How Deborah Grey became the first member of the Reform Party elected to Parliament
Enter the wayback machine and set the controls for November 1988. Canada was having an election. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, made the election about the Canada USA free trade agreement. The message was, if the Progressive Conservatives did not win, Canada was doomed.
In the newly created Alberta riding of Beaver River there was no incumbent. The riding consisted of the area surrounding Bonnyville, Saint Paul, Cold Lake, and Lac La Biche, created in 1987 from Athabasca, Pembina and Vegreville.
It was safe to assume that whoever the PC's nominated as their candidate would win. The three ridings Beaver River was carved out of elected Progressive Conservative MPs in the previous election. The nomination meeting was held shortly before the election behind closed doors, no one other than those inside knew how or why candidate John Dahmer was picked.
The Liberals and NDP entered candidates, as did the Confederation of Regions party, and Deborah Grey, candidate for the recently formed Reform Party.
A lackluster campaign ensued, with everyone, including Dahmer phoning it in, except for Deborah Grey. I was living in Bonnyville at the time and had attended an all candidates debate there. I came away thinking I don't want to vote for any of these clowns with the exception of Deborah Grey, even though I would have preferred to vote Liberal or NDP. When I vote, I put what the elected candidate says about me and my neighbours over party affiliation. I voted for Grey.
The election results were as expected, Dahmer won. But days after the election it was announced that Dahmer was terminally ill with pancreatic cancer. Dahmer died November 26, five days after the election, before he could be sworn in as MP. The Wikipedia article on Dahmer says that knowledge of Dahmers illness occurred after the nomination and that it was no longer possible to replace him before the election. Whatever, he did know he would probably die nearly a month before the election. Should he have withdrawn? It is an interesting ethical dilemma, what I can say is, I and many others in the riding felt that he should have at least informed the voters that he was critically ill.
When the byelection was held the following March, the Progressive Conservatives had their parliamentary majority. There was no need to elect a PC to save Canada from disaster. John Dahmer's wife tried to the get the nomination, but failed, the Liberals and NDP fielded new candidates. Dave Broda the PC candidate, also nominated behind closed doors, failed to impress. Reform party's Deborah Grey, the only candidate that deserved to win, won the byelection, becoming the first ever Reform Party MP in Canada. I voted for her as before, for the same reason, she was the only candidate who deserved to win. As for small c conservative voters, Reform represented a conservative alternative to the Mulroney government.
1988 was the last time the federal Progressive Conservatives would win a majority. By 1990 Albertans were calling the Prime Minister 'Lyin Brian'. Whether or not free trade with the USA was a good idea would be a future Canada issue, but Mulroney's GST (Goods and Services Tax) was wildly unpopular in Alberta, which up to that time had no sales tax. Another Alberta issue was, as always, western alienation, the feeling that Western Canada was always getting screwed by Central Candada, ie Ottawa, and resentment over the special privileges given to Quebec. Mulroney resigned as Prime Minister after failing to implement the Meech Lake Accord, but that is another story.
The moral of this story is be very careful about assuming you can win a byelection in Alberta just because your party's name is conservative.
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