Longtime PC supporters face a dilemma in high-profile Hampton election race
CBC
For Dorothy MacDonald, and lifelong Progressive Conservatives like her in Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins, this month's New Brunswick election represents an agonizing choice.
MacDonald worked for almost three years as the constituency assistant for Gary Crossman, a former MLA and PC cabinet minister.
Yet she's not sure she can vote for the party she has supported since she was a child.
"I still haven't made up my mind. I'm still anxious," she said after attending a recent candidates debate at Hampton High School.
"Two of the candidates have never been to my house, so I'd really like to have more one-on-one with them. It's been very difficult."
MacDonald is not alone. Her decision, and the choice of other PC stalwarts in the riding, will not only determine who gets elected here but could have a role in shaping the future of the PC Party itself.
Many longtime party supporters were upset last December when Christian conservative activist Faytene Grasseschi was nominated as the candidate over the objections of Crossman and members of the PC riding association board.
"My personal and political beliefs no longer align in many ways with the direction of our party and government," Crossman said when he resigned as minister and MLA in April.
Grasseschi has been a Christian activist for two decades and has been accused of harbouring extreme views on issues such as gay rights and abortion.
In her 2009 book Marked, she wrote, "We are to make disciples of every people, group and culture, yes … and teach nations to obey all that the Lord has commanded."
At last December's nomination, PC Leader Blaine Higgs praised "the conviction, the determination and the pure ability" of Grasseschi and said her candidacy was part of a "revolution" within the PC Party.
That makes the Hampton race, and Grasseschi's possible presence in a future PC caucus, a potential turning point for the party itself, as Tories wrestle with a more socially conservative direction or return to the political centre.
Longtime Hampton PC supporter Al Walker said in an interview that her nomination, and Higgs's attitude, were the breaking points for him.
"I just had to change this time. … I said 'enough's enough.' She would be a national embarrassment if we elected her," he said.
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