Freedom Flyer January - June 1986 Cover

Freedom Flyer 6

the official newsletter of the
Freedom Party of Ontario

January - June 1986




Article electronically reproduced from:

The London Free Press

April 20, 1985


London ridings key election battlegrounds

By Pat Currie, Chris Dennett
and Tony Hodgkinson
of The Free Press

The battleground in the May 2 Ontario election campaign is technically the entire province, but London's three ridings are shaping up as a major skirmish on their own.

At stake locally is the balance of power currently tilted 2-1 in favor of the Liberals. On a personal level are the futures of two of the province's leading politicians - Tory cabinet minister Gordon Walker and Liberal leader David Peterson.

Peterson is clearly seen as the candidate with the most to lose. He could be a loser even if he's a winner.

Not that he is seen as being in any special danger in his own bailiwick - his workers are confident he'll easily hold the seat he first won 10 years ago and retained with a 4,000-vote victory in 1981.

Peterson's biggest challenge in his third year as party leader will be levering the Liberals out of the also-ran category. They have been stuck at a level of about 34 seats for the last 10 years. Those years covered three provincial elections and enabled the Tories to extend their unbroken reign to 42 years. That's one year longer than Peterson has been alive.

At dissolution, Peterson's band was down to 28 MPPs because six key members decided to test the federal election waters in the Grits' national debacle last September.

In a campaign that has taken on overtones of an all-or-nothing gamble, Peterson has been vigorously staking out the middle ground, trying to portray Conservative leader Frank Miller as a political dinosaur, a kind of Neanderthal right-winger, and the New Democrats as leftists in bed with big unions.

In London Centre in 1981, Peterson collected 12,315 votes while Conservative Russ Monteith trailed with 8,329 votes and New Democrat Diane Risler was out of sight with 3,189.

This time around, Peterson is being challenged by Conservative Bill Rudd, who makes much ado about his London Centre roots, New Democrat Peter Cassidy and Freedom Party candidate Michelle McColm.

As his campaign zig-zags across the province, Peterson has dropped a promise or a commitment at every hop. He has pushed for beer and wine sales in grocery stores, pledged a tough affirmative-action program to force employers to put more women in executive offices and pay all women workers on an "equal pay for work of equal value" basis, promised extensive health-care improvements... and the list goes on.

Rudd chooses to ignore all that ("It's the premier's job to look after the leader of the opposition") to zero in on the most elemental of issues - who lives where.

"I've lived in London Centre since I was two," says Rudd. "I think that's important. My opponent seems to have moved out of the riding, for some reason."

Rudd downplays Peterson's role as leader of both the Liberal party and the official opposition.

"This is strictly a constituency fight. I think Peterson can be beaten."

As an operator of a small business, Rudd says his priorities are the creation of jobs and a "better break" in taxation and government programs for owners of small businesses.

Cassidy is a criminal and administrative lawyer who has lived in London only two years but has gained considerable exposure as the liason lawyer for the citizens group that pressed for, and eventually won, a cleanup of PCB-contaminated Pottersburg Creek.

Cassidy has also been active with the London Union of Unemployed Workers, the Coalition on Welfare and Social Benefits and Ploughshares London, a disarmament group.

His activities underline his basic interest in environmental and social issues. He also believes unemployment is a paramount election issue.

McColm, 26, is a secretary and fitness instructor. The Freedom Party is an offshoot of an offshoot of the Libertarian Party, and opposes censorship, promotes freedom of choice in any government-related activity, and generally regards the three old-line-parties as socialist.

It is in London South where Gordon Walker, the minister of consumer and commercial relations, has found himself in a smorgasborg of a contest, with a 57-year-old grandmother seeking election at the same time as the leader of a new political party that has emerged in counterpoint to the New Democrats.

Joan Smith is no ordinary grandma. Wife of wealthy contractor Don Smith, president of the Ontario Liberal Party, she is stacking decades of involvement in community work and almost nine years' experience on city council against the track record of Walker, first elected to the legislature from London North in 1971.

To all intents and purposes, the London South contest is between Smith and Walker. Robert Metz, president of the London-based Freedom Party of Ontario, appears to be using this election as a launching pad for a long-term plan to establish a minority beachhead at Queen's Park in 10 years.

Metz's platform of less government, more individual freedom of choice and a greater emphasis on the private sector to get things done, contrasts with the social doctrine of the New Democratic Party, being represented in London South by lawyer David Winninger, making his first appearance as a political candidate.

In the 1981 election, Walker had 19,714 votes, or 54.6 per cent of the popular vote. Liberal Frank Green got 11,116 votes, or 30.3 per cent, and NDPer Dale Green drew 5,187 votes, or 14.9 per cent. Of the 69,517 eligible voters in 1981, only 52 per cent turned out on polling day. The number of eligible voters this time around is expected to be about 76,000.

Smith supporters are confident they can overcome the sizable deficit with a hard-slugging campaign which their candidate began by knocking on doors immediately after Thanksgiving, long before the election writ was issued in late March.

"The people who six months ago were saying Gordon could never be beaten now say he could be taken if we keep going on as we have been," says Smith's assistant campaign manager, lawyer son Geoff, 29.

However, Walker, who moved to London South for the 1977 election after his 1975 defeat in London North, is running an equally upbeat campaign, having established 13 community centres throughout the riding, in addition to his headquarters on Wharncliffe Road South.

His campaign manager, Maggie Dillon, acknowledges the Smith challenge: "Joan is a woman of substantial means and substantial political background in the city... her candidacy cannot be taken lightly."

If there are changes afoot in this election, it is the 60,000-plus vote of sprawling London North who wiII show the effect on May 2. All four candidates, including incumbent Liberal Ron Van Horne, are running flat out and each reports an eerie feeling of reticence and caution among voters in the early going.

Van Horne, the Mr. Nice Guy of London politics, is hoping for a third successive victory for his Liberal team. In the 1981 contest, he won with a reduced but still handy majority of 3,600 over his Tory opponent. The NDP ran a distant third.

The former high school principal says he is hearing "more talk than anticipated" about the 42 long years the Conservatives have spent in office. Van Horne concedes the Liberals have some proving to do too, in this election. "We are one of the last viable groups of Liberals left in the country I guess."

The Conservatives would like to win back the riding the legendary John P. Robarts held for so many years and they are fielding the highly credible former city alderman George Avola as their candidate. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," is Avola's reply to those who insist the Tories have spent too long in office.

Avola wants to talk about jobs and London's need to win more of them. London, he says, should be doing more to attract industry and investment to the community.

The New Democrats are fielding one of their most credible candidates in years in Marion Boyd, president of London Status of Women Group and spokesman for the London Coalition on Welfare and Social Benefits. Boyd's central aim for the party is to break out of its poor third image and build some bridges into the middle class areas of north and west London.

Rich old north London, she reminds her audiences, does have poor people and it does have people who have lost their jobs in plant closures. "Those people are hurting and they deserve a better hearing."

The fourth man on the ballot is Freedom Party representative Rob Smeenk, operator of two city amusement arcades, who believes the old line parties all preach the same message - spending your money to straighten out your problems. The London-based Freedom Party believes in less government and less spending and in handing a greater degree of responsibility for issues and problems back to the people.

A persuasive talker, Smeenk insists his party is no flash in the pan and that London is just the beginning of a provincial party with real strength. "We have to start somewhere."




Contact FP
Freedom Flyer Newsletter

e-mail

Page last updated on April 28, 2002

FP logo (small)