Laliberte Accurate About Prediction

Laliberte Accurate About Prediction

Wednesday, June 30, 2004 at 14:43

Former Churchill River MP Rick Laliberte didn’t come close to being re-elected on Monday, but he still has to be wondering about what might have been.

That’s because there’s a lot of talk about the influence that an Independent MP in B-C might have in the House of Commons.

Chuck Cadman was elected as an independent in the B-C riding of Surrey North after failing to hold on to the Conservative nomination.

In situations where the Liberals and NDP choose to vote together against the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois on legislation, they will need Cadman’s vote to pass those votes in the Commons.

Laliberte spent much of his campaign talking about the potential power an independent could have in a minority government, but voters couldn’t ignore his travel expenses and didn’t buy in to Laliberte’s vision of a territorial government in northern Saskatchewan.

Laliberte, of course, has burned some bridges with both the NDP and Liberals, but had he been elected in Churchill River, a Liberal-NDP alliance may have asked for his vote first before Cadman, who again, is a former Conservative.