No Miracle necessary here

Managing editor David Wylie EDITORIAL http://www.dailycourier.ca/ P.A7 Aug 8/2006
Vernon's political landscape is rarely boring.And it's heated up again.Only six months after being elected federally, Okanagan-Shuswap MP Colin Mayes will be fighting in the party's candidate nomination elections to retain his right to run under the Conservative banner in the next federal election now that local riding association president Dean Skoreyko has announced he'd be challenging Mayes.Just to be clear, no federal election has been called. However, it seems the Conservatives are getting their ducks in a row . . . just in case.Quoted late last week in a major Western newspaper, political analyst David Taras said it would take a near miracle for Conservative incumbents to be defeated in the nomination elections, which could be held as earlyas September.Based on what we've seen in this riding, we disagree.Since being elected, Mayes, who's from Salmon Arm, has been less than visible in the Vernon area. Many candidates spend time in their riding at major events to speak to their constituents. MLA Tom Christensen is especially good at this part of the job, and it's hard to attend a big Vernon event without bumping into him.In fairness, the commute from Ottawa is further than the commute fromVictoria, but that hasn't stopped other MPs in Okanagan ridings from visiting home - such as Kelowna MP Ron Cannan, who saw fit to attend an event announcing a new war monument would be built in our southern sister's City Park.Mayes' one darling issue was to improve safety along the TransCanadaHighway (which runs through Salmon Arm) by having it expanded to fourlanes - yet, we've seen no movement on that issue.In fact, we've seen no action to fight the GST bill facing the Schubert Centre, no answers on what will be done with Vernon's Department of Defence grounds and little in federal grants for local infrastructure.Lastly, Mayes' claim to fame as the area's MP has so far been suggesting journalists should be jailed for inaccurate reporting, which thrust him into the national spotlight where he later retracted his statement.Mayes seems to be far from invincible.He narrowly defeated Skoreyko to earn his spot as the riding's candidate,thanks mainly to the Salmon Arm Conservatives.This time around, it should be another close battle, and if Mayes doeshang on, we hope it's a wake-up call that as an MP, he also works for constituents here in Vernon.-