James Risdon

2019-05-22 11:52:06 -0400

I can do you one better, Sheila. At least Edmonton is getting something by way of jobs for its blind faith and Liberal voting pattern. Here, in northern New Brunswick, the small city of Bathurst where I live has been married to the Liberals for nigh unto a century with nothing to show for it.



It boggles the mind to see people here in Acadie-Bathurst repeatedly vote Liberal even when the region gets nothing for it. The unemployment rate in this region was 16.5 per cent in March this year. Young people – those that remain – are leaving in droves to get jobs anywhere but here. When people do get a job, the average annual take-home salary is only $29,880. Homeowners see virtually no appreciation in value of their biggest investment, their house. The median price of a house here is about $99,000. Economic activity here is almost completely stagnant. Our waterfront’s east side looks like a war zone after an old mill on the waterfront shut down 14 years ago and the property was stripped of all its metal and left with concrete foundations, silos and rubble – and environmental contamination. This has to be one of the few places in Canada where prime waterfront land is in such a pitiful condition.



These are the results in Acadie-Bathurst of voting for parties to the left of the political spectrum at the federal level. Except for two stints during which Progressive Conservatives managed to hold onto the riding for a total of five years, Acadie-Bathurst has been solidly to the left since 1900. The area has voted to the left for more than 100 years. The only significant break from the Liberal stranglehold on Acadie-Bathurst was the election of an amazingly-popular New Democratic Party unionist, Yvon Godin, who held the seat in Ottawa for 18 years straight. His big thing was fighting for more employment insurance.



At the provincial level, the scenario is much the same. I’ve only been able to check back 52 years, more than half a century, in terms of provincial voting patterns but Liberals have held onto Bathurst with an iron grip during all of that time.



A few years ago, I ran for the mayoralty of this small city, promising to cut taxes, make government for efficient and transparent, and promote economic development and job creation. At the time, the City of Bathurst had the highest rate of property taxes in all of New Brunswick and a very high rate of unemployment. The old mill site was a mess. I was confident that anyone in their right mind would want to see the situation improved. I was wrong. In that election, the incumbent crushed me, getting more than three times as many votes as me. Two municipal elections later, the former vice-president of a big company decided to run for the mayoralty on a similar platform and he too suffered the same fate despite spending much more and campaigning extensively.



This is Liberal country. You could be a duck in Bathurst and get elected if you’ve got the backing of the Liberal party. Elsewhere in Canada, like in Alberta, the Liberals try to buy votes with ridiculous decisions to move offices and create jobs. Here, no such promises are necessary. In Acadie-Bathurst, faith in the Liberal party is so strong that people are willing to keep fighting what they see as the good fight in the complete absence of any benefits and to do so for more than a century.



Northern New Brunswick could use a little Albertan common sense – at least when it comes to politics.

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