From the February 6, 1980 issue of the Smoky Lake Signal.
Election Stories
Liberal - Florence Rachansky
Why run for the Liberals? "Why not the Liberals?", said Vegreville Liberal Candidate Florence Rachansky. And no, she isn't running for MP to assure herself a senate seat, said Miss Rachansky in an interview with the Signal. The 41 year old ex-school teacher has been in insurance, real estate sales and writing free lance for the two Vegreville papers for the last five years. Being Liberal has been almost a family tradition, said Miss Rachansky, when she joined the party in 1975.
Miss Rachansky feels the Liberals have given the country all the good social policies that have come into being in the last 20 years. The Liberals also have a better understanding of the ethnic problems, said Miss Rachansky. There has been a tradition among the early settlers of confidence in the Liberal government.
The Conservatives are associated with big money and the Liberals more with a middle of the road party, said the candidates for Vegreville.
The minorities, small interest groups and farmers are Miss Rachansky's interest. Her views on the Crow Rates are similar, she said, to the NFU policy. "The crow rate should be retained. I also don't agree with what Otto Lang was doing when he bought for the railway the thousands of rail cars through the Wheat Board."
Miss Rachansky has no qualms about supporting Pierre. He's a very good figure to have especially for international conditions, especially with things as touchy as they are getting at this point, said Miss Rachansky. "He has leadership potential that is difficult to find these days." With luck Pierre may end up out west but not likely in the Vegreville constituency, said Miss Rachansky, who hopes to get into Edmonton to see him personally.
The high interest rates, the problems of grain transportation are the biggest things in this election that the west has to worry about said the Vegreville Liberal. Don Mazankowsky has tried his best but many of the people he's had doing studies, Hugh Horner, for instance, have made their stands known on various policies even before they've been appointed. "We've got to get away from appointing people to do studies for us, when we already know their bias. Mind you, the Liberals have often enough done the same thing," said Miss Rachansky.
Miss Rachansky has promised to attend the Open Forum in Smoky Lake's Complex on February 11 at 7:30 p.m.
NDP - Henry Mendelbaum
The NDP Candidate for the Vegreville Constitudency is a 33 year old self-employed research consultant. Henry Mendelbaum has worked in the NDP party for 13 years. He comes from a conservative but very politically active family. The many over the dinner table discussions of politics led to a feeling in Henry Mendelbaum that the economy was much to complex to be run on a Laissez-Faire Basis. "There has to be some government involvement in the economy," said Mr. Mendelbaum.
"Society as a whole also has an obligation to all the members," says the NDP Candidate, that is what differentiates me from the liberal. I believe in the universality of a lot of social programs rather than some programs just being applied to a small group.
It's a strange campaign, said Mr. Mendelbaum. The Liberal party is all of a sudden reformed after 8 months in opposition and has learned its lesson. Now it wants its right to govern returned.
Then we have the Conservative party who have nearly broken every campaign promise it made, other than one (the home owner mortgage) and then campaigns on the basis that everyoen should trust them.
The specific Canadian problem in this campaign, as Henry Mendelbaum sees it, include the exceptionally high interest rates that are based on a policy that has never been substantiated.
What's happening, says Mr. Mendelbaum, is that high interest rates are collapsing Canadian industries. Small business are beginning to suffer because people can't afford to buy right now. That means lower level of production for big industries. Farmers who have to look at $60,000 combines with 16 interest rates are finding the costs prohibitive. They should be helped.
The NDP feel that the prime interest rates should be dropped to 12% immediately.
The role of Petro Canada should be expanded, said the NDP Candidate. That would keep the oil profits in Canada. "Why increase oil prices or offer subsidization to the giant multinationals when it just increased the outflow of Canadian capital?"
Don Mazankowsky is and isn't doing a good job, according to NDPer Henry Mendelbaum. He's doing a good local MP job and the people feel he's doing a good job, but he's a member of the Conservative cabinet and as such is responsible for the Conservative policies. If you like the Conservative policies, vote Mazankowsky. If you don't like those policies, voting for Mazankowsky as a man won't get rid of those policies, said Mr. Mendelbaum.
Rhino - Carl Hohol
Carl Hohol, candidate for the Rhinoceros party in the Constituency of Vegreville, ran because the block of wood that the local group nominated at the meeting in the Vegreville bar, couldn't take the heat.
The party is a satirical party formed in 1961 in Quebec to poke fun at the political system. The goal of the Rhino's is to show the farcical nature of a politicians quest for power. This year the Quebec joke has grown to national lampoon. There are 80 - 100 candidates running for the Rhino's, said Rhino candidate Hohol. (The other famous Hohol is his uncle Bert. Bert's not at all displeased with his nephew's taking an interest in politics. "He's a funny guy - should do a good job representing the Rhino's" said Bert.)
With 75 people signing the nomination papers and another bunch chucking in the $200 nomination fee, Carl soon found himself running, almost by accident.
It's becoming a little hectic for the new unemployed advertising salesman. The Edmonton Journal has phoned for an interview, the Meridian Booster produced a full page on the nomination meeting, all five posters had to be hung. In the last election the Rhino's won 63,000 votes and in two Quebec ridings beat out two conservative candidates. They have this election fielded enough candidates to earn 5 minutes of free time political broadcasts.
There are more Rhino's running than Social Credit candidates, said Carl.
Don Mazankowski is a fine man and a great Canadian and that's all I'll say about him, said Carl. Trudeau, no comment. I don't expect any votes in this election, said Carl, the Rhino's are just a tool, to get the message across. The message is bull.
Carl has been living for 8 or 9 years in Edmonton, selling advertising for CFRN. He's no moved back to the Vegreville region where he is contemplating opening up a book store as soon as the hustle and bustle of the campaign is over.
Conservative - Don Mazankowski
The signal has not been able to interview Don Mazankowski. According to his office the earliest he will be back to the Vegreville constituency is February 14, but even that could change, said his secretary, he might not reach the Smoky Lake area at all. As a Cabinet Minister and in Clark's government he's campaigning across Canada not just throughout the Vegreville Constituency.
As far as Don Mazankowski's achievements in the 6 months that he has been Minister of Transportation and the Minister Responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board, they form a lengthy list.
He has worked with the provinces to acquire 5400 new hopper cars for the railroads. He's worked out a rehabilitation scheme with the railroads that will get another 2000 box cars back into shape. With a push from the Department of Transportation the railroads have committed themselves to buying 135 new locomotives and repairing some of their lines.
To co-ordinate the movement of grain Don Mazankowski appointed Dr. Hugh Horner. To speed the export of grain he's worked out an agreement with the giant grain companies to get a major grain terminal built at Prince Rupert. His department has worked out an agreement between the railways so both companies could use the rail line to the port.
If the Conservatives form a government again the budget will include a once in a life time deferral for farmers of $200,000 worth of capital gains. Lloydminister will get a heavy oil plant. The Mortgage Interest Tax deductions will provide up to 25% tax credit on the interest payments for a home mortgage. The Conservatives haven't exactly spelled out how they will deal with metric. They have said they would postpone the implementation of the metric conversion of the retail food industry for a year if elected and study the rest of the metric changes because of a "deep public concern that most Canadians are unprepared to use an entirely different and unfamiliar system in their everyday lives."
Petro Canada will be given to individual Canadians. Five shares each will go to anyone over 18 as of July 1980. Others will get them when they reach 18. Another 20% of the shares will be sold to individual Canadians and 30% will remain government owned.
If the Clark government gets in, taxpayers who employ spouses will be able to deduct their salaries whether they are incorporated or not from their deductible income.
The Crosbie budget that defeated the government would be reintroduced to decrease the Canadian deficit. It was described as a budget that was "tough, but reasonable and realistic if this country is going to try to pay for the many years of over-spending and waste."
Social Credit - Alex Gordey
Alex Gordey, a retired Vegreville teacher is the Social Credit Candidate.
Born in Spedden, he served in the Canadian armed forces, during the Second World War, served on the Vegreville town council and from 1959 - 1971 was elected to serve the Alberta Legislature as the Vegreville MLA.
Now retired Mr. Gordey was asked to run because of his experience. "People want an expression from somebody that could tell the other side of the story," said Mr. Gordey. "They want ideas instead of slinging mud at each other. The Social Credit government has ideas that will work."
The main issue in this campaign is the skyrocketing inflation, the high interest rates and defense, said Mr. Gordey. Canada is a big and wealthy country, yet it is the weakest of all countries to compared to our European allies.
The present leaders aren't statesman, said Mr. Gordey. They are party mouthpieces. They aren't leaders. A social credit government would take the control of issuing money instead of the banks. Now the Canadian government borrows money to get out of debt. As a Social Credit government they could provide the money with just the cost of printing and administration. They could print their own, under control, of course, and avoid paying interest.
We must remember back in 1935 the Alberta government was bankrupt, said Mr. Gordey. 51 cents out of every tax dollar was spent paying back interest. The banks wouldn't even cash civil servants pay cheques. By applying Social Credit policies slowly we pulled the province out of debt and by 1947 oil discovery had the province in fairly good shape. When the P.C.'s took over the house had money in the bank. With OPEC upping the price of oil three times, the millions just poured in from them.
Don Mazankowsky is a fine fellow, friendly, one of the active ones, said Mr. Gordey. I'm not running against Don, said the Social Credit Candidate, but against the old line parties. There just isn't any difference between the Conservatives and the Liberals. They spend their time fighting for power, not injecting the ideas into the government. The NDP aren't the answer. Socialism ruined England. It makes a beautiful window dressing but just see what's happened to Saskatchewan. Over the last 20 years of NDP has scared away 1/3 of the provinces population.
According to Alex Gordey - Social Credit is the answer.
Communist - Bill Tuomi
Bill Tuomi is the Communist Candidate in the Vegreville constituency. Since 1921 the party has been part of the Canada scene and since 1932, Bill Tuomi has been part of it.
In this Election Campaign the Communists are very much concerned about Canada's foreign policy, said Mr. Tuomi in an interview with the Signal. In the last few weeks beating the war drums over Afghanistan, is a horrible mistake. Canada should return to the policy of detente. "I don't believe the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan," said Bill Tuomi. "Afghanistan itself asked the Soviet Union to come in under the terms of a treaty they both signed."
There are no organizational ties between the Soviets and the Canadian Communists, explained Mr. Tuomi, only a feeling of solidarity. The Canadian Communists have discussions with the Russians but follow "our own programs."
The local communists feel that the seven months of the Clark government have been a terrible mistake, 'Canada can't afford a government like that."
Canadian for instance, would pay at the gas pumps for the Conservative energy policy and the money would go to the foreign owned oil companies. The money should be used, says the communist candidate for Canadian development. There should be a provincial Federal crown Corporation that handles the question of oil and natural gas. It would take the bitterness between Ottawa and Edmonton out of the public hustling and make it an intergovernmental affair.
The new crown corp would be all inclusive if the communist party had its way. Plans for exploration, development, pricing and exporting would be controlled to allow energy to be used to industrialize the country.
The Canadian Constitution should also be rewritten, to bring it up to date. Get rid of the BNA Act, said Mr. Tuomi, decided now to set up French Canada as a separate nation inside Canada. There are many multinational states in the world - Switzerland, Belgium - for example, why not Canada and Quebec?
The horrible poverty in areas of Canada have to be solved, said Mr. Tuomi. The average Canadian has to have some breaks. The national income has to be redistributed.
Not everything in the economy would be nationalized by a Communist government, said Mr. Tuomi. Finance should be taken out of the hands of the banks and mortgage companies. Then energy and transportation. First we would work towards the establishment of a socialist state and beyond socialism, a communist state.
That means complete public control of all sectors of production. "Taking it out of private hands completely," said Mr. Tuomi.
In the 30's when Bill Tuomi joined the Communists, the economic system had broken down. A lot of people looked to the Communists as a way out. Today there are even more people looking, said Mr. Tuomi.
From the February 13, 1980 issue of the Smoky Lake Signal. Front page.
Smoky lake Holds Federal Forum
Over 250 politically minded people filled the Smoky Lake Complex to attend the first and possibly the only federal political forum to be held in the Vegreville Constituency. Somehow after spending two and a half hours taking notes and listening to the answers I can see why.
Although billed as an opportunity to learn local and federal issues in order to help make an educated choice, it never turned out that way. The number one front runner in the constituency has long been Don Mazankowski, who did not attend. The night boiled down into choosing the best for second, third and fourth and fifth positions.
Instead of campaigning in Vegreville Don Mazankowski was on the hustling in Winnipeg, getting ready to attend the Canadian Federation of Agricultural Convention. Senator Martha Bielish spoke to the crowd in Smoky Lake on his behalf. The NDP Candidate sent a "My mother is grievously ill in Manitoba and I had to be at her side message" but a call from the Signal to his Edmonton residence after the meeting found him at home in bed, but gladly ready for an interview. The Signal declined.
Senator Martha Bielish did well in a hard position. Tongue tied from having spent the earlier part of the day at the dentists, she nevertheless agreed for the sake of the party to take the hot seat for Don, but answering for the combined Minister of Transport and the Wheat Board to a predominantly farm audience wasn't easy.
Before being cut off by the 5 minute limit Martha spoke of Don's excellent reputation, his honesty and integrity and his service to the constituency.
She reminded the audience that as Minister of Transportation and Minister in charge of the Wheat Board, he has to spend his time serving the rest of Canada as well as the Vegreville Constituency. He has, said Mrs. Bielish, "sold grain in Poland and Brazil, worked to establish the terminal at Prince Rupert and extended the shipping season at Churchill."
Speaking next for the Rhino's Carl Hohol defended his party from the accusation that they are taking advantage of the political system. Mr. Hohol stressed that the same system produced an unnecessary winter election, and therefore deserved ridicule.
Social Credit Candidate Alex Gordey spoke of the need for candidates to stand up and speak the truth. "We must not side step issues and act like the three leaders of the three main parties. They are like three clowns in the centre of a political circus," said Mr. Gordey, "slinging and insulting each other - anything but dealing with issues."
From the same issue of the Signal as above, but on page three.
Mazankowski - On The Campaign Trail
Don Mazankowski campaigned in the province of Ontario the week of February 3. This is the third province the Minister of Transport and the Minister Responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board has travelled in since the call of the election, being in Saskatchewan and British Columbia two weeks before. Mr. Mazankowski is the Progressive Conservative candidate in the electoral district of Vegreville where he had represented his constituents for the last 12 years.
During a high school question and answer session in Geralton Mr. Mazankowski said that the Trudeau government policies have left Canada with a decade of deficits. He told the students the Trudeau policies risked your future tomorrow but it also threatens your security today. It means now costs every man, every woman, every child in Canada $365.00 a year simply to pay the interest charges on the national debt of Canada.
In Sault. Ste. Marie the Minister spoke on energy policy. He told the supporters the Trudeau policy of paying out billions of dollars every year to buy foreign oil must be stopped. Last year Canada imported 60 million barrels at a cost of 1.8 billion dollars in oil import subsidy. These oil dollars mean jobs in the Middle East and in South America, not in Canada. The Minister said that Ontario would benefit from the Progressive Conservative policy on energy self-sufficiency. In the next 10 years under a Progressive Conservative government more than 100 billion dollars will be spent on Canadian energy developments, and finding and extracting new supplies and on building distribution systems to bring the supplies to people and the industry. More over Canadian oil prices will not rise above 85% of the American price which will give us a 15% competitive edge for Canadian industry, a crucial factor in the industrial heartland of Ontario.
In the towns of Kenora and Dryden the Minister was commended for quickly implementing his election pledge of establishing a public inquiry into air safety. For several years it was here in northern Ontario where residents and pilots first called for a hearing into air safety. Their requests were completely ignored by the Liberal government.
In Thunder Bay the Minister toured the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool grain elevator where he also met and talked with employees as they came off their working shifts.
With the disclosure by American press reports of the now famous Canadian caper in which the Canadian Embassy in Iran was instrumental in returning six embassy officials to the United States and the national anxiety of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Mr. Mazankowski was questioned in Timmons, Kirkland Lake and Iroquois Falls on the Progressive Conservative policy on International Relations and National Defense. The Minister said Canada supported the United States' position on the Afghanistan situation. The Prime Minister announced the boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow if Soviet troops were not withdrawn from Afghanistan by February 30. Trudeau first objected to mixing politics and sports, then he switched and said we shouldn't lead the western nations in protest, we should just follow what the others do first. Mr. Mazankowski said now there are almost 40 national committed to a boycott of the Olympics and more joining every day.
On the subject of national defense Mr. Mazankowski said, under Trudeau, Canada's commitment to NATO was cut in half and our armed forces cut back from 100,000 to 78,000. And the NDP's only proposal was to have a white paper on the subject. The PC government has started a complete review of defense policy. We are already committed to a 3% increase in defense spending. We have embarked on a long delayed re-equipment program and are committed to increasing our troops strength.
For the final week before the election ends, Mr. Mazankowski will be in Manitoba. Just before he entered the province the Winnipeg Free Press, for the first time in 60 years, gave its editorial support to the Progressive Conservative government, stating that the Tories deserve a chance.
From the same issue, directly below the previous article:
Liberal Energy Policy
Canada must set its own energy prices geared to Canadian requirements and the prices must distinguish between the different categories of oil.
1. oil from conventional sources.
2. oil from unconventional sources.
3. oil imports.
Replacement costs of conventional oil have been determined. If it costs only $8 to produce a barrel of conventional oil, selling it at the $30 world price would result in windfall profits. Conventional wells supply 70% of the oil currently used.
As conventional oil is depleted, we will have to replace it with oil from unconventional sources. In these cases we will build on the syncrude precedent.
A Liberal government would continue to subsidize the import component of the "Made in Canada" price.
The Petroleum Pricing and Auditing Agency will be established to investigate and report on industry costs, profits, and operations.
The new pricing system should be in place by July 1, 1980.
OTHER ENERGY RELATED POLICY
1. Achieve energy security through the accelerated development of Canada's domestic potential and the ensuring of Canada's off-shore supply. Security of supply is our goal and Petro-Canada will be the tool.
2. Develop a more balanced energy program through the replacement of oil by natural gas and other energy forms. A pipeline with reversible capacity will be built to Quebec City and the Maritimes so they will have the opportunity to both use western natural gas and to send off-shore gas to central Canada later.
3. Strengthen and expand Petro-Canada as an instrument of national policy.
4. Place a new emphasis on conservation and the promotion of energy alternatives. A subsidiary of Petro-Canada will be created. This new crown corporation will assume all existing and planned federal activities relating to the research and development of wind, and other energy forms.
From the February 20, 1980 issue of the Smoky Lake Signal.
Don Mazankowski Wins by a Landslide
As of 9:30 a.m. - Feburary 19, 1980 - in the Vegreville Riding the count was:
Alex Gordey, Social Credit... 604.
Karl Hohol, Rhino... 361
Henry Mendelbaum, N.D.P. ...3203
Don Mazankowski, P.C. ... 25,683
Florence Rachansky, Liberal... 4,372
Bill Tuomi, Communist... 170
Nationally - It's a Disaster
Joe Clark's Conservative minority government which had 136 seats in May 1979 was reduced to 103 seats. The Liberals under Pierre Trudeau, who in May 1979 had 114 members - have a majority government with 146 members.
The NDP gained from 26 seats to 32. The Social Credit lost all 6 ridings they held in May.
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