Column: Our new Northern MPs
As a number of you have kindly -- and some not so kindly -- noted, I was about as far off as possible in predicting who would win the Northwest Territories parliamentary seat cushion last night.
In the absence of any kind of poll I was forced to use my instincts and some basic analysis; both of which are apparently not worth much on the open market. But I'll get over it.
Widely predicted by those who know, our five-time Liberal incumbent Ethel Blondin-Andrew was trounced by a New Democrat named Dennis Bevington. I’ve been looking for a photo I can legally post here, but instead I’ll just leave a link to his campaign site.
Dennis seems a solid enough guy, though not necessarily inspiring. In a Saturday piece in the Globe two days before the vote his top quote was something to the effect of feeling that Canadians are looking for a change.
I’m not saying Conservative Richard Edjericon, or anyone else on the ballot could do a better job. What I am doing is assessing our new MP in the wake of my election call having proved to be so far out in left field that you’d have needed a bleacher seat to field it.
Dennis, Jack and the rest of the NDP seem to support developments such as the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, and will likely try to ensure benefits come North as much as possible. I suppose this is all anyone up here can ask for.
In the meantime we’ll have to watch closely to see what Mr. Harper has in store, and whether everyone will play nice in order to avoid the time, energy and cost of another election.
My feeling is Harper will be able to pass just about anything he wants in his first budget, as there’s not a leader alive who would want to be seen as forcing another election. I, on the other hand, would love one. Who says governments are meant to govern?
In other news, the Liberals held onto their seats in Nunavut and the Yukon.
Most interesting is that Nunavut's Conservative candidate -- who was openly denounced by the territory's conservative chapter president early on in the election -- might have won the seat with a little more support from the status-quo loving non-Inuit people in Iqaluit.
More than anything else she did or didn't do as MP, Nancy Karetak-Lindell's vote for same-sex marriage is likely what brought about the groundswell of Conservative support in the staunchly religious land of Nunavut.
With none of the three territories' MPs in the governing party, it will be interesting to see if anyone even bothers looking North now.
Here are the final results for the NWT.
In the absence of any kind of poll I was forced to use my instincts and some basic analysis; both of which are apparently not worth much on the open market. But I'll get over it.
Widely predicted by those who know, our five-time Liberal incumbent Ethel Blondin-Andrew was trounced by a New Democrat named Dennis Bevington. I’ve been looking for a photo I can legally post here, but instead I’ll just leave a link to his campaign site.
Dennis seems a solid enough guy, though not necessarily inspiring. In a Saturday piece in the Globe two days before the vote his top quote was something to the effect of feeling that Canadians are looking for a change.
I’m not saying Conservative Richard Edjericon, or anyone else on the ballot could do a better job. What I am doing is assessing our new MP in the wake of my election call having proved to be so far out in left field that you’d have needed a bleacher seat to field it.
Dennis, Jack and the rest of the NDP seem to support developments such as the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, and will likely try to ensure benefits come North as much as possible. I suppose this is all anyone up here can ask for.
In the meantime we’ll have to watch closely to see what Mr. Harper has in store, and whether everyone will play nice in order to avoid the time, energy and cost of another election.
My feeling is Harper will be able to pass just about anything he wants in his first budget, as there’s not a leader alive who would want to be seen as forcing another election. I, on the other hand, would love one. Who says governments are meant to govern?
In other news, the Liberals held onto their seats in Nunavut and the Yukon.
Most interesting is that Nunavut's Conservative candidate -- who was openly denounced by the territory's conservative chapter president early on in the election -- might have won the seat with a little more support from the status-quo loving non-Inuit people in Iqaluit.
More than anything else she did or didn't do as MP, Nancy Karetak-Lindell's vote for same-sex marriage is likely what brought about the groundswell of Conservative support in the staunchly religious land of Nunavut.
With none of the three territories' MPs in the governing party, it will be interesting to see if anyone even bothers looking North now.
Here are the final results for the NWT.
posted by Brent Reaney at 11:08 AM
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