Leslie Penny said she wasn’t surprised at the results of Oct. 21’s federal election, at least on the local level.
Penny, a retired nurse and Town of Barrhead councillor, was the Liberal Party candidate for the Peace River-Westlock riding.
She said she and her fellow candidates — John Schrader of the Peoples Party of Canada (PPC), Peter Nygaard of the Canadian Green Party and Jennifer Villebrun of the NDP — knew they were facing a momentous challenge in trying to dethrone incumbent Canadian Conservative Party incumbent Arnold Viersen.
Penny finished in third place with 3,062 votes behind Viersen with 41,159 and Villebrun with 3,805. Schrader and Nygaard finished fourth and fifth respectively.
“I would have thought I might have placed ahead of the NDP candidate,” she said, after congratulating Viersen on his victory.
Penny said Villebrun was all but absent at the campaign events the other candidates attended, including all the all-candidate forums.
She also was taken aback by the blue wave that swept over the Prairies.
While acknowledging that the Conservatives traditionally fared well in the Western provinces, she didn’t think they would have the type of success that they did. In Alberta, the Conservatives took all but one of the available seats and sweeping Saskatchewan. The NDP took one Alberta seat.
In Manitoba, the other parties did a little better, winning seven of the 14 seats, compared to four for the Liberals and the NDP’s three.
“I know Albertans are angry, but I’m not sure what people expect to change, especially in a Liberal minority government,” she said.
“Until we start electing some Liberal MPs in Alberta, I don’t know how our voice is going to be heard.”
Penny noted that historically, the Liberals or the Conservative Party or their forebears the Progressive Conservative Party are the parties that form government.
She said that regardless of which party forms government, the prairies need to elect Liberal MPs, noting the provinces are practically guaranteed to have Conservative Party representatives.
“That means regardless of who wins Alberta’s voice will be heard,” Penny said, noting as the 2019 election shows, the opposite isn’t necessarily the case.
“We have a Liberal government, we own the [Trans Mountain] pipeline and they will have to get along with the NDP who say no pipeline,” she said. “I’m not sure how it is all going to shake out but it’s not going to be good for Alberta.”
Penny added the Liberal loss Albertans are most likely to feel the most is Amarjeet Sohi, the former Minister of Natural Resources.
“Who is going to fill that role now? We have no one in Alberta, Saskatchewan and probably Manitoba that knows anything about the challenges the energy sector is facing,” she said.
“There is an old Chinese proverb that says ‘may you live in interesting times’ and we are heading into some interesting times.”
Green Party
After congratulating Viersen, Nygaard said he was pleased about the Green’s election performance echoing Penny’s sentiment that it was going to be difficult if not impossible for his party to win the riding.
However, despite that challenge, he noted the Green Party was able to increase the number of votes they had from the last election.
“I am also happy to have had the chance to talk to people about the issues and tell people about our platform to help protect the environment,” Nygaard said.
He added that he was glad to see the party having some success at the national level.
“We didn’t quite have the breakthrough we were hoping to have, but we increased our number of votes nation-wide and we were able to gain another seat in a tough riding [Fredricton, N.B.],” he said.
Nygaard is also pleased about the possibility of being able to forward the Green Party platform by potentially working with other parties in a minority government.
“The Green Party has always been willing to work with anyone, to help make Canada a better place,” he said.
The one thing he wasn’t happy about is how well the NDP did, particuarly here in the Peace River-Westlock riding.
“[Villebrun] was for all purposes just a paper candidate,” Nygaard said. “While myself, as well as Leslie Penny and John Schrader, were out there campaigning hard for 40 days to gain support.”
NDP
Through an e-mail to our sister paper the Westlock News, Villebrun thanked all the people who worked on her campaign as well as the other candidates who were willing to put themselves forward.
“While I’m disappointed that I will not be the MP in this sitting of the house, I am incredibly thankful for all of the people who voted for me and I will endeavour to still act as an advocate for them,” she said.
PPC
While congratulating Viersen on his victory, Schrader stated via an e-mail that he was disappointed in the outcome, not only locally but nationally.
“Three hundred and eight diverse PPC Candidates rejected the status quo, making huge personal sacrifices, to give voters a real choice. Our platform, based on principles of individual freedom, personal responsibility, respect, fairness, would have fostered national unity and moved us towards unparalleled prosperity,” he said.
“By your vast majority of votes, Canadians have rejected limited government, and told liberty minded individuals that we do not belong in your federal government at all. I am heartbroken, and fear for the future of my children in this increasingly socialist country.’
