SPANISH—On a sunny Saturday afternoon last weekend, history was made in this North Shore community when Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing Liberals met to formally confirm Heather Wilson as the Liberal candidate in the 2015 federal General Election, the first-ever woman to be the Liberal standard bearer in the AMK riding or in any of its smaller, pre-redistribution elements. Party members filled the Spanish council chambers for the event.
In this way, Ms. Wilson, a resident of Espanola, follows in the tradition of Barbara Hanley who was elected the first woman mayor of any municipality in Canada when the voters of the neighbouring community of Webbwood selected her for this office in 1936.
Ms. Wilson will doubtless be challenging NDP MP Carol Hughes, the first woman elected to this office in AMK (or any pre-distribution riding) in the 2008 elections, also following in Barbara Hanley’s footsteps.
Ms. Wilson and her family (she and husband Derek have three sons) have lived in the area for almost 20 years, originally moving to Whitefish Falls when they purchased Widgawa Lodge tourist resort, operating it for a dozen years. She is currently working as the financial controller for a large regional business.
In her speech accepting the Liberal nomination, Ms. Wilson referenced these experiences among many others when she stated that, “I know that the diversity and opportunity in this area is second to none. Northern Ontario has it all and we deserve to have representatives at all levels of government who can bring the hope that all of your needs will be met and also do the hard work so that we can all have peaceful and fulfilling lives. That is what Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party are offering: hope and hard work.”
Ms. Wilson also made reference to her upbringing on a dairy farm near Owen Sound and the solid work ethic she inherited from her parents, saying that, “I will work tirelessly to win this riding back for the Liberals,” predicting not only her personal success in the riding in the next election, but also the success of the Liberal Party across Canada.
Ms. Wilson was the only candidate to seek the nomination so the meeting was a formality but, following due process she was nominated for the position by Francois Cloutier of Moonbeam from the Northern reaches of AMK, the riding’s Liberal candidate during the election of 2011.
Mr. Cloutier recalled first meeting Ms. Wilson in 2009 when he came to Espanola to meet local Liberals and, “she asked me the toughest questions and I knew right away that she was politically engaged.”
He noted that this is a valuable attribute for a politician seeking success in AMK, a riding encompassing 103,000 square kilometres, more than 50 towns and villages, numerous First Nations communities and a representative francophone population.
Brent St. Denis, the last Liberal MP to hold the riding, formally seconded Ms. Wilson’s nomination and said he was looking forward to seeing the riding returned to the Liberal fold, “after it has been borrowed by the NDP for the past while.”
Tongue in cheek, Mr. St. Denis acknowledged the assistance of the AMK’s current MP, Carol Hughes, in helping the process of returning the riding to the Liberals “as the NDP has been caught with their fingers in the cookie jar in this riding, among others.”
Mr. St. Denis was referring to the federal New Democratic Party currently facing charges of abusing the privileges of Parliament for mailing party platform and campaign literature into ridings where they did not hold the seat, such as AMK prior to the 2008 election, making use of the postage-free “householder” mailings reserved for MPs to communicate with the constituents in their own ridings.
Mr. St. Denis estimated that, during his last session as the riding’s Member of Parliament, the NDP had abused the privilege of Parliament in this way and had avoided paying over $1 million in postage. Elections Canada is investigating these concerns.
Driving home the point, Mr. St. Denis praised Ms. Wilson for her personal accomplishments and for her honesty “and the honesty issue is something that the NDP candidate will have to wear in the next election.”
In her acceptance speech, Ms. Wilson stated that, “I have had the opportunity to speak to many people over the past few months during the nomination period and people have made it clear to me that they want a better government, not just a different government; one that will focus on them, their families, their communities and their future. A government that has a vision of inclusion and acceptance, not difference.”
She stressed that “citizens of this riding include our First Nations people who will be honoured and truly listened to as equal partners by a Liberal government. The current government’s tactics are finger-pointing and division and First Nations people want greater levels of transparency and accountability and this will be accomplished through a consultative process and not by top-down directives.”
Ms. Wilson stressed the need for a new approach to job creation in the North, noting that “the Liberals have plans to support the commercialization of Canadian natural resource discoveries, invest in new technologies (the key to manufacturing competitiveness), provide tax mechanisms to help fund start-up companies and boost innovations and also to support summer job programs so our young people have the financial support they need to become part of a strong and skilled workforce.”
Ms. Wilson, whose undergraduate and post-grad degrees from Laurentian University have included study and research on women’s issues in Canada, pointed out that “women’s issues will get more attention when women are represented equally at all levels of government; women’s differences expand the information base upon which decisions are made, contributing to better decisions.”
With a clear reference to the governing Conservatives, she added that “women bring a more collaborative method of conflict resolution in contrast to the combative method that has pushed Canadians to be disenfranchised from their government, evident in what I consider troubling levels of voter apathy.”
The new candidate spoke briefly in French, pledging to make every effort to improve her communication skills in that official language so that she can serve the francophone community of the riding in their mother tongue.
In her closing remarks, Ms. Wilson touched on her views on international events and quoted former/Algoma East MP and Prime Minister the later Lester B. Pearson, agreeing with his observations made many years ago that, “of all our dreams today, there is none more important—or so hard to realize—than that of peace in the world. May we never lose our faith in it or our resolve to do everything that can be done to convert it one day into reality.”
