Throwback Thursday: Pat Mahoney, Calgary's last Liberal MP, incorrectly predicts his 1972 re-election
Recent polls have some Liberal supporters in Calgary daring to dream their party might win its first seat in the staunchly Conservative city for the first time since 1968.
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The talk is optimistic but not predictive, and perhaps wisely so, as that didn't work out too well for the last Liberal MP from Calgary.
In an interview with CBC prior to the 1972 federal election, Pat Mahoney confidently predicted he would be re-elected in the now-defunct riding of Calgary South, and the Liberals under Pierre Trudeau would win another majority government.
He was wrong on both counts.
"We feel that we've done a pretty good job here," Mahoney said.
"We're confident that the government is going to be returned as a majority government and I am confident that the people of Calgary South are going to feel they would be better represented on the government side than by sending an opposition member to Ottawa."
As things turned out, of course, Progressive Conservative challenger Peter Bawden won the seat in a landslide by challenging Trudeau's record and saying he would stand up for Western Canada in Parliament.
"People are fed up," the "millionaire oilman" said in the clip from the CBC archives.
"They know that the Progressive Conservative Party will not overlook the West, nor the aged, nor the poor."
Bawden went on to be re-elected in the 1974 election, in which Trudeau did earn another majority government, but the federal Liberals have yet to win a seat in Calgary since.
Fast forward to 2015
That's a streak current Calgary Centre Liberal candidate Kent Hehr believes he has a shot at breaking, but he stops short of making bold predictions like Mahoney did 43 years earlier.
Rather, Hehr notes Calgary is changing in a way he believes benefits his party.
"We have a young demographic from all over the world, and all over Canada, looking at governments and looking at policy options that make their lives better," he said.
In Calgary Confederation, another riding believed to be in play for the Liberals this time around, Conservative candidate Len Webber believes voters will stick with the party they know.
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"They know the importance of a strong Conservative government in Canada to protect their jobs here in Alberta," he said.
The election is Oct. 19.
