Election ‘04: Ridings to watch: Ottawa-Vanier

It’s an electoral riding with two solitudes: One of the city’s wealthiest areas and one of its poorest neighbourhoods

Kevin Friday and Ric Dagenais have little in common, but the two main challengers to Liberal incumbent Mauril Belanger in Ottawa-Vanier are both counting on the same thing: a mass defection of disillusioned Liberal voters.

“The political scene in Canada is in flux,” says Fred Maurette, campaign manager for Conservative candidate Friday. “The Liberals are losing votes from the left and right.”

Mr. Dagenais, the NDP candidate, talks about “building on increasing momentum within the NDP.”

“People are ready to listen when I knock on the door,” Mr. Dagenais says. “Just the fact that so many former Liberals are taking a look at us is very exciting.”

But while both are claiming momentum, the political reality of the riding will be an uphill battle for both. In its 70 years of existence, first as Ottawa-East and then Ottawa-Vanier, the riding has elected a Liberal in every election.

Ottawa-Vanier is one of the most diverse ridings in Eastern Ontario: While the average income is $73,000, most households fall well below that average.

The riding is home to Rockcliffe Park, one of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods, and Vanier, one of the poorest. Add to that the franco-phone population, which makes up 40 per cent of the total, and a sizable immigrant community, and the riding poses a unique challenge in delivering a single message to its ethnically, linguistically and economically diverse constituents.

For its part, the Conservative team is offering Mr. Friday, 26-year-old insurance broker, a virtual unknown on the Ottawa political landscape who staged an upset win against Stephen Woolcombe for the nomination.

The young, photogenic man of Trinidadian descent emphasizes his talent at building consensus and defusing conflict, and his campaign team shrugs off his lack of experience, saying the candidate has much to offer.

Mr. Friday grew up in Ottawa, and studied business administration at Algonquin College. He currently lives in Orleans. His father, Terry, was an inspector with the Ottawa police.

His largest problem may well prove to be the language barrier. An anglophone by birth, he is taking intensive French lessons, and is “surrounding himself with bilingual people,” his campaign manager says.

Dispelling the idea that the Conservatives are an “extreme” right wing party is especially important in this Liberal stronghold.

“I’ve always considered myself a moderate, sensible, compassionate, fiscal conservative,” Mr. Friday says.

Saying that the “recent change in the political landscape” and the sponsorship scandal motivated him to enter politics, Mr. Friday works hard to avoid being labelled a former Alliance loyalist or a former Tory.

But his politics are more reminiscent of the Red Tories than the Canadian Alliance. Asked about health care, Mr. Friday’s “first thought” is that the Liberals made a “terrible mistake” by cutting health transfer payments in the 1990s.

In this respect, he sounds a lot like his NDP opponent, Mr. Dagenais.

“The cornerstone of this election is health care,” Mr. Dagenais says, adding that Canada’s health system should be delivered by the public sector, and should be a one-tier system that has no room for profit.

Mr. Dagenais has a little more campaign experience than his Conservative opponent, having run as the NDP candidate for Ottawa-Vanier in the provincial election last fall.

“The NDP went from nine per cent in the 2000 election to 14 per cent in the provincial elections last fall,” says Jim Goulet, Mr. Dagenais’ campaign manager. “Now the polls are better, and there is pressure to build on that.”

Mr. Dagenais’ message centres around the idea of breaking down what he sees as the alienation of voters from their political system.

“Politics doesn’t seem to be for the people anymore,” he says.

Housing, Mr. Dagenais says, is the largest issue confronting Ottawa-Vanier, “where more than 11 per cent of people are looking for affordable housing,” he says.

Mr. Dagenais, who lives in Manotick, grew up in Vanier. His introduction to the eclectic population of Ottawa-Vanier came at an early age, when his paper route took him past the ostentatious homes of Rockcliffe Park and the more modest New Edinburgh neighbourhood.

The son of a francophone father and anglophone mother, Mr. Dagenais comes from a family of stalwart Liberal voters, who went so far as to name one of Mr. Dagenais’ uncles Wilfrid Laurier Dagenais. “That’s how much they loved the Liberals.”

But Mr. Dagenais turned away from the Liberals more than a decade ago, when he saw the party shifting to the political right.

“(Former prime minister Pierre) Trudeau’s idea of liberalism is similar to the NDP today,” Mr. Dagenais says.

Mr. Dagenais is cautious about attacking his opponents, saying only that “both the Liberals and the Conservatives are wishy-washy, but we (the NDP) are clear what we stand for,” which is why “we’re an alternative to both major parties, which we can’t discern any difference between.”

Mr. Friday is more eager to join the fray.

“The sponsorship scandal represents the latest episode of a long reputation of mismanagement and lack of accountability,” Mr. Friday says, reflecting one of the major themes of his campaign — accountability and honesty in government.

“Mauril Belanger … can’t distance himself from the Liberal government and the mismanagement over the past 10 years,” he adds.

But Mr. Belanger, the Liberal incumbent since he won a 1995 byelection by a margin of almost three to one against his closest opponent, doesn’t feel the need to distance himself from the Liberal track record.

As deputy leader of the government in the House of Commons and chief government whip, Mr. Belanger — along with Defence Minister David Pratt of the Nepean-Carleton riding — is one of Eastern Ontario’s two biggest power brokers in Paul Martin’s government.

Mr. Belanger proudly reflects on the Liberal ability to conquer the federal deficit, a fact he says “translates into the stability and predictability that business likes.”

He also points to increased spending on health care in recent years and a lower federal tax rate as evidence that the Liberals have managed the country quite well over the last decade.

Mr. Belanger sees the Liberal platform as “a better balance” than the options put on the table by the Conservatives and the NDP. The Conservatives, he says, focus too much on the creation of wealth, while the NDP focuses too much on the redistribution of wealth among those in need. Only the Liberals, he says, provide a balance between the two prerogatives.

Mr. Belanger has been involved in politics since he was 13, when he was a poll captain for Liberal candidate Len Hopkins in 1968.

He studied at the University of Ottawa and jumped back and forth between the public and private sectors, working for some time as regional minister for Trudeau-era cabinet minister Jean-Luc Pepin, then moving to the private sector to work at a brokerage.

“I’m what one could call a Trudeau Liberal,” Mr. Belanger says. “I believe in the elements of Trudeau’s vision of Canada, of a just society and pluralism, which you can find in the linguistic basis of Canada and also in the multicultural aspects of our society.”

On the issue of the sponsorship scandal, Mr. Belanger says he is “quite prepared to defend” the Liberal track record, and that the government has already taken action “in terms of administrative tightening so that it doesn’t happen again.”

And in addressing the platform of his opponents, Mr. Belanger pulls no punches.

“There is so much unsaid in the Conservative platform that worries people. Where do they stand on equality for men and women, on sexual orientation, multiculturalism, on official bilingualism?” he asks. “I think they’ll have to fess up and say where they really stand on that. And until they do, they’re not going to get a whole lot of support from Ottawa-Vanier.”

Throwing a curve ball into the dynamics of the race is the increasing popularity of the Green Party, which in recent polls has the support of five per cent of voters nationally. In the provincial election last fall, the Greens got 4.6 per cent of the vote in Ottawa-Vanier, up from 2.25 per cent in the 2000 national election. Raphael Thierrin, the Green candidate in the riding this election, says he wants to build on that momentum, and is setting a target of nine per cent of the popular vote for himself.

“With the various scandals that have occurred and past experiences with various parties in other provinces, people are interested in seeing new options being offered,” Mr. Thierrin says.” It’s not so much what the Green party has to say, it’s the fact that if we are brought around the table, we will be able to change the way politics are done in Canada.”

A native of Montreal, Mr. Thierrin holds two master’s degrees, one in library sciences and one in environmental sciences. He currently works as a project manager for SEDRA, a non-governmental organization that focuses on development in Africa, and as a French instructor to public servants. His parents and sister live in Ottawa-Vanier.

Until last year, Mr. Thierrin was the international secretary for the Green Party, a position that allowed him to meet with representatives of green parties around the world.

“We have a kind of collective goal to be influential in national governments across the world, to inspire those governments to truly work better for people and for the environment,” he says.

The Ottawa Citizen
Friday, May 28, 2004

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Belanger maintains Liberal grip on Ottawa-Vanier stronghold

Liberals in the riding of Ottawa-Vanier extended a 69-year winning streak as voters here handed Mauril Belanger a fourth consecutive term in Parliament.

Mr. Belanger won the support of 48.4 per cent of voters, while Conservative candidate Kevin Friday took second place with almost 24 per cent. NDP candidate Ric Dagenais garnered just over 19 per cent, with the Green Party’s Raphael Thierrin taking about seven per cent of the vote.

Mr. Belanger’s supporters, who wore leis around their necks as part of the night’s Hawaiian party theme, were ecstatic as TV projections indicated a clear victory for the Liberal incumbent.

Mr. Belanger, the chief government whip and deputy leader of the government in the House of Commons, congratulated his opponents for running what he described as excellent campaigns, and lauded their performances at the debates.

With the prospect of a Liberal minority government looming, Mr. Belanger said he wanted to “work across partisan lines — and who knows, that might come in handy in the coming days.

“We’ll give Canada a role of strength and influence in the world,” Mr. Belanger promised.

The election results were a disappointment for Mr. Friday, the Conservative challenger.

Insiders in Mr. Friday’s campaign had confided that, given the strength of the Liberal vote in the riding, they would have been happy to see Mr. Belanger reduced to 40 per cent of the popular vote.

But Mr. Friday struck a positive note after yesterday’s vote.

“I really think that I made a mark here,” Mr. Friday said. “We got our message out. The voters have said ‘not yet, not this time,’ but maybe next time,” Mr. Friday said.

The results also failed to meet the purported goal of Green Party candidate Raphael Thierrin, who had set for himself a target of nine per cent of the popular vote.

Nonetheless, Mr. Thierrin said his results were “respectable.”

“I feel we had more support than we ever had before,” he said.

Mr. Thierrin, who ran his campaign from a solar-powered office on Cumberland Street, said his party had more visible support in this electi0n than ever.

Mr. Belanger’s re-election was almost a foregone conclusion: His previous election victories in the riding gave him a clear majority of the popular vote each time, and the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives never did consolidate enough votes against him to put a challenger in the House of Commons.

More significant, the people of Ottawa-Vanier have elected a Liberal candidate in every election since the riding was created, as Ottawa East, in 1935.

Unlike Paul Martin, Mr. Belanger did not work to distance himself from the record of the Chretien-era Liberals, highlighting his government’s successful battle with budget deficits.

Mr. Friday attacked the notion that the Liberals were the party of fiscal prudence.

The political newcomer used the sponsorship scandal as a focal point of his campaign, emphasizing the need for political accountability.

But Mr. Friday’s political appeal was limited by his lack of French language skills — a tangible liability in a riding where some 40 per cent of the population is francophone.

For the French-language all-candidates’ debate, Mr. Friday had to use an interpreter to feed him translations through an earpiece.

The Ottawa Citizen
Tuesday, June 29, 2004