Keith Martin will not be running for the Liberal Party in the next election, but whoever does will be facing a difficult battle in Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca. Martin was a popular local doctor and one of the original MPs of the Reform Party. In 2008 he defeated Tory candidate Troy DeSouza by less than 100 votes, and now Keith will be replaced by city councillor Lillian Szpak. Martin won by large margins when running for Reform and Alliance, but never won his riding by more than 5% as a Liberal. Will the remnants of Martin support shift to Szpak? Only time will tell, but this will be one of the toughest seat defenses the Liberals will face in the next election.
Conservative donors may want to donate to Troy DeSouza directly instead of the national party so nobody needs to make cash transfers to this critical battleground riding...
Troy will win based on his position on the Mackenzie overpass alone. I just hope he can get it done!
ReplyDeleteWell good ridance Keith Martin. He was never a Reformer, and was always a Liberal. No Reformer ever got a softer ride from the national media, hence his Lib bona fides.
ReplyDeleteDuring the HRC scandals he was used (willingly) by the media and the Libs to try to flush out Conservatives to back him on his criticism of the HRC's.
The media endorsed his view (he is a Lib after all), with the intent of making it seem safe for conservatives to come forward in support of HRC criticisms, at which point Martin would have faded into the background and the media would have savaged the Cons.
Any interview I ever saw the man in, he came across as an utter lightweight.
OP doesn't live in the riding obviously. Where provincial districts overlap EJDF the MLAs are all NDP.
ReplyDeleteMost of the riding is actually centre-left and left-leaning and are smart enough to know Troy is just bribing them with their own money (when he will really have NO power to get that project done as a rookie MP). Plus... let's say he does get the overpass built, what else is he going to do after that? His campaign is a one-trick pony.
I'm insulted as a resident of this riding to be patronized in this way and I look forward to seeing what Lillian and Randall have to say about transportation issues in EJDF. We are certainly not going to get anything substantive from Troy.
Brat,
ReplyDeleteI also am a resident of EDJF. The riding cannot be categorized as left-leaning--you are deluded. Victoria and Esquimalt may lean that way but Saanich, Colwood,& Langford where major population growth has ocurred, is NOT Liberal/NDP leaning. Check the last riding (2008) results.
Lillian and Randall both want to shut down any "tanker" traffic and ports off the B.C. Coast so that our only customer for oil is the U.S. This affects our economy by billions, since it eliminates any Asian markets and keeps us hostage to the U.S. oligarchies. Yet ships transport oil up Burrard Inlet and the St. Lawrence (800,000 barrels a day) but they don't have a word to say about that. Eco-nuts are rarely consistent so no surprise there.
The McKenzie overpass was cancelled in 1998. Until the 13 municipalities in Victoria get their heads out of a dark place, a regional strategy isn't going to happen. Neither Randall nor Lillian are in the loop about that. Troy is.
You seem out of touch with Troy's campaign -- he already has the ear of Ottawa on veteran's benefits, the halibut sports fishing issue, refugee and immigration issues, and has completed a number of local projects by securing federal funding. He isn't even an MP yet.
So I guess you're not the only one insulted -- or does anyone else's opinion besides your own matter.