Retirements, and then more retirements

I am shocked at all the politicians these days who are quitting politics either due to health concerns or strains on their family. First Jennifer Mossop announces that she will not run again after only a single term in the Ontario legislature due to her lack of time with family because of her job. At the same time a sitting cabinet minister, from Hamilton Mountain, Marie Bountrogianni, announced that for similar reasons she would not run again for the Ontario legislature. Then yet another woman cabinet minister, Mary Anne Chambers, announced that she too would not run again for the Ontario legislature after only a single term for health reasons. She apparently has health concerns and therefore wants to leave politics to allow herself to slow down and recover. She apparently even told Dalton McGuinty the gory details of her health concerns. She is not leaving because she thinks she’s leaving a “sinking ship”. It’s obvious she really does have health concerns. I am thrilled however to learn that her replacement candidate will be another black woman.

At the Federal level, Stephen Owen is also quitting his seat near the end of July. He also had previously announced that he wouldn’t run again but once again was probably expecting to retire at a spring election. When that didn’t happen he seems to have decided to become a professor. I do not understand why Owen is quitting politics. My only guesses are that he was a cabinet minister and does not like sitting in Opposition and/or Dion is leader and Dion was not who Owen endorsed for leader. Former MP and Conservative spokesman John Reynolds claims that the Liberals are vulnerable in Owen’s Vancouver Quadra. Owen however won by almost 12,000 votes. The Tories apparently have yet to select which candidate will run in Quadra. The Liberals will run former BC Liberal cabinet minister Joyce Murray. She ran in the 2006 election in New Westminster-Coquitlam and received only 23% of the vote, which was low enough to allow NDPer Dawn Black to defeat Conservative incumbent Paul Forseth. Murray’s former provincial riding was New Westminster. She is however seemingly a good fit for Vancouver Quadra. I do not see how the Conservatives can win the riding if the last numbers from Mustel (a polling firm that polls British Columbia federal voting intentions using decently sized samples) that I saw hold: Conservative, 33% (-4 from general election), NDP, 29% (about the same as general election), Liberal 28%(the same number as the general election if you round up). I liked seeing this poll because it showed that Liberal support in BC is holding steady, and at least staying where it was at the last general election. If Liberal support in BC stays where it was at the general election at the time of the by-election, I do not see how the Conservatives can win Vancouver Quadra.


What is absolutely shocking is that Saskatchewan Liberal MP Gary Merasty is going to quit his seat at the end of August to get a job in the private sector. He says it is due to his lack of time with his family. But it is shocking because Merasty is a first-time MP. How could a first-time MP who has only been in office for 18 months and been a very successful MP quit before his first term in Parliament is even finished? How can this happen? He only won his seat by less than 70 votes, but he would have had a strong chance of re-election at the next general election. Any chance he’s hoping that the Liberals will find a new strong candidate for the by-election and hopefully win it due to the fallout from the federal budget (oil revenues), the Kelowna Accord (this is a riding with a high aboriginal population and the Tories abandoned the Kelowna Accord and have a poor record on aboriginal issues), and the wheat board (which the Tories are defanging and/or abolishing following a plebiscite with unclear and leading questions)? Perhaps Merasty thinks he may as well quit now so as to allow a by-election while those fallouts are still fresh in people’s minds. I am still just shocked that such a successful MP would just so suddenly quit politics.