A federal election hasn’t been called yet, but Conservative candidate Stephen Hill has fired the first broadside in the campaign, issuing a brochure to households in BC Southern Interior, promising “action instead of rhetoric.”
“You never can tell,” Hill told the Star last week when asked if he considered an election imminent.
“We’ll find out when the budget comes down. The Liberals are saying they’re voting against it before it comes out, so I guess there’s a pretty good chance.”
Hill, a financial planner with offices in Trail, Grand Forks, and Kelowna, has held the Tory nomination since November 2009.
“It’s a personal pain in the backside,” he says of the long wait before putting himself before voters, “but I guess it’s an advantage in getting your name out.”
Hill’s brochure highlights his efforts to restart the idled Midway sawmill. He’s spearheading an initiative that will see residents raise money to buy the former Pope and Talbot operation and lease it to Vaagen Brothers of Colville.
“I go by that mill twice a week. It really ticked me off to see that big hole in the middle of the Boundary,” Hill says.
“When I went door knocking in Midway, in response to ‘What can I do?’ it didn’t take people long to respond ‘Reopen the mill.’”
Interfor, which owns the sawmill in Grand Forks, is critical of the plan, saying they will be competing for the same log supply, but Hill dismisses this as “politics and sabre rattling,” tied to Interfor’s application for government dollars to build a co-generation plant.
Hill adds the Midway plan will have a knock-on effect of helping keep schools open, and bringing home residents forced to leave the area when the mill closed.
“[New Democrat MP] Alex Atamanenko has an office in Oliver and probably drives by that mill twice a week as well,” he says. “The question is why didn’t he stop in and reopen the mill?”
Atamanenko says Hill’s brochure smacks of “some really negative stuff we’ve never had before.”
“I always tried to avoid that, even when I ran against incumbent [Conservative] Jim Gouk,” he says. “My tactic was ‘I’d like to continue the good work he’s doing.’”
Atamanenko says the brochure’s suggestion that he has never said hello to the mayors of communities affected by the Midway mill closure is “a blatant lie.”
“I pride myself on networking and being in contact with mayors and other local government officials throughout the riding,” he says.
Atamanenko says he’ll be happy if Hill’s plan works, but Interfor’s comments concern him. He adds the mill isn’t running yet, and he hopes local investors don’t lose money.
As for the likelihood of an election call in the next few weeks, “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s sooner than later.”
However, he isn’t in full election mode yet.
“I’m not doing anything much differently now that we may have an election than I was a year ago,” he says. “The feeling I’m getting is that people by and large are happy with the work my staff and I are doing.”
Atamanenko says if an election is called, he’ll be ready and will run on his record.
“We have enough money. We have volunteers. We have to decide where we’re going to have offices. All those discussions are going on.”
He predicts a “pretty volatile” upcoming session of parliament, “kind of like when kids sense they’re getting out of school.”
He’s still seeking Liberal support for his private member’s bill on genetically modified seeds, even though the biotech industry has been lobbying hard against it.
Green Party candidate Bryan Hunt puts the chances of a spring election “at about 50 per cent.”
“While I am itching to work for positive change for the riding, I do not actually believe anyone wants an election right now,” he said in an email.
“So I hope, for the sake of the people, that we don’t spend money on something the voters don’t actually want.”
Hunt, a Kaslo native, currently lives in Calgary, where he runs several small businesses. He was named the Green candidate last spring.
The federal Liberals have not yet nominated a candidate.