lames Mangan
Team Member

[Pictured: Stornoway, official residence of
the Leader of the Official Opposition]

r. Harper has run his course as Prime Minister, and

Canada’s “Conservative Experiment” has finally come
to an end. Canadian dissatisfaction in the Conservative party
was evident in the motto of the opposition parties: “Change.”
In the end, it was the Change represented by the Liberal
Party of Canada that Canadians found the most appealing;
an oxymoron, as Prince George Citizen Columnist Tracy
Summerville points out, since the Liberals have traditionally
been recognized as Canada’s Naturally Governing Party.
Oxymoron aside, Canadians appear content with the change
in government.

Canadians have great expectations from Mr. Trudeau.

After the past government’s tendency to muzzle scientists,
engage in petty name-calling disputes with Supreme

Court Judges, pursue “tough-on-crime” legislation which
were anything but, marginalize Canadian minorities,
continually embarrass Canada on the world stage, and
attack opposition leaders based on their hair, it’s refreshing
to finally have high expectations from the federal
government. From one majority government to another,
Canadians demanded change and they received it.

Election 2015 9

Not Prince George »

Well, many Canadians did. There are still 99 ridings in
Canada that preferred the previous government. Cariboo-
Prince George and Prince George-Peace River-Northern
Rockies are two such ridings. Votes in the northern riding
overwhelmingly supported Conservative MP Bob Zimmer,
despite his recent comments in the national spotlight
suggesting aboriginal women in Northern British Columbia
live high-risk lifestyles due to a lack of jobs on First Nations
reserves. Cariboo-Prince George, on the other hand, did
not prove to be the Conservative stronghold that the
federal parties believed it to be. Under former Member of
Parliament Dick Harris, Cariboo-Prince George was regarded
as a “safe riding” for the Conservative party. This election,
Cariboo-Prince George was placed ona list of swing ridings
that could potentially play critical roles in this election.

There were several factors that attributed to this riding
losing its “safe riding” title, one of the most notorious being
the Vancouver Sun reports of Mr. Harris’s travel expenses.
Mr. Harris was ousted as being one of the most expensive
MP’s in Canada. It was revealed that Mr. Harris was billing
Canadians for plane tickets between Ottawa, Prince George,
and his residence in Osoyoos, nowhere near the constituency
that he claimed to represent. Bill C-51 was another factor
that dissuaded Cariboo-Prince George from the Conservative

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Party. The divisive and intrusive bill left many right-winged
voters feeling disenfranchised, as pro-surveillance and
anti-warrant legislation are often descriptors of George
Orwell’s Big Brother. Northern voters felt further alienated
by the fact that not one federal leader visited Prince
George during the Campaign. As a result of these factors,
the local NDP and Liberal candidates, Trent Derrick and
Tracy Calogheros found themselves in the position of quite
possibly defeating Conservative candidate Todd Doherty.

Due to the Liberal’s disastrous election outcome four years
ago, receiving only 5% of the popular vote in Cariboo-Prince
George, the NDP branded themselves as the logical choice
for the “Anyone but Conservative” vote. This was further
reinforced by an Environomics poll commissioned by the
organization Lead Now, which found the NDP leading with
36%, followed by the Conservative Party at 30% and the
Liberal Party at 29%. Unfortunately, this poll only asked 500
residents, leaving a margin of error at 4.4%, and was only
conducted once throughout the entire election. Despite

the NDP’s promotion of this poll, election night granted
NDP Candidate Trent Derrick 26% of the vote. Conservative
candidate Todd Doherty took the riding at 36%, with
Liberal candidate Tracy Calogheros trailing at 32%.