NDP candidate Melissa Atkinson targets Yukon's 'ABC' vote
Yukon candidate says New Democrats are only real choice for strategic voters
"You don't go around breaking treaties, you don't introduce legislation that undermines our agreements. It's time for change," Melissa Atkinson concludes, to a round of polite applause from a crowd of about two dozen at the Carcross Community Centre.
Yukon's NDP candidate may be new to politics, but she's now had many weeks on the campaign trail to hone her message.
She's planning to visit every community in the territory before Oct. 19. As a relative unknown, Atkinson needs to convince even the party faithful that the NDP is still the choice, in a battle now dominated by so-called ABC — Anyone But Conservative — voters.
But for some long time New Democrats of the region, this vote is troubling.
"I hope I can vote for you, but I don't know yet," Jim Borisenko told Atkinson in Carcross.
"We have to get rid of the Conservatives at all costs, and until we get proportional representation, I have to vote strategically," he said.
Atkinson's heard it before — and no doubt will continue to hear it right up to election day.
"You have to remember, the Liberals voted, signed, sealed and delivered for Bill C-51," she shot back to Borisenko.
"That's selling your civil rights down the river."
"And with the ABC vote," Atkinson continued, "the NDP have said they would form a coalition. With the Liberals, it's a flat out no."
Lawyer, 'proud Yukoner'
Her 15-year law career has included 10 years as a Crown prosecutor for the federal government and two terms chairing the Yukon Human Rights Commission. For the past five years, she has worked as a legal aid lawyer in Yukon courts.
She feels the extra long campaign is giving her more time to get her name out there.
"We've got more forums coming," she said. "People I don't even know are coming up saying 'I saw the posters' with my giant head, I heard you on the radio, I've looked at your Facebook. So you know people are trying to figure it out."
Atkinson dismisses the Liberal Party's claims to represent "real change." She points to past Liberal cuts to funding for housing, education, and the CBC, and said the Conservatives then followed suit with more cuts.
"If you are truly looking for change, the strategic vote is to vote for the NDP," she insists.
"The real reason Larry lost is because people told him, 'don't sign that long-gun registry.' That's his legacy," Atkinson argues.
"He has to live with that because if you come back and you say, 'I voted with my party line', that speaks volumes.
That's how you get omnibus bills, that's how you get Bill C-51, where people's civil liberties are being trashed. That should send everybody the message about where Justin Trudeau stands."
'Not the kind of Canada I want'
Atkinson has said her legal background and experience with the Yukon Human Rights Commission tells her that Bill C-51 is "scary."
"If you speak out against the government, if you are going to protest the Peel, if you are going to protest about tuition hikes, you are on the list," Atkinson said.
"That's not the kind of Canada I want, that's not the way I have practiced law the last 15 years, that is not what people have fought long and hard for our freedoms to mean," she said.
"I hope I wake up on October 20th with Tom Mulcair as our Prime Minister and myself as the Member of Parliament for the Yukon."