In vast Central Newfoundland, these 3 candidates are vying for a seat in Ottawa
Two candidates are trying to unseat incumbent Conservative MP in Central N.L. riding
35 minutes ago
Duration 3:12
The federal riding of Central Newfoundland has a new name and at least two people working hard to become its new Member of Parliament. Formerly known as Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, it's currently represented by the Conservative party and incumbent Clifford Small is running again. Troy Turner has the story.
Three candidates are vying for office in Central Newfoundland, a vast riding that makes up the bulk of the island's interior.
It's home to the province's only incumbent Conservative, who's running again to keep his seat in Ottawa, as well as two newbies to electoral politics.
The people of the central region formerly voted as constituents of the Coast of Bays-Central-Notre Dame, which was renamed in 2022.
In the run-up to election day on April 28, CBC News spoke with contenders across the province about their political chops, passions and platforms.
These are the candidates for Central Newfoundland:
Clifford Small, Conservative Party
The Central Newfoundland incumbent entered federal politics by upsetting the riding in 2021, beating out Scott Simms, the Liberal MP at the time.
Clifford Small has spent this campaign making the rounds, hoping to secure his seat in Ottawa yet again.
"The most important issue at the doors is cost of living," Small said. "At least half the doors are concerned about how expensive life's gotten over the last 10 years."
The price of food, he said, is weighing heavily on his constituents.
"The gains in prices over the last four or five years are through the roof … people's money isn't worth what it used to be. And they see it in a bag of groceries."
Under the threat of a prolonged and unpredictable trade war with the United States, Small says he has a plan to diversify his riding's economic output. Much of that rests on natural resources like gold, iron ore, copper and nickel, he said.
"We have to support the tremendous opportunity we have in mining and continue to support our prospecting and our geologists to make more finds," he said. "Newfoundland is sitting on one of the largest mineral belts in the world."
Housing, too, is on his agenda. Small says if elected he intends to help communities obtain federal funding.
"We're going to empower municipalities to increase the number of homes that they build every year. And the municipalities that do the best will receive the most in federal grants to help them develop their infrastructure," he said.
Small says he's taken his role seriously over the last four years, and says crime and the cost of living are two of the major issues his constituents want action on.
"I take what the people tell me at the doors and I bring that to Ottawa and I voice what they have to say to me to Ottawa.
"People are fearful," Small said.
"They're afraid to go to sleep at night. We don't knock on doors as late as we normally would because people just don't want to come to the doors once the sun starts to set.… We're going to reform the criminal justice system and empower the police to do their job to lower the crime in our communities. And that's a guarantee that we can give to the people of central Newfoundland."
Lynette Powell, Liberal Party
Political rookie Lynette Powell began her working life in fish plants before becoming a medical trainer, and later serving as the president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association.
She, too, is seeing fear at the doors — but says it's mainly about the U.S. administration and its proclivity for trade threats.
"I think the ballot question in this election is who is going to be the best person to lead Canada in the next few years, with the United States being not the United States any of us knew?" she said.
"I think Mark Carney is the man. I think he understands the economy. He's going to build the economy, but he's still going to protect our social programs that we need so much here in Newfoundland and Labrador."
Part of the defence, Powell argues, should be bolstering her riding's tourism industry.
"Our best resource is the people here," she said. "I've seen tourism operators across the province who are begging for us to improve our tourism industry in central Newfoundland. We need to be able to bring more people in, right?
"We need to make Gander Airport a hub for us."
Housing, too, is on her radar. Powell thinks Ottawa should be at the forefront of a housing boom, much like it was after World War II, she said.
"We need to build big," she said, "and I think the government needs to get back into the business of building."
Darian Vincent, New Democratic Party
Darian Vincent, originally from British Columbia, moved to Newfoundland as the cost of living crisis pushed him out.
Now a retail worker in Bay Roberts, he too says affordability, health care and housing prices are on everyone's minds.
The land in his riding is sparsely populated — and can be leveraged, he said, to help with the housing shortage.
"There's a lot of federal land that is open and appears to be usable to build homes," he said.
"There's thousands and thousands and thousands of acres that can be put towards that. And then we will be able to work on potentially capping … the prices that those homes go for, or capping the rent prices that take place within it. Both are on the table."
Vincent draws on his time on Vancouver Island as a prime example of where Newfoundland and Labrador shouldn't go, affordability-wise.
"It's not just Newfoundland and Labrador that's watching prices skyrocket. You can pick pretty much any city and town in the country and they're all watching houses that were $200,000 a couple years ago … now that's a $400,000 home.
"They're not worth that much, right?"
Vincent, a newcomer to politics, says he doesn't know all the answers, but argues that's a strength rather than a weakness.
"I am very much a layman when it comes to this. I don't know what I don't know. And the goal for me is to be able to hopefully find the people that do have those answers," he said.
"I feel like that's a lot of what politicians are missing, is politicians are pretending to be experts. And at the end of the day, they're just not."
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