As the federal election campaign (very slowly) starts off in this riding, Muskeg News wants to prepare you for the coming race, as candidates square off to become the honourable member representing Skeena-Bulkley Valley. Our primer on the geography, history, candidates and issues of the riding is below.
Geography
The riding of Skeena-Bulkley Valley (seen in the map at left) is enormous. It stretches from the Yukon in the north to Bella Bella in the south; on its west flank, it follows the Alaskan panhandle down to Port Simpson, then jogs out to Haida Gwaii. To the east, it extends as far as Fort St. John. The total land area, according to Elections Canada, is 323,720 square kilometres – that’s about 57 times bigger than Prince Edward Island, and larger than Great Britain & Ireland combined. Physically, it is as diverse as it is large: in the west, the coast mountains majestically rise up from the ocean and, going east from the mouth of the mighty Skeena River to the Interior Mountain range, the land softens into the rolling hills of the Bulkley Valley. In the north are the claustraphobic mountain ranges near Stewart, as well as the forests of the Nass Valley. Inlets and fjords jut into the coastline all the way down the rainforest to Bella Bella. From a purely objective point of view, it is one of the most beautiful places in the country.
It is also very sparsely populated. Elections Canada’s website says the population is 91,926 people: that’s a population density of 0.28 people per square kilometre. Of the total population, 61,217 are registered voters, which equates to a density of 0.19 voters per square kilometre. Most of the population lives in the towns and cities along Highway 16: from Masset & Queen Charlotte on Haida Gwaii, to Prince Rupert, to Terrace, Houston, Hazelton and Smithers. Kitimat, south of Terrace, is the only major population centre off the highway. Aboriginal villages with small populations dot the riding, from the Nisga’a villages around the Nass River, to the Tsimshian villages in the west, the Gitsxan communities in the east, bordered by Heiltsuk & Haisla in the south and Tahltan in the north.
The riding has existed with its current name since 2003. Before that, it was known as the Skeena riding, which came into existence in 1914; from 1903-1914, the riding, or the closest thing to it, was known as Comox-Atlin, which was even bigger than the current riding, stretching all the way south to Port Alberni. The riding, in whatever form it took, has always been one of Canada’s biggest.
History
After the Skeena riding came into existence in 1914, the first federal election took place three years later. Cyrus Peck, a broker, won as part of Sir Robert Borden’s Unionist coalition. The next two elections, in 1921 & 1925, saw Alfred Stork win the riding under William Lyon Mackenzie King’s Liberal government. From 1914 to 1926, the Skeena riding’s Member of Parliament was the same party as the government.
In 1926, King’s Liberal government was re-elected, but Skeena sent a Conservative MP to Ottawa. The two sides reversed themselves in the 1930 election, when a Liberal MP was elected in Skeena, but R.B. Bennett’s Conservative party won the election. From 1935-1957, the country was ruled by the Liberals under King and Louis St. Laurent, and the Skeena riding likewise sent Liberal MPs to Ottawa.
In 1957, however, things changed. The Conservatives under John Diefenbaker won the election, and Skeena sent Frank Howard, a member of the CCF, to Parliament Hill. Howard would win the next six elections under the left-wing banner, first as a member of the CCF, then with the NDP when the party changed its name in 1962. Howard, who died a few weeks ago on March 15, lost the election in 1974, when Liberal Iona Campagnola won under Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal party – that was the last year the Skeena (and Skeena-Bulkley Valley) riding would elect an MP that was a member of the governing party. It was also the last year the Liberals would win the seat.
In 1979, the NDP was again successful in the riding, this time under Jim Fulton, who narrowly defeated Campagnolo by 615 votes. Nationally, Trudeau’s Liberals were beaten by Joe Clark’s Conservatives; but Clark’s minority government fell shortly afterwards on a defeated budget. The next year, Trudeau re-gained the reins of power, and, in the Skeena riding, Fulton re-gained his seat, winning by a much more comfortable margin over Jack Talstra, who ran for the Liberals.
From 1984 to the present day, the riding has been a battleground between the NDP and the right wing, whether they were called Conservatives, Reform, Canadian Alliance, or (again) Conservatives. Jim Fulton won every election through the 1980s, as the national government transitioned from Trudeau’s Liberals to Brian Mulroney’s Conservatives. Then, in 1993, when the Conservatives were decimated by Jean Chretien’s Liberals, the Skeena riding elected Reform Party candidate Mike Scott. He would win the next election, in 1997, before stepping away from politics. In 2000, Andy Burton, part of the Canadian Alliance (renamed from Reform), won the riding.
The next election, in 2004, started a national trend of minority governments, from Paul Martin’s Liberals to Stephen Harper’s Conservatives (a melding of the Conservatives & the Alliance). The riding’s name changed from Skeena to Skeena-Bulkley Valley, and its voting tendencies swung back to the left. For the last seven years, the riding has been held by the NDP under Nathan Cullen.
For the past 54 years, the riding has been held by the NDP for 38 of those years, and by the Conservatives for 11. Aside from a five-year run by Campagnolo in the 1970s, the riding’s MP hasn’t been a member of the governing party since 1957.
Candidates
The big question for this election is: can Nathan Cullen be beat? If the past is any precedent, the answer is no. Cullen first won the seat in 2004, when his energetic campaign defeated incumbent Andy Burton by over 1,200 votes. In that election, Cullen also defeated superstar candidate Miles Richardson, a well-known personality from Haida Gwaii who ran under the Liberal banner. In the next election, Cullen was able to slap down Mike Scott, who resurrected his political career in 2006, but who could only attain 33 per cent of the vote to Cullen’s 48 per cent. In the 2008 election, Cullen easily defeated the next Conservative challenger, Sharon Smith, the former mayor of Houston. In each one of his victories, Cullen’s margin of victory has increased, even as voter turnout goes down.
For this election, Cullen’s major challenger will once again be from the Conservatives, who this time are sending Clay Harmon to run against him. Harmon was acclaimed as the Conservatives’ candidate on June 8, 2010, and has never run for office in the riding before this election. On his website, Harmon says he was a certified management accountant for a variety of businesses, as well as a business-owner himself. He also says he was on the board of directors of the Aboriginal Financial Officers Association of B.C. for the past eight years. As such, he says he “understands the issues facing Canada’s first citizens.” Harmon’s website also says his wife’s great uncle was Prime Minister R.B. Bennett.
The Liberals, who have not been a serious contender for the riding since Richardson’s run in 2004, have not yet selected a candidate for this election (as of this writing).
On the fringes are the Green Party and the Christian Heritage Party. Roger Benham is once again making a run as the Green candidate – he ran twice before, in 2000 and 2004. With his caustic wit, Benham was easily the most interesting person in the all-candidate debates; nevertheless, he couldn’t win more than 3.31 per cent of the vote in his last go-around. On the far opposite side of the spectrum from Benham is Rod Taylor, who has run for the Christian Heritage Party for the last three elections. His vote count reached a high in 2004, with 1,408, and has been dropping every year since. Still, Taylor received more votes than the Green Party in the 2004 & 2006 elections – his ability to draw away potential right-wing voters from the Conservatives cannot be discounted.
Issues
The major issue in Skeena-Bulkley Valley is the economy, particularly as it relates to jobs with natural resources. From the fishing grounds in the west to the forests in the east, the once-mighty resource sector has taken a hit over the past decade, and jobs have migrated away from the riding. However, a slight rejuvenation in the forestry sector, combined with a growing transportation industry, has stopped the pain and, at the very least, has levelled out the economy for the region. There are also many major projects planned in the region, which, if successful, could lead to more jobs and a rejuvenation of the economy.
The improvement of the economy in Skeena-Bulkley Valley is dependent on the two other major issues of the campaign. One is aboriginal relations. The federal government is still in the midst of negotiating a raft of aboriginal treaties in the region, but the issue goes beyond that. A series of court decisions have put more power into the hands of aboriginal bands, especially when it comes to development on what they consider to be their land. The offshoot is that no major projects can go ahead without involving aboriginal groups. The political power of aboriginals has thus increased significantly over the past decade. Any federal candidate who runs in this riding must be willing to work with aboriginals or else, quite simply, he won’t get elected.
The environment is the other main issue alongside the economy. With its rugged landscape, the riding seems to attract a lot of people who cherish the environment, and who want to preserve its pristine beauty. While this might seem the natural domain of the Green Party, the NDP is a strong lobbyist for the environment, and Cullen himself authored a non-binding motion on the government to ban tanker traffic up and down the coast. Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline, which would bring oil from Alberta out to Kitimat to be shipped across the Pacific via tankers, is a giant lightning-rod for environmental criticism.
Important dates
The deadline for candidate nominations is April 11 – that’s when we’ll first see the official slate of candidates that will appear on the ballot.
Advanced polls will open across the riding on April 22, 23 & 25.
~Written by Chris Armstrong. Map courtesy of Elections Canada. Image of the field (on the right above) courtesy of the North Coast Library Federation – used with permission.
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