The Hill: Bridging the rural-urban divide a tough task for the Liberals

Thursday, June 4, 2009

To become competitive again in rural areas, the federal Liberals must change more than a leader or a policy booklet. They must change the way they view rural culture.

by BARRY WILSON


Former federal agriculture minister Bob Speller, five times elected and a 16-year MP but twice defeated and on the sidelines in the last election, is considering another campaign.
He would be trying to reclaim the Haldimand-Norfolk tobacco country riding in southwest Ontario.

Lloyd St. Amand, a southwest Ontario Liberal with a swath of pork and tobacco voters in his Brant riding who helped defeat him in 2008, is also running hard to regain his seat.
They are but two rural Liberals, victims during the past five years of the Conservative ascendency in rural Ontario, who are harbouring dreams of resurrection in the next election.

At the party's national convention in early May, the talk was all about renewal and, moreimportantly for Liberals like Speller, signs that the party is gaining public support under its new leader, Michael Ignatieff.

Speller, defeated in 2004, said it is true in rural areas as well as the cities. "I'm hearing from a lot of people, including Conservatives, that they are getting tired of this government," he said during the convention. "I've been asked to run and I am considering it."

For his part, Ignatieff frequently talks about the need to rebuild the party in rural Canada.
"I know how much work the Liberal Party and I have to do to rebuild in rural Canada and to earn back the trust of Canadian farmers and farm families," he said in a blunt speech to the Canadian Federation of Agriculture in February.

Ignatieff has said that he is not interested in becoming prime minister of urban Canada. But does voter fatigue with a Conservative government trying to navigate the country through a recession, and sympathetic promises from a new Liberal leader, translate into a willingness by rural voters to switch sides?

The past three elections have seen the Conservatives all but take ownership of much of rural Ontario, reducing Liberals to the status of an urban party. It is a pattern that has played out across Canada.

And rural Liberals, including candidates who have faced voter wrath or indifference to Liberal pleas for their vote, are warning that if the party is to become competitive again in rural areas, it must change more than a leader or a policy booklet. It must change the way it views rural culture.

During a rural workshop at the party's national convention, delegate after delegate went to the microphone to complain about lack of head office interest in rural issues and voter suspicion.

Tom Manley, a former eastern Ontario candidate, said even rural-friendly policies do not resonate with voters. "There seems to be a perceived conflict of values," he said.

Rural voters do not take Liberal promises at face value. It is seen as a party of city downtowns, gun control and immigrants, a party that thinks of rural Canada as old, white, conservative and backward.

In other words, while Liberals made a habit of scaring Canadian voters
in the past by warning of a Conservative "hidden agenda," rural Canadians see a hidden agenda of their own when they look at the Liberals.

They say all the right things, but in government they will impose carbon taxes, support gun registration and cater to the interests of the cities.

Bridging the rural-urban divide that Ignatieff laments may be his most daunting challenge as new leader. BF

Barry Wilson is a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery specializing in agriculture.