Foothills stays Conservative; Liberals to form minority government
By Rob Vogt Local Press Writer
It was a bittersweet night for John Barlow, the incumbent Member of Parliament for the Foothills riding, which includes Claresholm, Stavely, Granum and the Municipal District of Willow Creek. Once the polls closed in Monday night’s federal election, Barlow had comfortably cruised to victory, but the hopes his Conservative Party had of unseating the governing Liberals did not quite come to pass. The Conservatives did stop Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party from winning another majority, but they still won the most seats in the election to claim the right to form a minority government.
The most recent numbers showed the Liberals winning 157 seats, the Conservatives taking 121 seats, the Bloc Quebeçois winning 32 seats, the New Democratic Party taking 24 seats, the Green Party winning three seats, and one independent was elected, Jody Wilson-Raybould who had been a Liberal cabinet minister until she was dumped from cabinet and caucus by the Liberals. In Foothills, Barlow took 52,907 votes, for 82.3 per cent of the total. Cheryl Moller of the Liberal Party was second with 3,765 votes; followed by Mickail Hendi of the New Democratic Party with 3,641 votes; Bridget Lacey of the Green Party with 2,309 votes; and Greg Hession of the Canadian People’s Party with 1,668 votes. A total of 64,290 ballots were cast.
Barlow said, in a phone interview on election night, Oct. 21 at about 9:30 p.m., that he was ecstatic he was re-elected, because that was first and foremost in his mind. He appreciated the incredible support he received, which says a lot about the work done by his volunteers. However, the national numbers were a different story.
“I was hoping for a better result,” he said. “We have lots of work ahead of us.” Barlow is concerned about the promises made by the Liberals, New Democrats and Greens, who may band together during this new minority parliament. He fears the financial cost attached to those promises, and sees what the role of the Conservatives as official opposition will be.
“We’ve got to hold them to some sort of financial common sense,” Barlow said.
The break through of the separatist Bloc Quebeçois who came from virtually nowhere at the beginning of the campaign to win 32 seats, the third largest total in the election is a sign of something that troubled Barlow through the campaign.
“It certainly shows there’s division in the country,” he said. At a candidates forum in Claresholm on Oct. 10, Barlow had said he had never seen the country as divided as it is now. Moving forward, he will be heading back to Ottawa in a few weeks. “(We will) see who we can work with,” he said. “Help us hold the government to task.”