionville has swung back and forth between the Conservatives and the Liberals for more than 15 years and has been redrawn several times since 1986. McCallum, a former chief economist for the Royal Bank, is the revenue minister and a former minister of veteran affairs. In the last election, he easily fended off attacks on the Liberals’ track record, saying the party had crafted balanced budgets and introduced tax cuts. He is once again facing off against Li, who got himself into trouble in the 2004 campaign over comments he had made two years before. As a key supporter of Tony Clement’s provincial leadership bid, Li said Ontario needed its own immigration policy because Ottawa is dumping “ garbage” immigrants on the province.
Despite Li’s apology and his hope that his own diverse background would appeal to voters, a group of residents began a petition against his candidacy.