Daniel Vevniez said he's still not used to calling himself a politician, but he has a very clear idea of what he'd like to accomplish if elected Member of Parliament.
As talk of a fall federal election gains momentum, the Liberal Party is set to acclaim Veniez as candidate in the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky riding.
On Sunday (Sept. 13) the riding association meets to determine its preferred candidate, and Veniez is the only one on the list.
"That's a relatively new development," said Veniez Tuesday (Sept. 8). "It sure looked like it was going to be a contested nomination."
Although Veniez says the possibility of a fall election is "anybody's guess," he is clear on the tone of his potential campaign. He said he intends to "elevate the level of discourse" beyond the "cheap shots" used by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government.
"Canadians have had enough of that. They're fed up," he said. "Take a look at the Conservative Party's website. It looks like something out of the National Enquirer. It's insidious, it's vicious, it's personal. This campaign has to be about ideas. Has to be about where we want to take the country."
Veniez pointed to recent public comments made by the riding's Conservative MP John Weston, who mentioned Veniez's firing as chair of the Crown corporation that operates the Prince Rupert coal terminal over a disagreement with the Tories on management.
Highlighting how hard it is to be fired from a Crown corporation, Weston said he believed the riding's constituents were uninterested in controversy in the wake of former Liberal MP Blair Wilson's questionable election campaign expense statements.
"John Weston's a family man and a hard working man. If he thinks that he needs to get elected by taking cheap gratuitous shots go ahead make my day. I just have an awful lot more respect for people's intelligence than that," said Veniez.
He also questioned the practice of government officials posing for pictures with cheques, or cutting ribbons, while announcing funding to various municipalities.
"A politician has no business taking credit for giving us back our hard-earned money. It's not about taking credit for a $2 million cheque and ribbon-cutting. That's our money they're giving back to us," he said. "It's one of the fundamental reason why I've done this. Our country deserves better."
Veniez said his admiration and respect for Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff clinched the deal. "If he wasn't the leader, I wouldn't be running at all."
He said he believes the federal government should show leadership that would cross jurisdictions lines to "fix what everyone recognizes is a broken system" of health care, and bring fundamental issues such as First Nations poverty, forestry and economic development of regions into the forefront.
"This buck-passing that we see - it's not a Conservative or Liberal issue, it's a national leadership issue - it has to stop," he said. "The provinces - I'm convinced - would like nothing more than a more engaged and activist Government of Canada on issues that it feels it can't deal with alone."
Sutherland bows out
The party's candidate in last year's election, former Squamish mayor Ian Sutherland, said he didn't put his name forward because the timing wasn't right.
"I said to people in the riding that I wouldn't be available for a fall election," he said. "It looks like there's going to be a fall election, or a possibility of it. So the best thing for the party was to move on and get a candidate that could be possible for a fall election."
