Joe Oliver faces tight race in hotly contested Eglinton–Lawrence
Opponents say riding is a proxy war over finance minister's handling of the economy
I did something this week that many members of the national media had tried and failed to do recently. I interviewed Joe Oliver.
The Conservative candidate and current finance minister has been criticized for being, well, invisible in the national campaign at the very moment that the economy was making headline news.
- Where's Joe Oliver? Finance minister cancels events, not commenting
- Joe Oliver mocked online amid bad economic news
- Recession news hits campaign trail as parties offer competing visions
Oliver was held up as an example of how the Harper campaign muzzles its ministers. And in fact I had left messages to no avail requesting access to Oliver for the report I was preparing on his Toronto riding of Eglinton–Lawrence for our radio newscast, The World at Six.
So, on my last day of gathering tape in the riding, I dropped by his campaign office thinking I would at least record my request being rejected. But Oliver was there and he wanted to talk about why he had been so hard to find.
"I was in Turkey and I must have done about four interviews there," Oliver told me, referring to a gathering of G20 finance ministers.
"I've been available a lot in my roles as minister, both as minister of finance and before that as revenue. When the campaign began I started focusing on the campaign, talking to my constituents individually and in a group and I think that is very important.
"I decided to head to Turkey because of the turbulence in the markets and, may I say, that when I was there it really made clear yet again that if some of the other countries had followed our low tax plan for jobs and growth they wouldn't be in the difficulty they are in today."
I don't take anything for granted but, as I say, we've had a good reception at the door.— Joe Oliver, Conservative candidate in Eglinton–Lawrence
Oliver is campaigning on that message. The same economic report that confirmed Canada is in recession also showed that the economy is improving from a rough start to the year, he said, and the Conservatives are the best bet to keep that going.
"I don't take anything for granted but, as I say, we've had a good reception at the door."
Oliver's victory here in 2011 was a big win for the Conservatives. This riding had been Liberal for more than three decades — a big, metro Toronto riding featuring a mix of flashy affluence and dense multi-ethnic populations. It has the third-highest Jewish population in the country and much of that vote swung Oliver's way.
It is a rare feat to defeat a finance minister in a Canadian election, but Oliver's opponents are convinced it can be done on Oct. 19.
In fact, the Liberals had a bit of a party feud for the nomination. Conservative defector Eve Adams announced she would take on Oliver and she did it at a news conference with Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau at her side.
That didn't go down well with many Liberals and the man who'd been already been campaigning for the nomination, Marco Mendicino, said he wouldn't give up the fight. In the end, he won.
"We've been through a good tough fight in the nomination and we won and, you know, people have used terms like 'David and Goliath' and 'giant slayer' and those are nice metaphors," Mendicino told me.
Mendicino is a former federal prosecutor, with what he calls deep roots in the riding. He's raising two young daughters here and has many other family members living in the riding.
He's been campaigning for a year and believes he can over come the 4,000 vote gap between the Liberals and the Conservatives in 2011.
He said there is one thing he hears over and over from voters at the door: "Change. Change. People are fatigued with Mr. Harper."
The NDP's Andrew Thomson hears that too, but he says he believes people want change offered by the NDP.
The party parachuted him into the riding to showcase his financial credentials against Oliver. Thomson served as a provincial finance minister in Saskatchewan and says he has a proven record of balancing budgets. He mentions that repeatedly while out door knocking.
"This is a riding we need to win if we are going to start forming government," he told me. "There is a lot of discussion about what kind of change people want in Ottawa right now but I find there are just as many conservative voters saying they are looking at the NDP as there are Liberals."
The party has never been much of a factor here, finishing a distant third in 2011. Could a strong NDP candidate split the centre-left vote and guarantee Oliver re-election?
Oliver says he won't discuss "those sorts of tactics." Mendicino asserts "this is a two-horse race" and Thomson says the national campaign has changed the dynamic here.
There is little doubt voters here feel the suspense building nationally and many seem to be waiting to see how that story evolves before deciding how to vote.
I heard that time and again as I walked through neighbourhoods with the candidates. I met a senior citizen, Wallace McLeod, sitting on his porch one afternoon. He listened politely to a candidate's pitch then told me he was still undecided. I asked him what would help him decide?
"The passage of time,"he said.
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