Once lost to the Liberals, the West emerges a leadership race winner

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OTTAWA — The past several years have been lean times for Liberals west of Ontario, but insiders are hoping that a spirited leadership race that happens to overweight western Liberal constituencies could be just the thing help the party rebuild bridges in the region after nearly more than a decade of frosty relations under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s leadership.

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“I’m already seeing tons of excitement for the upcoming leadership campaign,” said Kent Hehr, a lifelong Alberta Liberal and ex-Calgary MP.

“Liberals around here have been shell shocked for the last little while, but they’re looking rejuvenated of late,” said Hehr. “It’s been nice to see.” (Hehr resigned from Trudeau’s cabinet in 2018 amid sexual harassment allegations.)

Vancouver-based Liberal strategist Mark Marissen noted that the party’s leadership vote’s rules, which give each electoral district 100 points, regardless of the number of members, tilt the system in favour of western ridings with smaller membership bases.

“The one thing that does happen is that you hear from everybody across the country… every riding has the same weight in this leadership race. So you’re going to hear a lot more from places where Liberals haven’t been elected,” said Marissen.

Hehr estimates there are currently around 1,000 Liberal members in his downtown Calgary riding. He expects this number to grow as contenders make their pitches to voters in the coming weeks.

“If people get out there and hustle with a strong message, anything can happen,” said Hehr.

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Corey Hogan, a Calgary-based strategist and former executive director of the Alberta Liberal Party, noted that the leadership’s race’s biggest names so far all have roots in Western Canada.

“You have Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland and Christy Clark, all three of them grew up out West,” said Hogan. “Maybe there’s something there.”

Carney, a former central banker turned Wall Street heavyweight, is reportedly set to officially launch his campaign in his hometown of Edmonton later this week. Clark, after organizing a planned leadership campaign, announced Tuesday she had changed her mind, claiming her French was too weak. Freeland, whose disgruntled resignation as Trudeau’s top cabinet minister in December preceded the prime minister’s decision to quit, was raised in Peace River, Alta., although she now lives in Toronto’s Rosedale neighbourhood.

North Vancouver, B.C., MP Jonathan Wilkinson is also rumoured to be weighing a leadership run.

Notably, none of the major candidates that were expected to come from Quebec have materialized: Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon, Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne have all declared they don’t intend to run.

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Hehr said the rules give an edge to better-organized campaigns with stronger ties to local riding associations.

“You have to have people on your team who can pick up the phone and ask ‘hey, can you search your database for a guy I met at the gas station in Zama City, (Alta.)?’” said Hehr.

Ex-Vancouver Liberal MP and former federal cabinet minister Ujjal Dosanjh said that much of the blame for the Liberal party’s collapse in Western Canada lies at the feet of Trudeau.

“(Trudeau’s) really severed all of his relationships with traditional Liberals before he came in,” said Dosanjh. “He had new people that he recruited and put into those positions.”

Dosanjh, who had been an NDP premier of B.C. later tapped by Paul Martin to run for the Liberals federally, said that Trudeau purposefully marginalized party elders.

Trudeau has also played up regional divisions more than past Liberal leaders.

For instance, he said in a 2012 French-language interview that Canada is better served when there are more Quebecers than Albertans in charge.

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“(Trudeau) certainly hasn’t helped grow western Liberal leadership, in any sense of the term,” said Dosanjh.

Dosanjh said he’s hopeful that the next leader of the party will be more of a unifying figure.

“You want someone who understands the national unity issues on our plate,” said Dosanjh.

National Post
rmohamed@postmedia.com

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