The Written Word
for July 19, 2000

There has been criticism that Stockwell Day ought not to run in Okanagan-Coquitlam because he doesn’t live there. And the cticism is absurd. The first Prime Minister of the country, Sir John A Macdonald represented Esquimalt for a bit without ever visiting or campaigning in the area. Both Mr Chretien and before him Brian Mulroney used by elections in foreign parts, so to speak, to get into parliament. John Turner used Quadra which is a bit removed from Toronto where he really lived. In fact in Britain it’s common that MPs come from other than where they live. For many years Winston Churchill represented Dundee in Scotland. He was defeated there in the general election of 1922 by, of all people, a teetotaler.

The custom of electing people from other than where they live is, I think to be deprecated in the normal situation of a general election. By elections to get leaders elected is quite a different thing. Besides, if it’s a bad idea to run an outsider in a by-election, the voters will let that be known.

In Britain the English constituencies are so easy to get at that MPS can, in an hour or so, reach the furthest corner of the constituency in hours so that constituents doesn’t feel removed. Moreover with the internet and email it’s duck soup for MPs to keep in touch with their constituents and vice versa.

What I do consider an odious practice and one which I would amend the Elections Act to forbid, is the parachuting of candidates into a riding as the Prime Minister did with Sophie Leung in 1997. The Liberals under Jean Chretien have shown less regard for MPs than even Trudeau did. But again, the last call is to the voter.