Hot seat Liberal candidate looking to capitalize on anti-Harper sentiment in byelection DAVE MATHIESON Amherst Daily News

Jim Burrows, the Liberal candidate for Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodobit Valley in the Nov. 9 federal byelection, stopped by Lezah's at the Amherst Centre Mall yesterday to discuss his platform, while Gabby Allen asked if he'd like a haircut. Dave Mathieson - Amherst Daily News

AMHERST – How much resentment is still coarsing through the veins of the Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley electorate over the Bill Casey affair could determine the outcome of the Nov. 9 federal byelection.
That’s the way Jim Burrows, the Liberal candidate for the riding, sees it.
Burrows was in Amherst yesterday touring factories and introducing himself to residents.
“I think what we’re looking at in this riding is that in the last election, 92 per cent of the voters did not vote for Stephen Harper and they did not vote for him for a reason and part of that reason is Bill Casey,” said Burrows. “A large part of the reason was that people were dissatisfied with how Stephen Harper had treated our member of parliament.”
Last October, Casey ran as an independent and garnered 69 per cent of the vote for this riding, while the Liberals and Conservatives received barely eight per cent of the vote each, and Burrows knows he will need to make major inroads into the Casey camp if he hopes to win the riding.
“The people in this riding still remember what happened to Bill Casey and they realize that a Conservative member of parliament is going to have very limited opportunity to stand up for people in this constituency.”
With recent polls showing the Harper government with a substantial lead over Ignatieff's Liberals, is the timing of the byelection bad for Burrows?
“I think for the most part this is going to be a very local election,” said Burrows. “People are going to focus on the candidates and the local issues unlike when you are in a general election and the national policies seem to get top billing.
“In this byelection you don’t have the three major parties coming out with a policy booklet with a major stand with or two or three items that each of them are going to identify with. It’s more about how the local candidates can represent the local issues.”
After touring PollyCello and C-Vision, Burrows believes local issues include spreading the word about Nova Scotia innovation.
“The drive behind the individuals that own these companies is tremendous and their ability to bring in the right people to work in these businesses is incredible,” said Burrows. “They have recruited some very good managers and have a great leadership team.
“It’s a total contrast of what people often think about the Atlantic provinces. The traditional view of the Atlantic provinces is that we’re backward and laid back and lazy and so on, and I saw none of that today. These are the types of businesses we have to promote to show what the people are really like in these areas.”
Burrows believes jumping into the political arena would provide the perfect opportunity to spread the word about Nova Scotia innovation.
“Examples like C-Vision and PolyCello are things that an MP can promote with other MPs and with people in the government,” said Burrows. “And as an MP you have the opportunity to travel the world by times and you can look for the opportunities to sell these products.”
As a dairy farmer in Green Oaks, near Truro, Burrows has lived the life of a farmer and a businessman and has experienced the need to develop consensus.
As the president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture in the early 1990s, Burrows implemented a new funding program to fund the organization.
“That’s something that touched every farmer in Nova Scotia and it required government legislation to do it, and it was a major challenge to bring consensus to have that happen,” said Burrows.
“I’ve never shied away from controversial issues in these organizations and I'm willing to take a leadership role in the issues that need to be dealt with. I’ve always been able to deal with them in such a manner that, even if people have disagreed with me, at the end of the day we had respect for each other, and I think that is something that is lacking in politicians and in politics, and that’s what I’d like to bring to the political field.”

dmathieson@amherstdaily.com