Lamont victory brings Grits in from the cold

Opinion

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This article was published 16/07/2018 (2257 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In his first official duty as the elected leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party — just moments after he won a byelection in St. Boniface — Dougald Lamont was forced to contend with a clutch of malfunctioning balloons which hung precariously above the lectern at which he was supposed to deliver his victory speech.

It’s a moment that could have derailed a lot of politicians. However, Lamont remained calm and cool, and with the assistance of a volunteer, snatched the balloons and removed them without incident or emotion. Just before he began speaking, there was a small sigh of relief.

In many ways, the balloon snafu was a wonderful metaphor for Lamont’s byelection win, and for his up-and-down political career.

From backroom political staffer to failed candidate, Lamont has toiled at the fringes of mainstream politics. With the byelection win, Lamont suddenly finds himself the leader of an official party in the Manitoba Legislature. And with the dysfunction that still seems to grip the NDP, Lamont is a political leader with a real chance to make some gains in the next provincial election.

As he readied for his first scrum with reporters as an MLA, Lamont stood at the lectern and looked out at the crowd with tears in his eyes. It was hardly surprising; Lamont could not have reached the pinnacle of his political career without a long, hard look at the political abyss.

It is not an exaggeration to say with his decision to contend the St. Boniface byelection, Lamont was putting not only his own political future at risk, but that of his party.

Yes, Lamont was a clear favourite going into this byelection. But the Grits have demonstrated a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

There was simply no way the provincial Liberal party could lose another winnable electoral battle without it pushing the party all the way over the cliff and into the political abyss. If Lamont went down Tuesday night, the awful reality was he was taking the party with him.

The stress that comes with high-stakes politics was clearly evident among the 100 or so people gathered at Lamont’s campaign headquarters, located in a ballroom at the Norwood Hotel. It wasn’t excitement or expectation; the mood was more fidgety nervous energy.

Longtime Liberal supporters and a cast of notable federal, provincial and municipal Liberal politicians rode a roller coaster of emotion as the results from Elections Manitoba were projected on a screen.

With each screen refresh, hoots and hollers erupted from the supporters every time the results showed a growing Lamont lead. When the NDP clawed back some of Lamont’s plurality, or the lead failed to grow in any appreciable fashion, the hoots were replaced by spotty, awkward applause.

Shortly after 9 p.m., with more than three quarters of polls reporting and Lamont in possession of a healthy plurality of nearly 600 votes, the race was called. With his win, Lamont has secured the first significant strategic political victory for his party in more than a quarter century.

It was 30 years ago this year — in the 1988 provincial election — former Liberal leader Sharon Carstairs surged to official party status with 20 seats and the promise of a new era of Manitoba politics. Lamentably, Carstairs’s triumph would last only two years. In 1990, she and her party were reduced to seven seats. In 1993, she resigned.

Following Carstairs, it was Paul Edwards, who lost an election in 1995 which pre-writ polls suggested he had every chance of winning.

Then Ginny Hasselfield, who took on the leadership after the 1995 election and resigned the year before the 1999 election.

Jon Gerrard deserves credit for maintaining a precarious toe-hold in the Manitoba Legislature, but through four elections he proved to be a dud with voters.

Finally, there was Rana Bokhari who, like Edwards, led her party into an election with real pre-writ promise only to stumble horribly on the campaign trail. When it was over, the Liberals had won two additional seats (for a total of three), but she failed to win her own seat and subsequently resigned.

In many ways, the Grits’ woeful record is difficult to figure out. Real opportunities to make significant gains in the legislature have presented themselves, but the provincial party has never been able to seize the moment. Largely, this is failure that must be laid at the feet of the Liberal Party of Canada’s provincial wing.

Manitoba federal Liberals have proven they can — when opportunity presents itself in the form of national political trends — make gains when there are gains to be made.

However, it has often appeared the best Liberal minds in Manitoba have been devoted to federal politics. Provincial elections seem somehow beneath the fundraisers, organizers and strategists that make the federal Grit machine hum.

For now, however, Lamont has helped put the provincial Liberals back on the political map. There will be many more tests awaiting him: his first question period in the fall; his first official news conference with legislative reporters. The rest of the summer will be an opportunity for Lamont to use his byelection win to raise money, amass support and — with a bit of luck — build an election machine with the potential to make real inroads.

The good news is Lamont will likely not have to contend again with unruly balloons until the 2020 election. And by that time, if he takes advantage of the opportunity presented to him by the political gods, he may have many more balloons to wrestle.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca