Owen, Rogers ready for rematch in Quadra

By Mike Howell-Staff writer

If a federal election campaign begins Friday, the constituents in the tony Vancouver-Quadra riding could be experiencing deja vu.

Liberal MP Stephen Owen will seek re-election against Conservative candidate Stephen Rogers and, possibly, NDP candidate David Askew. They are the same three men who ran for the seat in the June 2004 campaign, which saw Owen trounce his rivals with 29,187 votes. Rogers garnered 14,648 and Askew 8,348.

"A rematch, eh?" Owen said from Ottawa yesterday. "But I don't think we need an election at this time."

He might not have a choice.

Tomorrow, Owen and the country's 305 MPs will vote on the government's budget. A vote against the Liberals would topple the government and force an election.

But with former Conservative MP Belinda Stronach joining the Liberals yesterday-and being awarded the cabinet post of human resources-Owen is buoyed.

Not only does it increase the Liberal-NDP numbers to 152-which matches the Bloc Quebecois-Conservative numbers-it also delivered a blow to the Conservatives, he said.

"It demonstrates that-as she said-she feels more comfortable in a party that is economically sound but is socially progressive," said Owen, the Minister of Western Economic Diversification and Minister of State for Sport.

Owen, however, admitted the fate of the Liberals is left in the hands of independent MPs David Kilgour from Alberta and Chuck Cadman from Surrey, who have yet to indicate which way they'll vote.

Whatever happens, Owen, who was acclaimed as the Liberal candidate for Vancouver-Quadra riding, said he's ready to defend his record in another federal campaign.

He rattled off Liberal achievements since the June 2004 campaign-much like Vancouver-Centre MP Hedy Fry did in an interview with the Courier last week.

They include sharing gas tax revenues with provinces, providing money for daycare and ratifying the Kyoto Accord. The ad sponsorship scandal, however, still looms.

"I feel that while this is a real problem, we are actually fixing it, and I'm pleased to have been central to that," he said, noting he ensured a public inquiry would be held.

Rogers said he's running again because he believes he has a legitimate shot at winning the riding. The long-time Socred from the Bill Bennett-Bill Vander Zalm days said the Liberals are in trouble.

Even though Rogers lost by more than 14,000 votes in 2004, he believes the mood in the country has shifted to the Conservatives.

"You can analyze the results all you like, but you still have to remember the [Conservative Party] was very new at that time, the leader was new, the agenda got away on them a little bit, Mr. Martin was fresh off his victory tour... lots has happened since then," he said.

On the NDP front, Askew said he's intending to run for the nomination, although no date has been set for the meeting. Askew agrees with Owen that an election is not necessary.

If he wins the nomination, Askew doesn't expect the results in Vancouver-Quadra to change from the 2004 vote. Even so, he said it's imperative an NDP candidate run in the riding to advance the party's platform.

"We did triple the vote [from the last NDP count] in the last election, so we made some headway," he said. "It's getting into respectable territory at 8,300 votes."

posted on 05/18/2005