4 . on . . . wo a “ . . , a, 2 . ° : . enc ny 7 “ . ' ° . : ao ay : ‘ wo, aw at . . iy . : 4 3 o . at . Second term landslide victory bodes well for political future a IN 2004 it it was the coastal communities of Kitimat "and especially: Prince Rupert that sent rookie » Nathan Cullen to Ottawa as the Skeena - Bulkley * '~ -Valley NDP Member of Parliament. 0 This time Terrace and | - Smithers jumped. ‘aboard what became a Cullen juggernaut, leaving Thornhill as the only holdout at this end of the “riding which runs from the Charlottes to Fort St... James. ; As voting night Jan, 23 came to an end, cue ‘len came tantalizing close to 50 per cent of the voter turnout, stopping, at 48.5 per cent or 18,596 votes. ‘Conservative Mike Scott, attempting a politi- cal return after stepping down as Skeena’s MP in 2000, was Cullen’s closest rival at 12,630 votes. - Liberal Gordon Stamp- -Vincent placed an also- ran third‘at 4,845 votes while Rod Taylor of the Christian Heritage Party received 1,243 votes and -Green Phil Brienesse collected 1,066 votes. And here are some unofficial numbers giving a. clear indication as to trends. * Note: The most important numbers pertain to voter turnout. This time 38,380 people or 64.1 per cent of registered voters turned out, a'jump from the 37,039 or 59.98 per cent tumout in June 2004. Kitimat - Cullen HOLD Having finished more than 700 clear of Con- _ ” servative incumbent ‘Andy. Burton in 2004, Cullen increased the gap to 850 this time despite the fact this time- Conservative Miked Scott: polled just _ By MALCOLM BAXTER THE . Conservatives — and their previous Reform/Alliance - ning things, there was no urgency,” he pointed out. And Cullen agreed with his Skee- poms -under 100 more than Burton. - oo The Liberal vote continued to spiral down-- wards, falling to 300. with defectors going 2: 1 to Cullen. Tt should be no surprise e that Kitimat is where _ provincial Skeena Liberal MLA Roger Harris lost ‘the May 2005 provincial election to NDPer Robin oe Austin. - Terrace - Cullen GAIN . Again Scott increased the 2004 Conservative number - by about 150 - but lost the city by nearly — 300 as Cullen’s vote increased one third to 2, 100. Here as well the Liberal vote plunged - to un- der 600 - but its losses were less than the gains by the other two, indicating Terrace saw a a sharp increase. in. voter turnout. Provincially, Terrace stayed with its tiadition- ally conservative personality by choosing, Harris over Austin.. . Thornhill — Scott HOLD: Scott gained about 120 votes to tally just over - 900, but only just held off Cullen whose vote went up 250 to 850, Same story again for the Liberals, down 120 to 245, Prince Rupert - Cullen HOLD Cullen again doubled the Conservative vote - 2,430 to 1,160 , but both he and Scott made similar gains as the Liberal vote fell nearly 400 to 620. Smithers — Cullen GAIN | The only centre. where Scott failed to match | 2004 (down 76) while Cullen came uP another © “absolutely”. uM Tee AP ose ka ‘SECOND TERM MP Nathan Cullen and his wife Diana are all smiles about his second Straight win. ) irst Nations relations critical Emphasizing investors are not _The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - AS TARA HOGETERP, above, sports a shirt made by NDP - supporters in the riding. Below, Cullen gets ¢ a hug from — _ Scott Lovell, a buddy from Toronto. | a —— pages © 230-for.a 1 259-1, 170 (O margin. The Libs slipped 140 to just 340. To no. surprise, Cullen did well in, the native " communitiés. compared to Scott. ‘The return- ing NDP MP handily’ won: in: ’Kitselas and at” ' Kitsumkalum. nw “Cullen’s second term victory’ of 48. 51 per cent | "of the popular: vote continues to match the career of former Skeena NDP MP Jim Fulton. "> |." ‘Fulton, an acknowledged mentor of Cullen, — won his first election in 1979 with 37. per cent of. the vote, ‘following that a year later with a second. - term win of 49.5 per cent of the vote. Ironically, Fulton’s 1979 first-time win also. featured a miniority government in Ottawa, just ; _ as was the. case with Cullen’s 2004 win. | *,, ‘Fulton was unstoppable i in the 1984 and 1988”. ‘elections with 45.18' per’ ‘cent and 52. 6 per cent © victories respectively. He retired in 1993, leading the way ‘for Mike Scott’s first victory as a Reform MP that election with 38.7 per cent of the vote. Scott won again in 1997 with 42.4 per cent before leaving politics © himself in 2000. Cullen’s numbers have people predicting he may be able to represent Skeena for several elections yet. Like Fulton, Cullen has been able to cross party boundaries, drawing votes from people who. | regard him as the person they best feel speaks for’ the northwest.and for themselves. . - With files from The Northern: Sentinel, Kiti- mat, “have an economy”. Like the First Nations, he would. -be watching very closely to see who. ” among the Conservatives. got the In-_ JIM WESTERMAN: from Terrace gives ‘the. thumbs: up on election night. » - MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO ; oe ‘incarnations -- haven’t got a very good record in terms of First Nations. policy,. says re-elected _Skeena- ’ Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen. “T think they’ ve got a bit of his- tory they’re going to struggle with,” he said the day after the federal elec- tion. However, he also.sees the change - na-Bulkley Valley opponent Mike | Scott that an industry had been cre- ated around treaties that, if left to its own devices with no time lines, ‘could drag the process out for de- cades. “T’ve always | been an’ advocate for-time lines.” If the Conservatives were to initi- going to come here unless they can feel certainty, he added, “I don’t know how you do that without the - land question being solved.” Cullen offered the example of B.C. premier Gordon Campbell who had opened his term in office by in- ‘sulting First Nations with a referen-? dum but had since reversed direction ‘dian and-Northern Affairs portfolio. "trouble on the treaty front and. hurt Cullen said if Harper appoints a “right wing ideologue” it will spell the northwest. ; ‘Whoever . was named, ‘Cullen said he will push the new minister to establish a relationship with First CONSERVATIVE candidate Mike Scott takes a call as, of government as an opportunity. “The way the Liberals were run- ate treaty talks and give the federal negotiators a mandate to make deals, Stamp-Vincent seeks, to rebuild Liberal support — starts now. “We're going to start towards rebuilding the riding and put together an organization that will truly reach around this riding in all areas,” he said on election other minority government has been formed. Achieving a little more than 12 per cent of the vote in the riding, Stamp-Vincent is not deterred by the re- . sult... “Tm not disappointed at all,” he said. “I-knew going in that the scale of the miracle that would be required to win was huge,” Stamp-Vincent said..“We stuck to our message and ran a positive campaign, stuck to the issues and ran on principles. I'll take that as a campaign well run and take that home and treasure it.” Running in this election gave Stamp-Vincent a whole ~ because investors had told him that ' without. that certainty, “you don’t - trust.” GORDON STAMP- VINCENT says work to rebuild’ the Liberal party in the ‘Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding night, adding rebuilding the party is critical given an- Rod Taylor Green candidate unsure about. running again ALTHOUGH HE didn’t receive the increase of votes he hoped for, Phil Brienesse is still pleased with the Green Party’s election showing. “T am very happy with the results. J am happy with the campaign I ran and I am very happy with VOTERS | ‘FAILED to ’ Christian’ Heritage -with the numbers Teadat Te Rod Taylor expected and he wasn’t satisfied. with the results. moe would get a higher ground,” he ‘said. “Disappointed that so many people ~ has so many bad policies.” — - - The CHP lost some ground, drop- ping to 3.2 per cent from 3.8 per cent of the votes in the last election Nations because, . “It’s all based on . _uPport the (CHP) “I am disappointed we didn’t get a higher percentage. I fully expected we _have supported a party (the NDP) that “Towards the end of the election [there were polls] that said they. were predicting a Conserva-.. tive majority government. That certainly hurt us.. People then switched to the NDP,” he said... He thinks strategic voting played a-role in the ta Taylor not happy with election results “We knew that throughout the cam- ; paign we had voters coming to us from: Liberal and NDP traditional-voting _ patterns so that’s why it was a real dis- _ appointment to find our numbers: had “ not climbed substantially,” he Said. But he believes he fought the good . . fight to the best of his ability. | “I’m satisfied that we did what we.” ‘ ognize the importance of holding on to traditional moral values that have been. - eroding, so we believe there will be a ‘renewed interest in the things we’ Te ane: about,” ” "he said. “could. J don’t: know ‘what more we ‘could’ve done here,” he. said. “We followed our plan but I’m very disap-: pointed. that many voters did not un-— derstand. our Message \ or did not choose = family values, . sanctity of life; mar. “dian life. og . One solution to strategic’ voting would be’ ‘elec ; toral reform and. that doesn’t: necessarily mean the | Single’ Transferrable. Vote’ (STV), but a “mixed © number proportional representation,” he said. ‘ Brienesse isn’t sure whether he’ll run again. poll results start coming in to his Terrace campaign of- - ‘ ‘fice on election night. SARAH) A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO uw the values that we put forward. a! He still believes that the message as riage; justice — are’ essential to Cana- ” He’s prepare : ared to re remain’ in ‘the role. ‘of CHP candidate in the next election. ce “I firmly believe there will come a ‘time when Canadian citizens ‘will Tec- new outlook on the responsibilities of elected officials. _ “It’s really humbling — I think humbling’s the right word — to talk to people on the doorstep, talk to com- munity leaders, talk with First Nations and realize they are looking to you to help them...to take their issues forward. my volunteers and the support I had,” he said. “Tei it wasn’t me I am glad it was Nathan [Cul len]. It’s clear from the results that NDP incumbent . MP Cullen and Liberal Gordon Stamp-Vincent re- ceived votes from other party supporters, he said. results and posits people who would have voted Green voted NDP instead. “T think we were the better choice to represent choice but they wanted to make sure the Conser- vatives did not get in,” he said. from this [election],” he said. their concerns and a lot of people said I was their “T have decided I have to recover t financially If he does step down he will. continue to work behind the scenes. “T’m not leaving the party any time soon, that’ for sure, "he said.