{"id":82404,"date":"2016-10-23T22:35:44","date_gmt":"2016-10-24T02:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=82404"},"modified":"2016-10-23T22:35:44","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T02:35:44","slug":"trudeaus-star-power-unlikely-nab-seat-liberals-alberta-byelection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/10\/23\/trudeaus-star-power-unlikely-nab-seat-liberals-alberta-byelection\/","title":{"rendered":"Trudeau’s ‘star power’ unlikely to nab seat for Liberals in Alberta byelection"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Calgary political scientist says the Liberals aren’t likely to win the election, despite the numbers Trudeau attracted in a province that went Conservative blue in all but five ridings in last fall’s federal election. (Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MEDICINE HAT, Alta.\u2014The Conservatives are hoping to rally their traditional power base to retain hold on a sprawling southern Alberta federal riding that hasn’t elected a Liberal MP in 48 years.<\/p>\n

Monday’s byelection in the riding of Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner was called after MP Jim Hillyer died of a heart attack earlier this year in his Parliament Hill office.<\/p>\n

The riding, formerly known as Medicine Hat, was renamed following electoral redistribution in 2012.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited the riding earlier this month in an effort to boost the chances of Liberal candidate Stan Sakamoto, a local businessman. Trudeau attracted about 2,500 people hoping to catch a glimpse of him.<\/p>\n

A Calgary political scientist says the Liberals aren’t likely to win the election, despite the numbers Trudeau attracted in a province that went Conservative blue in all but five ridings in last fall’s federal election.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s got that star power. No question. There’s a celebrity element in this. (People) want to see him and know a little more about him,\u201d Lori Williams, from Mount Royal University, said of Trudeau.<\/p>\n

\u201c(But) Hillyer won the riding with 67 per cent of the vote … The Liberals got 26 per cent, so that’s a pretty steep margin to overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams said the Liberals had more resources to pour into the campaign because it was a byelection. She also suggested the possibility of having a local MP at the cabinet table might influence some people to be open to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor all those reasons, the Liberals have a greater chance than they would in a general election, but it’s still a long shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last MP Medicine Hat voters elected who wasn’t from a right-of-centre party was Bud Olson. He was originally voted in as a member of the Social Credit, crossed to the Liberals and was re-elected when the party swept to power under Pierre Trudeau in 1968.<\/p>\n

Olson lost in 1972, and the riding has been on the right of the political spectrum ever since with MPs from the Progressive Conservatives, Reform, Canadian Alliance or Conservative parties.<\/p>\n

Conservative candidate Glen Motz isn’t taking anything for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not over until the last vote is counted. Our team has had the mentality and the work ethic that we are in last place … and we are working with that in mind until the polls close,\u201d said Motz, 58, a retired Medicine Hat police officer.<\/p>\n

He said Trudeau’s visit to Medicine Hat motivated a number of Conservative voters angry over job losses and the economic downturn.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople here are frustrated. They’re angry. It was demonstrated when the prime minister was here. It mobilized a whole set of people who otherwise may have been apathetic. It’s mobilized them to action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sakamoto, 66, acknowledged he voted for Progressive Conservative Bob Porter in the past, but said it was a vote for the man, not the party.<\/p>\n

He said he remembers being a teenager when Pierre Trudeau visited Medicine Hat.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a rally at that time with Bud Olson … I was caught up in that crowd and also his message of hope. I was inspired as a teenager and that was a very big event for us in Medicine Hat,\u201d Sakamoto said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur previous prime minister (Stephen Harper), who lives 2 1\/2 hours up the road, never appeared once here. Not once in 10 years and there’s a feeling that we are a forgotten corner. That kind of resonates.\u201d<\/p>\n

The four other candidates in the byelection are Bev Waege from the NDP, Rod Taylor with the Christian Heritage party, Libertarian Sheldon Johnston and Kayne Cooper of the Rhinoceros party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MEDICINE HAT, Alta.\u2014The Conservatives are hoping to rally their traditional power base to retain hold on a sprawling southern Alberta …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":63242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,18,16,483],"tags":[1683,552,3070,6678,12538,9401,12539],"class_list":["post-82404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ca","category-news","category-politics","tag-conservatives","tag-elections","tag-justin-trudeau","tag-liberals","tag-medicine-hat","tag-politics","tag-stan-sakamoto","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}