Riding Profile: Fort McMurray - Athabasca

Trish Audette, October 11, 2008, Edmonton Journal
Total population:
100,815

MEDIAN household income:
$91,183

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
5.5%

Top three occupations:
1. trades, transport and equipment operators
2. sales and service
3. business, finance and administration

Family
Married 47%, single 40%, divorced 7%, separated 3%, widowed 3%

2006 Election
Conservative 20,400 (64.7%)
Liberal 4,663 (14.8%)
NDP 4,602 (14.6%)
Green 1,547 (4.9%)
First Peoples National Party 337 (1.1%)

EDMONTON - The next time Jack Layton wants to talk about the oilsands, Fort McMurray's current MP says he is more than welcome to join him on the ground.

Brian Jean, a Conservative who says he prefers time in the bush and forests outside Fort McMurray to Ottawa's urban landscape, would love to give the NDP leader a tour.

"We are the people that breathe the air, we're the people that drink the water," Jean says.

He wasn't impressed with Layton's flyover at the start of the election campaign, when the NDP boss suggested a pause that would put new oilsands projects on hold pending evaluation of the industry's long-term environmental impact.

Layton did not touch down in Fort McMurray, but continued north to Fort Smith, N.W.T.

Jean wants to know why the former Toronto city councillor doesn't level similar stop-work orders at big cities where, he says, urban sprawl also has a long-term impact on the environment.

Mark Voyageur, the man charged with carrying the NDP banner for Fort McMurray-Athabasca, has to admit his leader's words didn't make his own on-the-ground campaign any easier.

"Everybody's screaming, 'The sky is falling' with the economy, and suddenly Jack Layton and the NDP want to shut down the oilsands," he says, describing local reaction to the flyby.

But, the oilsands worker and union member says, that's a total misreading of the NDP's actual platform.

"Everybody figures that the NDP wants to stop the oilsands. (But) we want to slow down approvals," he says. "We really want to see things just slow down a bit, take a realistic look. The last thing we want to do is see everybody lose their jobs."

The riding of Fort McMurray-Athabasca encompasses a huge swath of land, roughly one quarter of the province.

It includes more than 10 First Nations reserves, Wood Buffalo National Park, and three of Alberta's biggest bodies of water -- Lesser Slave Lake, Lake Athabasca and Lake Claire.

As big as the riding is, however, the City of Fort McMurray is its engine and its focus. Jean, for example, is quick to highlight the lack of infrastructure in place for people at the forefront of Alberta's oil boom as a key issue in this election campaign.

"We have a lot of needs," he says. "We've grown eight to 10 per cent in Fort McMurray, year over year ... and that doesn't include all the people in the camps."

The city is also battling crime, the incumbent MP says, and everyone wants to talk about the economy as world markets quake.

Area dyed Tory blue

The riding hasn't swayed from the Conservatives -- or Reform or Canadian Alliance -- since 1957.

In 2006, Jean clobbered his Liberal opponent by nearly 20,000 votes. Two years earlier, as a rookie, he had a 10,000-vote margin of victory.

The closest the Liberals came to success in the riding was in 1968, at the height of Trudeaumania. Ironically, then came Trudeau's National Energy Program, which left the Grits in third place in the '80s and put NDP candidates in second place during two consecutive elections.

John Webb, a Fort McMurray-based criminal lawyer, self-professed Trudeau devotee and the riding's Liberal candidate, still hears about the energy program.

"I know privately people might think it's a stupid thing (to run as a Liberal) because it's such a conservative place," he says.

But he is hoping his appeal to aboriginals, immigrants and people in the smaller, largely ignored towns, will make for victory.

In a riding where less than half the population bothered to vote in the last two elections, it may be an "uphill struggle," he says, but it's worth a try.

He is rarely asked about Stephane Dion's Green Shift.

"I think the base idea is sound. You should tax carbons," he says. But "I think the general public has no adequate understanding of how they get (money) back ... . It's hard to understand and people are not certain whether it's fair."

On the oilsands, Webb envisions an approach involving all levels of government -- and First Nations -- geared towards developing cleaner practices and putting a stop to "producing dirty oil."

"I think you can force expansion to be innovative. Force new development to be greener."

Candidates for the big three political parties are not alone in the hustings, however.

Dylan Richards is running for the Green party, and farmer Jacob Strydhorst is running for the Christian Heritage party. Independent Shawn Reimer, 18, is by far the youngest candidate vying to go to Ottawa.

One of just six First Peoples National Party of Canada candidates is running a second time in Fort McMurray. In 2006, John Malcolm won 437 votes and was the most successful member of the fledgling party's slate.

QUESTIONS TO THE CANDIDATES
Brian Jean, 45
Conservative
- What is the greatest misconception people outside of your riding have of the oilsands?
"That we are not environmentally conscious. People think that we're some polluting nightmare, and we're not."

Shawn Reimer, 18
Independent
- What are some of the top issues you are focusing on?
"The big thing I'm focusing on is voter turnout as my top issue. For this riding, it's the environment and the effect on the economy. We are the oilsands, this is our riding ... . (Stephen) Harper, Elizabeth May and (Stephane) Dion talk about it all the time. But we're the riding where it matters most, I feel."

Jacob Strydhorst, 64
Christian Heritage Party
- How does the environment fit in your party's platform?
"We believe that we have to protect the environment. We believe that we have to invest money in research and development. We can't wholly rely on oil and coal ... . I think we're called to be stewards of all creation."

Mark Voyageur, 40
NDP
- Did Jack Layton's call to slow down development of the oilsands help or hinder your campaign on the ground?
"It kind of made things more difficult. But it's not a detriment. It brought (the issue) to the forefront."

John Webb, 66
Liberal
- Is the Green Shift a good sell to people in Fort McMurray-Athabasca?
"I don't think so, no. I try and go to the kind of immediate, finite pollution problems in the river and in the ground, rather than (discussing) another taxing level."

John Malcolm, 46
First Peoples National Party
- What has been your biggest challenge of the campaign?
"We're a new party (which) makes it difficult to convince people we're a party to vote for.... (But) hopefully the future is bright. Last election we had four candidates, this election we have six. Democracy is a system that can work if we get ourselves involved."

Dylan Richards, 29
Green
- From his website:
"Dylan hopes to provide an option for voters looking for a platform that focuses on environmental sustainability, social justice, and participatory democracy."