2 veterans hoping to make political comeback in Edmundston ridings
Gabrielle Fahmy | CBC News | Posted: September 18, 2018 9:30 AM | Last Updated: September 18, 2018
Jeannot Volpé returns for PCs, while J.C. D’Amours jumps back into politics for the Liberals
Voters in Edmundston are split between two provincial ridings, but no matter which side of the electoral boundary they're on, they're watching a veteran politician attempting a comeback.
On one side of the divide, in Madawaska-Les-Lacs-Edmundston, is Jeannot Volpé, an outspoken cabinet minister in Bernard Lord's government who was interim leader of the provincial Tories before becoming a vocal critic of his own party.
And in Edmundston-Madawaska-Centre, three-term Liberal MP Jean-Claude D'Amours is hoping to revive his political career with a term as Liberal MLA.
Together, the two ridings make up the northwestern tip of the province, taking in rural communities from Sainte-Anne-de-Madawaska to Haut-Madawaska, with Edmundston as the urban centre. They have more similarities than differences, with candidates from the two ridings often campaigning as a team.
The province has been run by a teenager. - Jeannot Volpé, PC candidate
Signs for both Volpé and his main opponent, Liberal Francine Landry, and D'Amours and his PC opponent, Gérald Lévesque, are sprinkled throughout the city of 16,000.
Volpé's decision to come out of retirement to run took many by surprise.
"The province has been run by a teenager," said 68-year-old Jeannot Volpé. "He's in a candy jar right now and throwing money everywhere.
"Somebody needed to get involved, we've got real challenges in this province."
The northwest of the province differs in that the jobless rate is low — 4.8 per cent, according to Statistics Canada numbers from last month — the lowest in the province.
What's worrying employers and workers alike there is how to bring people to the region to fill the estimated 500 jobs that are currently sitting empty, according to the Edmundston Chamber of Commerce.
Critical of leader in past
Volpé has been critical of key decisions taken by his party since he left in 2010, especially when current leader Blaine Higgs was finance minister.
Those included the reform to MLA pension plans — which he filed a human rights complaint against and blamed "a few dummies" on Alward's staff for — and a 2014 forestry plan, which he said increased the dominance of large companies on Crown land.
But candidate and leader appear to have set aside whatever differences they may have had, with Higgs saying he welcomed Volpé's straight talk and Volpé considering Higgs "a great leader."
"First when he came in I had some, not concerns, but a few questions for him. I met with him on quite a few occasions," said Volpé.
On Sept. 8, midway through the campaign, Higgs made a stop in Edmundston to pledge to overhaul New Brunswick's forestry laws.
"Small woodlot owners are suffering," he said at the announcement alongside Volpé and Lévesque.
Volpé will have to beat Liberal MLA and minister Francine Landry, who is confident she will get re-elected on Sep. 24.
"I know Jeannot as well. He's entitled to his own opinion," said Landry. "What I hear is people were happy with what I've done, how I brought investments from the government to projects they've been working on for quite a few years."
Denis Boulet is running for the Green Party and Cécile Richard-Hébert for the NDP.
Another familiar face
Next door, in the riding of Edmundston-Madawaska-Centre, Liberal candidate Jean-Claude D'Amours is trying to carve himself a spot on the political scene again.
After three terms, the former federal Liberal MP left politics in 2011, defeated by Conservative Bernard Valcourt.
The 45-year-old said he was always planning a comeback. The move from federal to provincial politics was in part to be closer to his family, he said.
"You can't imagine, I was waiting for that moment to go back on the campaign trail. It was a thrill," said D'Amours.
The Edmundston-Madawaska-Centre seat is up for grabs since longtime Progressive Conservative MLA Madeleine Dubé — the party's only elected member in francophone New Brunswick — announced she was leaving politics in February.
Dubé held on to the seat for the Conservatives for almost 20 years, but the 2014 vote was close.
It's imperative ... that a French candidate sit at the table. - Gérald Lévesque, Conservative candidate
The former minister of social development, health and education, among other portfolios, was the only PC francophone cabinet member.
"It's imperative in my view that a French candidate sit at the table — be it me, be it Kevin Haché or Robert Gauvin," said Edmundston lawyer and PC candidate Gérald Lévesque, who is running against D'Amours.
Running for the Green Party is Sophie Vaillancourt and Anne-Marie Comeau for the NDP.
Acute labour shortages
Whoever is elected in both ridings will have to attack the increasingly problematic issue of labour shortages in the region.
Like most of the north, the region is facing demographic struggles: an aging population coupled with young people who moved to southern New Brunswick or out of province.
Labour shortages aren't unique to Madawaska County. It's the "new reality" of the province, according to economist Pierre-Marcel Desjardins. But Desjardins said it is much more acute in Edmundston than elsewhere.
"That economy there has been doing well for a long time," said Desjardins, citing the strategic location close to U.S. and Quebec markets.
And it's not just factory jobs. There is a budding entrepreneurial scene, with some young people coming back to region in the past four years.
"The people are entrepreneurial, they roll out their sleeves and get to work," said . Thomas Raffy, president of the New Brunswick Economic Council. "They don't just own a single business. They own two, even three different businesses in that region."
No long-term strategy
André Morneault one of those entrepreneurs.
He works as a software engineer for a U.S. company but is also a director with the local microbrewery and has a startup business. He is a born and raised Edmundstonian and would like to see the economy grow.
He admitted, frankly, he's discouraged with all parties.
"Right now we're having a lot of labour shortages. And it's getting to a point where companies have stopped investing in the area," said Morneault.
"I'd like to see a clear long-term plan. I don't feel like there's a plan, there's a strategy, I feel like they're all winging it."
I feel like they're all winging it. - André Morneault, voter
Desjardins and Raffy agree none of the leaders addressed issues of labour shortages and immigration this election, still focused on messages around job creation instead.
"They're more interested in putting forth a message that they think the population wants to hear, not the message the population needs to hear," said Desjardins.
First Nation voters
Adding to the mix are the voters is the Madawaska Maliseet First Nation — a community home to multiple million-dollar businesses, including its casino, and one that's billed itself as one of the most prosperous in the province.
Traditionally, First Nations don't vote much in provincial elections, but this time, chiefs across New Brunswick urged people to head to the polls on Sept. 24.
Madawaska chief Patricia Bernard called her community to vote Liberal because she said they were the first party in New Brunswick to recognize the duty to consult First Nations about unceded lands.
"That's a big step in itself," said Bernard. "Historically, Aboriginal people don't necessarily feel that it's going to affect them. But it has a huge effect, particularly in our community. We want to see the continuity of our tax-agreement with the province."
Language, language, language
Though the economy is top of mind of business people like Morneault, language will be the top issue when he goes to cast his ballot.
He doesn't know which way he'll vote yet. In his opinion, all parties have failed on that front.
It's not pretty. - André Morneault, voter
"It's not pretty," said Morneault.
"We have the Liberals that are telling us they are the champions of francophone rights, but there's no record to support that in the last four years. And then you have the Conservatives, who decided to elect a leader who is not even bilingual and has a COR background, so that's not flying around here as well."
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