Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 21, 2021, Winnipeg, Manitoba C MHK PAGE B3 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2021 • WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMNEWS I VílTrE CANADA B3O'Toole transformed Tories into viable alternative TOM BRODBECKOPINION CONSERVATIVE Leader Erin O’Toole had a tough mission ahead of him: put the “progressive” back into a party that’s struggled to connect with mainstream voters east of Manitoba. O’Toole, who took over as party leader last year, knew he had no chance of success in this election, or in any future ones, without a more moderate platform and centrist tone. Far right, social conservative parties don’t do well in Canada. The party needed a rebrand. For the most part, O’Toole did a pretty good job of it. It wasn’t enough to win government, but that wasn’t O’Toole’s doing. Opposition parties don’t really win elections. When governments fall, it’s almost always because voter anger and frustration reach a boiling point and incumbents are shown the door. Whatever party happens to be next in line assumes power, as long as they’re at least mildly appealing to voters. That didn’t happen in this election; the time-for-a-change dynamic wasn’t there. The backlash against the Liberals for calling an election during a pandemic was enough to prevent them from winning a majority, but not enough to boot them out of office. As predicted, the only thing the Liberals managed to do by going to the polls during a national public health emergency was lose 36 days of fighting a pandemic and waste $610 million of taxpayers’ money on the cost of the election. Their gamble didn’t pay off. O’Toole’s job was to present Canadians with a viable alternative. He did so far more effectively than his predecessor Andrew Scheer in 2019. Scheer ran a clumsy, disjointed campaign that reeked of social conservatism. Even if Canadians were prepared to chase the scandal-plagued Liberals from office in that election (and they may have been), Scheer, who had muddled positions on abortion and same-sex marriage, was not even mildly appealing to Canadians. The only reason his party’s seat count rose was because of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s troubles with SNC-Lavalin and his blackface revelations. O’Toole, on the other hand, presented a reasonably cohesive campaign, largely devoid of social conservatism. He managed to shut out, or at least temporarily silence, the extremist views from within his party. He was clear in his commitment to the Canada Health Act (he even promised to out- spend Trudeau on Canada health transfers). Whatever “private” health care he said he supports already exists in many provinces, including in Quebec, and has been allowed to operate under successive Liberal governments. O’Toole has made no bones about where he stands on a woman’s right to choose and has for months pledged his full support for LGBTTQ+ rights. He even backtracked on an earlier party pledge to reverse a Liberal ban on assault weapons, saying the ban would remain in place under a Conservative government. There were holes in O’Toole’s narrative that the Conservatives underwent a political transformation. He did not have a viable alternative to the Liberal party’s popular $10-a-day child-care program, nor did he adequately address climate change. His dog-whistle attempt to stem the tide of Tory defectors to the People’s Party of Canada, by refusing to demand his MPs be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, did not endear him to progressive voters. Still, O’Toole did reposition his party towards the middle of the political spectrum. He transformed it into a more appealing option for most Canadian voters. There was a small price to pay for that, but it was a calculated risk. The People’s Party of Canada picked up the far-right, anti-vaccine, conspiracy theory vote. Most of that probably came at the expense of the Tories. But those votes represent a small minority of Canadians. The vast majority of voters support public health orders and COVID-19 vaccines. Conservatives have no choice but to target the much larger, mainstream vote if they want to form government. The Conservative rebrand didn’t change much for the Tories at the ballot box in this election. But it does put the party on a more promising path for the future. tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca Disruptions at some polls: Elections Canada OTTAWA — Elections Canada reported a handful of disruptions at polling stations across the country on Monday, including an Indigenous-led protest and poll workers not showing up, as millions of Canadians cast their ballots in the first federal election since the pandemic began. While the majority of polling stations opened on time and without incident, Elections Canada spokeswoman Diane Benson said issues were reported with several sites in Ontario and Western Canada, resulting in some stations opening late or having to be relocated. Those included a polling station in the riding of Brantford-Brant, southwest of Toronto, which had to be moved after a protest organized by the Haudeno-saunee Confederacy Chiefs Council. The council spoke out last week against putting a polling station on what it considers its traditional territory, calling it a treaty violation and encouraging members not to vote. The newspaper Turtle Island News reported that protesters blocked all three entrances to the polling station before a standoff broke out with Six Nations police. The newspaper said the polling station was moved off reserve after negotiations between the two sides. “We are aware that the Haudeno-saunee Confederacy Chiefs Council protest disrupted the vote at a polling place in Brantford-Brant before the polling place could be relocated,” Benson said in an email. Benson also reported that poll workers did not show up for two polls in the Ontario riding of Kenora, near the border with Manitoba. Standby workers from other parts of the region were dispatched to open the polls by midafternoon. Two polling locations in First Nations in the Alberta riding of Grande Prairie-Mackenzie were also late opening due to staff being unable to get into locked buildings. The polls have since opened. Elections Canada was also aware that a polling location in the British Columbia community of Yekooche, in the riding of Skeena-Bulkley Valley, had not opened. Benson also reported special arrangements had been made, with the approval of local campaigns, for several polling places in the Toronto ridings of Eglinton-Lawrence and University-Rosedale to manage the flow of voters while respecting safety measures in place. “We are aware of a disruption in voting services in several polling places in Davenport,” she added. “Voting has resumed.” Elections Canada said almost 6.8 million people voted early, most of them at advance polls over a week ago, and the rest through special ballots cast by mail or at Elections Canada offices. Canada has more than 30 million eligible voters. Elections Canada had previously warned the pandemic could lead to longer waits compared to past elections. Public health protocols involve keeping people at a distance and collecting extra information for contact tracing purposes, which could take extra time. Elections Canada encouraged voters to wear masks but only required them in places where they were mandated by provincial rules. Proof-of-vaccination regulations do not apply at polling stations in any province where they currently exist. An Elections Canada spokesperson said some polls had seen isolated delays in getting set up, which created some longer waits, but nothing unusual compared to years past. — The Canadian Press PHOTOS BY MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG EPEE PRESS Voters head to the polling location at the Winnipeg Conservatory of Music on Monday morning to vote in the federal election. Most people encountered few issues at the polls. Vote-casting amid pandemic proceeds mostly problem free ERIK PINDERA AND MALAK ABAS Most voters at polling stations across Winnipeg found few problems casting ballots in the federal election, but at least one location reported long lines until closing time Monday. At the Fort Garry Curling Club on Archibald Street, lengthy lines snaked around the building past 8 p.m., with the polls officially closed a half-hour later. However, under Elections Canada rules, voters who arrive at a location prior to the closure are still eligible to vote. Elsewhere in the country, in some Toronto-area ridings in particular, voters reported waits of more than an hour Monday morning. Outside more than a dozen other polling locations the Free Press visited, no voters reported significant delays or concerns with the COVID-19 pandemic health measures in place. Most said the wait was on par or faster than previous elections they’d participated in. Down the street from Westminster United Church, at around 2:30 p.m., 29-year-old Sean Goldstone said casting ballots took him and his partner about 15 to 20 minutes from entry to exit, which he recalled as similar to past elections. “Pretty straightforward,” Goldstone said of the pandemic voting experience. Goldstone noted he had tried to vote at an advanced polling station in Wol-seley last week, but decided against it after a poll worker told him it was a 45-minute wait. “(Monday) was a nice easy breezy process... It always seems quite straight forward, and short.” Outside the church in Winnipeg Centre, a small-but-steady stream of people came and went. At nearby First Presbyterian Church on Honeyman Avenue, Ryan, 38, who declined to give his surname, said vot ing Monday afternoon was nearly identical to previous years. “Fluid, smooth as always,” he said, noting it took about five minutes — and that’s only because he stopped to chat with poll workers. Shortly after 4 p.m. in Saint Boni-face—Saint Vital, Pat Yakielashek said the polling station was less crowded than normal. “Pretty similar, except we have masks on,” the 63-year-old said in the parking lot of Good News Fellowship Church. As a retiree, she normally votes earlier in the day, but even at the onset of rush hour, her vote took just minutes. Down the road in the contested swing riding of Winnipeg South, Sharon Shaf-to, 59, was expecting the worst before she arrived to vote. “I’m impressed... it was organized,” she said at the St. Vital Evangelical Mennonite Church shortly after 5 p.m. It took about 10 minutes to vote, and she’s waited as long as a half-hour in the past. At a Winnipeg North polling station on Aikins Street, 68-year-old Rose Ferguson said casting her ballot was “about the same — apart from the pandemic stuff.” Stewart Ferguson, 68, said it was well-controlled, with everyone inside keeping their distance. It took the pair, who’ve lived in the area for about 20 years, five minutes or so to vote. Some of those first in line early Monday faced some hurdles. Concerns sprung up on social media, when some voters were unable to confirm their polling station location online and there were long wait times on hold for people who tried to get the information via phone. As of 11:30 a.m., the Elections Canada website was still not operating properly in some cases, with visitors directed to a phone number for additional information. In the morning, outside of the Winnipeg Conservatory of Music, 19-year-old Ryan Tieu said his first voting experience was a unique one — he noticed boxes of masks and available hand sanitizer and said the booths were separated further apart than he expected. “I was a little nervous, because I didn’t know what I was expecting, but the process itself was pretty straightforward,” Tieu said. “I guess the longest thing was just the line maybe to get in, because of the spacing. “I think if they were in normal times, it would’ve been a little faster.” Meanwhile, further north, Rex Ventura walked out of the Wheelies Roller Rink on Enniskillen Avenue surprised at how easy it was to cast a ballot, owing to the light turnout while he was there. “It has been a year, more than a year, since we’ve been socially distancing. People are aware of the dangers now. I think everything went smoothly,” he said. David Morrice arrived at his polling station in Tuxedo first thing in the morning, in hopes of beating anticipated long lines due to COVID-19 accommodations. “I’ve waited in line years past voting and it was longer (then)... so I’m very impressed,” he said. erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca B_03_Sep-21-21_FP_01.indd B3 2021-09-21 1:05 AM ;