The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
From the moment she took her place as the Churchill riding MP nearly three years ago, Tina Keeper was often viewed as a one-term wonder. Since winning on the strength of an NDP vote split, Ms. Keeper has tried to build inroads in a riding where the Liberals usually take the silver, not the gold. Yet despite all of the public appearances, the media interviews, the trumpeted speeches in Parliament and the power of incumbency, she failed to make her re-election bid the least bit competitive. As the results flowed in Tuesday night following the closure of the polls, there was never a point at which Ms. Keeper seemed to have victory within her grasp. Indeed for a while it looked as though she would fall to third place behind Wally Daudrich, whose Conservatives are hardly popular in these parts. While you canÕt discount the impact of the LiberalsÕ disastrous national campaign, complete with a money-sucking carbon tax, Ms. KeeperÕs dismal loss isnÕt so much about ideas as it is about enthusiasm, or lack thereof. In January 2006, 10,157 northerners voted to send Ms. Keeper to Ottawa on their behalf. Even without a helpful NDP vote split, had she been able to mobilize those people, she would be getting ready for her second term. Instead, her vote total was cut nearly in half. Conversely there was the NDPÕs Niki Ashton, who has essentially been in campaign mode since January 2007, when she re-secured the party nomination. As a candidate, Ms. Ashton visited virtually every community in the riding, no matter how remote. Despite never holding public office, she was able to excite her supporters and bring in new ones in a way Ms. Keeper could not. At least some voters who in 2006 viewed Ms. Ashton as too young and inexperienced to be MP were won over. She was the hungriest of the candidates, and that made a big difference. The Churchill riding is now firmly back in the NDPÕs hands, quite possibly for years to come. Still, the demographics of the constituency are changing. The aboriginal population, already 70 per cent of the riding, continues to grow much faster than the non-aboriginal population. While itÕs true that aboriginal turnout in federal elections is often disappointing, their voices are clearly the future in determining which party represents this region in Ottawa. Whoever can mobilize them, be it a New Democrat, Liberal or Tory, will find success at the ballot box in future elections. Local Angle runs Fridays.
