JAMES MOORE QUITS POLITICS
Harper’s B.C. lieutenant cites son’s health problems, will not seek re-election in October.
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper suffered a major loss Friday when Industry Minister James Moore, the government’s senior B.C. voice in cabinet, announced he’s not running in the scheduled October election.
Moore, 39, said he was leaving politics to spend more time with his wife and two-year-old son.
“Recently my wife and I received some difficult news about the health of our beautiful son Spencer,” Moore, a fluently bilingual product of B.C.’s French immersion system, said in a statement on his website.
The Moores recently found out that Spencer has skeletal dysplasia, often called dwarfism, which involves a large group of genetic disorders that affect bone formation and growth, according to the Mayo Clinic website.
“Balancing family responsibilities while in public life is always a challenge. This is particularly true when you have a child with special needs,” Moore said.
“While I have every confidence that Prime Minister Harper and our Conservative government will be re-elected, and I wish I could be part of the next Conservative government, after five terms and 15 years in public life, and with health challenges in my family, I cannot commit to another term in office.”
Moore, who is walking away from a $247,500 salary, will be eligible for an $89,589 annual pension when he turns 55.
He said he will finish his term and then return to B.C. to “pursue new opportunities” and be closer to his family.
Moore joins a string of highprofile ministers who have announced they won’t seek reelection, including Justice Minister Peter MacKay and former foreign affairs minister John Baird.
B. C. New Democrat MPs expressed admiration for Moore and sympathy for his family situation, and said Moore’s departure will hurt the Conservatives in a key electoral battleground.
Fast-growing B.C. now has 42 seats, six more than in 2011, and the Conservatives were expecting to again take the majority of West Coast ridings.
But Tom Mulcair’s NDP has been surging across Canada since the Alberta New Democrats’ surprise majority election win.
The federal party is now ahead of the Conservatives in recent surveys of B.C. public opinion, according to the website threehundredeight.com.
“His departure is a huge loss for the Conservatives,” said Kennedy Stewart, the MP for Burnaby-Douglas, who is on leave from his post as a political scientist at Simon Fraser University.
“James Moore has been Harper’s lieutenant for years here on the West Coast — raising money, recruiting candidates, dealing with the tough issues — and now he is no longer available.”
Harper will have to turn to his four other B.C. ministers, though none has Moore’s communications skills or visibility, said University of B.C. political scientist Richard Johnston.
“This is not good news for Harper,” Johnston said, adding that it draws attention to the perception that Harper’s cabinet is weak and getting weaker.
Johnston, while not questioning Moore’s stated personal reason for retiring from politics, said the minister may also be motivated by the concern that he could be returning to Ottawa after next autumn’s vote to sit on the opposition side of the House.
University of Victoria political scientist Norman Ruff shared that assessment.
“Moore’s departure is yet another significant weakening of the Conservatives’ talent bank,” Ruff said, calling the MP a “major player” in the governing party.
“Given current trends in public opinion, Harper can ill afford to lose such a high profile presence within B.C. at this time.”
Harper’s remaining ministers are Vancouver Island MP John Duncan, the party whip; Trade Minister Ed Fast of Abbotsford; Revenue Minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay of Delta- Richmond East; and the extremely low-profile Alice Wong, junior minister responsible for seniors and MP for Richmond.
Harper may end up turning to popular former Surrey mayor Dianne Watts, the candidate in South Surrey-White Rock, Johnston said.
“She certainly does have star power,” Johnston said.
Conservatives said they have a strong team and will be able to fill the void.
“Most of our B.C. members are re- offering and we have some strong new candidates, so I believe we will do very well in B.C.,” Duncan, the longest-serving B.C. MP in cabinet, told The Vancouver Sun.
Conservatives immediately began speculating Friday about who might seek the nomination in Moore’s Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam riding.
The party took 55.5 per cent of the votes there in the 2011 election, far above the NDP’s 31 per cent.
But the UBC’s Johnston called the riding politically “ambiguous” and potentially vulnerable with a lesser-known Tory flagwaver.
Among the names mentioned were Vancouver Board of Trade President Ian Black, a former labour minister in the provincial Liberal government who represented the Port Moody-Coquitlam riding; Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore; Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay; CoquitlamBurke Mountain MLA Doug Horne; and former B.C. environment minister Barry Penner, who considered earlier this year seeking the Tory nomination in Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon before bowing out.
Horne said he is seriously considering a run at the seat.
“It’s certainly something that a lot of people are suggesting I consider, so I certainly will be giving it considerable thought over the next coming days,” Horne said. Penner, who had considered seeking the Conservative nomination in the new riding of Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon but decided against it, said that running in Moore’s seat is not on his agenda “at the moment.”
“I’ve learned in politics never to say Never, but it’s not part of my current thinking,” added Penner, who lives in Chilliwack.