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Wilson wins federal Liberal nomination

Organization played key role in getting party members out to vote Blair Wilson was the least experienced candidate for the federal Liberal nomination in the riding of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast, but by the time the votes were counted it was clear

Organization played key role in getting party members out to vote

Blair Wilson was the least experienced candidate for the federal Liberal nomination in the riding of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast, but by the time the votes were counted it was clear he wanted the position the most.

Wilson defeated John Moonen and Phil Boname over two rounds of voting last week in what he described as one of the most intense times of his life.

"On the night of the election I drank enough Gatorade and ate enough Power Bars to keep my system going, it was an ironman effort in the last three or four days; just so intense," Wilson said.

There are about 1,800 Liberal members in the West Vancouver Sunshine Coast riding but the results show that only 754 voted to chose a candidate last week.

Wilson won the Liberal nomination on the second ballot with 397 votes, which was a 56.2 per cent majority, ahead of Moonen who had 357 votes.

Bonhame was third on the first ballot and, with no candidate having a majority, was dropped for the second round of voting.

Wilson came to Whistler a month ago campaigning for better technology to be used in the voting process and in the end that’s exactly what gave him the edge on Moonen and Boname.

Wilson set up virtual polling stations at all the polling booths around the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast riding so his team could monitor who was voting.

"We had an incredible team, the team worked so hard planning for the one night," he said.

"We’ve never done it before so we didn’t know exactly the procedure but the one thing we were able to do is have a great team of scrutineers.

"We had three lab tops all hooked up in the five different locations and we were online with each of our scrutineers in each of the locations so we knew real time data about how many supporters came out and who had voted.

"Every hour we’d get an update as to who we had to contact that hadn’t voted next.

"Besides working extremely hard and being surrounded by dedicated people, the technology definitely helped us out because we could instantly print out lists of supporters that were nearby.

"This way we knew when it came down to the last hour… who we could call."

At just 40 years of age and with no previous political experience Wilson’s win against Moonen and Boname was unexpected but it is an indication that Liberals in this riding want a fresh approach in the next federal election.

Wilson has spent most of his working life as a restaurateur and is now the part owner of Mahoney’s Sports Bar and Grill in Vancouver.

He was educated at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia, where he completed degrees in commerce and political science. He is also a chartered accountant.

No date has been set for a federal election, although Prime Minister Paul Martin has recently begun a television ad campaign.

The Liberals are the last major political party to select a candidate in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast.

Andrea Goldsmith was acclaimed as the Green Party candidate, the New Democratic Party opted for Nicholas Simons and the Conservative Party has stuck with incumbent MP John Reynolds.

The next step for Wilson is to find a way to beat Reynolds, who is one of the leaders in a newly united party.

In the last federal election, in November 2000, Reynolds represented the Canadian Alliance and won West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast with more than 25,000 votes, which was 47.8 per cent of the vote in this riding.

The Liberal challenger in 2000, Ian McKay was a distant second with just over 14,000 votes, or 26.6 per cent.

Boname was the Liberal candidate in the 1997 election and finished second to Reynolds with 17,314 votes or 34.52 per cent of the vote.

Kate Manvell represented the Progressive Conservatives in the 2000 election and won 9.3 per cent of the vote.

The Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives are now united as the Conservative Party of Canada and just three weeks ago they chose Stephen Harper as their leader.

Moonen, who works as a government advisor, said the key to Liberal success this time around would be their ability to capture the under 30 vote.

"The big trick is getting the voters out because in the other ridings they’ve only been getting about 30 per cent of the eligible party members out," Moonen said.

Wilson agreed that the best way to win would be to go after the voters that did not register in the last election.

"The votes we’re going after right away is the under 30 vote because they’re not even in the equation, they never voted (last time) so it’s not like we have to pull people over to us," Wilson said.

"We’re going to go after and engage young people in the political process for the first time and I think we offer a lot of issues with accessibility and technology that will resonate well with that group."

The other issue for all members of the Liberal party is finding a way of explaining the advertising scandal, which is now the subject of a parliamentary enquiry.

The scandal first made headlines two months ago when Auditor General Sheila Fraser released a damming report which highlighted that large sums of money had been siphoned to Liberal-friendly advertising firms in Quebec.

Prime Minister Paul Martin was set to call an election in spring but many now believe the date will be closer to August.

Wilson admitted it was critical that the federal Liberals made inroads into the scandal.

"It’s critical that that happens and they have to make it happen or they have to wait for it to happen before they call an election," Wilson said.

"As a chartered accountant myself I know that the buck has to stop somewhere and consequences have to result."