While the rest of Canada waits for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call a federal election, the race for the next MP for Moose Jaw in being contested.
It is a three-way race with the majority of voters having no say in who wins.
The race for the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) nomination is on. It’s a forgone conclusion the nomination winner will be the next MP succeeding Tom Who after his 17 years as an MP.
Only recently have we seen much of Tom Who in Moose Jaw. He once boasted on radio that he doesn’t need to campaign in Moose Jaw because his supporters are mostly in the rural areas.
Three candidates are running: former Saskatoon MP Brad Trost; Kathryn Pollack, Saskatchewan’s chief provincial procurement officer from Lumsden; and Moose Jaw Mayor Fraser Tolmie.
Tolmie is the mayor who voted himself a salary increase to $100,000, bought wine with city money for potential Chinese investors and bought his birthday cake with city funds.
When caught on the cake-buying gig, he paid up, said it was an oversight, then said it was done without his knowledge.
This is the mayor who led the charge for some of the highest property tax increases in recent history. This is the mayor who voted to charge taxpayers nearly one million dollars a year to recycle a few tonnes more material.
One of Tolmie’s ancestors was the premier of B.C. in the 1930s, a legacy Tolmie wants to continue. Is that good enough reason to run?
Brad Trost, a social conservative with views on abortion and LGBQT2S rights contrary to stated CPC policy and current law, failed to re-win his Saskatoon nomination.
The third candidate, Kathryn Pollack, who lives on a farm in Lumsden, has a work history in the petroleum industry and the job overseeing purchases for the province.
Her connections with the Saskatchewan Party could help her win the nomination and subsequent election.
It might be time for a woman MP from this riding. Moose Jaw has always been represented by male MPs. In fact, Saskatchewan sends few female MPs to Ottawa.
Moose Jaw could have had a female MP when Gwen Beitel wanted to run for the Conservatives but the powers-that-be feared she might not win and opted for a male instead.
When Tom Lukiwski was elected, Beitel went to work in his constituency office. He takes the credit. She does the work. Sound familiar?
There was a fourth candidate, C.D. Puckett from Davidson. His application supposedly wasn’t filed properly. Instead of giving him another chance, he was rejected.
Puckett says he was denied the opportunity because his views don’t mesh with the party’s views.
Tolmie knows what Puckett feels like. The Conservative Party pulled a similar stunt on him in 2010, denying him the chance to run.
Apparently he has kissed the right ring this time around.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
