| Calgary is Tory Town. All our MPs are Conservatives. All our current MLAs are Conservatives. Calgarians are so single-minded when it comes to politics, it’s a wonder that opposition parties even bother to take a run at the ruling party come election time.
But hope springs eternal, especially in inner-city ridings, and this provincial election is no exception. The tightest contests are in Calgary-Mountain View and Calgary-Currie, where the Liberals have managed to recruit candidates with star power. The two Daves – David Swann and Dave Taylor – came into the campaign from active public lives, and brought with them name recognition and scores of volunteers.
David Swann’s brush with fame occurred in 2002 when, as the medical officer of health for the southeast of the province, he publicly backed the Kyoto Accord and was promptly fired. The tall, soft-spoken physician soon became widely recognized, particularly among opposition forces, as a symbol of the Klein government’s intolerance of dissent. Swann has also won the admiration of many for his work in Iraq both before and after the U.S. invasion.
Calgary-Mountain View hugs the north side of the Bow River and stretches from Bridgeland through West Hillhurst to Montgomery. As the Liberal candidate Swann is up against three-term MLA Mark Hlady. Like many of his Calgary counterparts, Hlady has had a low-key, almost anonymous, career as a government backbencher ever since getting elected on Ralph’s coattails in 1993. Yet last time around he picked up 60 per cent of the vote.
The other famous Dave is running in Calgary-Currie. Dave Taylor is a talk-radio host on CHQR, the afternoon antidote to raging Dave Rutherford. He’s been listening to people talk about Ralph’s World for nine years. Last year, he says, the tide started to turn. "More callers were questioning the Klein government, or saying it had been in power too long, had become too arrogant."
Taylor decided he wanted to catch that wave and volunteered his services to the Liberals who then talked him into running as a candidate in Currie, which includes Marda Loop, Mount Royal and the Beltline south of 17th Avenue S.W. He’s up against Jon Lord who earned his political stripes by way of two successful aldermanic campaigns and nasty Tory nomination battles. Lord hopes to be re-elected for a second term.
Lord’s more of an independent thinker than most Tory MLAs. Early in the campaign, he found himself in hot water for proposing a new deal for AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped) recipients that deviated from the party’s official stance. He knows the party – and Ralph – can make him or break him, but he’s not happy about it. "I wish people would just look at my track record," he said as he stumped Lower Mount Royal looking for votes. "But that’s unrealistic in this kind of politics."
So those are the main players in these two ridings. But what about the voters? How do they see things? To find out, I tagged along on some door knocking expeditions. It’s far from an exact scientific method but here are some of the observations I came away with after six hours of pavement pounding.
On a chilly Saturday afternoon in a mixed neighbourhood in South Calgary, three times as many people openly declared their support for Dave Taylor when he introduced himself as declared support for the Conservatives.
On a chilly Wednesday afternoon in Lower Mount Royal the vast majority of residents who answered the door – whether they lived in tony renos or shabby walk-ups – smiled benignly at Jon Lord but did not declare how they were going to vote.
On an evening run through houses, condos and apartments in Rotary Park with David Swann, only one person openly declared he would vote Liberal, but almost everyone voiced dissatisfaction with the Klein government.
Only one person recognized Lord as a former alderman. No one mentioned anything he had done as an MLA (this may have been because we were in a part of the riding that belonged to Calgary-Buffalo before boundary changes).
Several people in South Calgary recognized Taylor as a radio talk-show host.
No one mentioned that they were happy the provincial debt will soon be paid off.
When asked what are the most important issues, most people in both ridings answered health care or education.
Only one person cited Ralph as the reason for voting Tory.
There were also some pretty bizarre occurrences. Like the man who stormed out of his apartment building in Lower Mount Royal to yell that he would not be voting for whatever party Lord was running for because he had knocked on his door too loudly. Within minutes he came back to apologize and assure Lord that he would indeed vote for him. A few blocks on, a member of Lord’s campaign team noticed a man in a basement apartment pointing a gun at the window we were walking past.
And then there was the groggy guy in striped shorts who opened the door to an apartment dense with marijuana fumes. David Swann kept talking – and inhaling the smoke as it wafted out into the corridor. The apartment dweller allowed as how he didn’t think much of the Conservatives. But will he remember to vote?
Door knocking is a way for candidates to personally introduce themselves to voters. But it is also a way for party workers to identify those who are sympathetic and make sure they get out and vote on election day. Many of the people who say they haven’t made up their minds yet won’t bother to vote at all. In Mountain View last time, only 46 per cent of those eligible voted; in Currie only 48 per cent.
Lord says there is so much turnover in Currie that it’s almost like starting over every election. But he garnered 61 per cent of the vote last time so has a wide safety margin. Both Taylor and Swann have attracted substantial support from New Democrats eager to elect an opposition member. But there are so many parties running against the Tories – Liberals, NDP, Greens, Social Credit and Alliance – that the vote could easily split in the Tories’ favour.
"If you don’t want the Tory candidate to win again you have to vote for me, I have the best chance at winning," Swann tells people at the doorstep. "A vote for someone else will split the vote."
Taylor says he is running to win, not simply catch opposition votes. And if he does win? "I want to build more support for Liberals throughout Calgary," he says enthusiastically. Running as a Liberal is always a long shot in Calgary. But remember that TV reporter who ran for mayor of Calgary in 1979? No one thought he had much of a chance, either. But having a familiar face, and a household name, made all the difference. |
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