Source : Ottawa Citizen

Party's ex-national director joins race in Manley's former riding

After spending most of her adult life running other people's political campaigns, the Liberal party's former national director today joins the rush of candidates seeking the Ottawa South Liberal nomination.

Sheila Gervais, 46, who is on leave from her job as head of government relations at CBC, began her political career at 19 when she ran the 1977 Liberal provincial election campaign in Ottawa South.

"The riding had been held for a long time by (Conservative cabinet minister) Claude Bennett," Ms. Gervais said. "We had always come third and didn't even get our deposit back, but that time we did.

"From that point, I was on every provincial and federal riding executive in the area."

Former deputy prime minister John Manley has held the federal riding since 1988. Previous MPs include Jean-Luc Pepin and John Turner. Ms. Gervais is one of five candidates to say they will seek the nomination.

Ms. Gervais said she is attracted by the work Prime Minister Paul Martin has done to increase democracy in federal politics. She said new rules will encourage more women and minorities to run for Parliament.

"It is fair to say that the candidates (in Ottawa South) regard this as a good opportunity to be elected in a safe riding."

The most important issues in the anticipated spring election will be health care and education, Ms. Gervais said. Canadians want a good quality of life for themselves and their children and a rewarding life into retirement, she said.

Ms. Gervais worked on the Liberal national convention in 1982 and for Ottawa Centre MP John Evans. She was national director of the Liberal party from 1989 to 1993 and ran the national convention that chose Jean Chretien as party leader in 1990. In 1997, she went to work for the CBC.

The daughter of immigrant parents of East Indian and Estonian-Latvian heritage, Ms. Gervais still lives in Ottawa South. She said she represents women and people of mixed ethnic background.

"From a very early age, my parents told me what Canada has meant to them and how this country has encouraged people like them to come here," Ms. Gervais said.

When Ms. Gervais was 13, her father encouraged her to seek the sponsorship of her MP, John Turner, in a charity walk. Mr. Turner gave her $40 for the fundraiser.

"My dad said I had called the minister of justice at home, rang his bell and had a meeting with him," Ms. Gervais said. "He said there were no secret service agents and no guns at my head and Canada was the only country in the world where you could do that.

"That was one of the reasons I joined the Liberal party. It was based on principle."

However, Ms. Gervais has held off signing the nomination forms until the legal questions surrounding the Liberal party's request for extensive personal information are settled.

Though she initially supported the personal information requirements, she changed her mind after consulting a lawyer, who advised her the requests could violate privacy laws.

Ottawa councillor Diane Deans is also running for the nomination. Other candidates for the nomination are expected to include: David McGuinty, brother of Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty; Carleton University sociology professor John Samuel; and Camille Awada, 37, a Statistics Canada employee who was one of the Ottawa organizers for Paul Martin's Liberal leadership campaign.

Meanwhile, federal public servant Bruce Murdock, 42, has launched his campaign for the Liberal nomination in Ottawa-Orleans. Mr. Murdock, who works at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, said voters want a more active style of representation than Liberal MP Eugene Bellemare has provided for the past 15 years.

"With the election of Paul Martin as the new leader of the Liberal party, people in Ottawa-Orleans are looking for change," Mr. Murdock said.

Mr. Bellemare, 71, has said he will seek a fifth term.

Walter Robinson, the former spokesman for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is seeking the Conservative nomination in the riding.

© Ottawa Citizen