This past Saturday, long time MP Conservative Guy Lauzon announced that he would not stand for re-election this October.
When he retires, Lauzon will have served as MP for 15 years and four months. At 75-years-old, Guy said that he would be spending more time with his wife Frances.
I think the future holds something interesting for the riding of Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry. This riding I believe is solidly blue, and Guy’s own electoral history backs that up. In the 2015 election, an election that Guy himself admitted he did not put his whole heart into due to his wife’s cancer diagnosis, still returned a plurality over 50 percent in terms of support for the Conservatives.
This strong local support for the Conservative Party means that our local Conservative Riding Association will essentially be picking our next MP for us when they do select their new nominee for the 2019 election.
Guy said that he believed that there were many great young candidates in the riding, but declined to name any of them.
One name that does come to mind is Eric Duncan. Duncan had served as Mayor of North Dundas for the past eight years before stepping down this past election. This past summer he served as CFO and campaign chair for Jim McDonell’s re-election run in the provincial election and before that he had been a long-time volunteer in the Conservative Riding Association both provincially and federally.
Duncan’s experience and his profile both within and outside of the United Counties of SD&G will make him an attractive candidate. That being said, it is unclear if he is even interested in being MP. As stated above, Duncan has recently chosen to take a step back from the political limelight. On his Twitter account, Duncan calls himself a “Recovering politician”.
Duncan is also by far, not the only possible Conservative candidate. There are younger people in Cornwall and the Counties who might have a fair shake at being the next Conservative MP for Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry. It makes for an exciting time politically and there is a feeling that anything can happen in the air.
That being said, one thing I believe will happen is that Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry will remain a Conservative riding. The Conservatives might not be able to pull in as many votes without Guy, but I still think that they will win in 2019. The only way I see this riding being flipped is if the Conservatives are split on the right by a strong candidate from Maxime Bernier’s new People’s Party and if the Liberal Party can field an even stronger candidate of their own.
What do you think the future holds for the riding? What do you think of Guy Lauzon’s retirement? Email me a Letter to the Editor at nicholas.seebruch@tc.tc
