COLUMN: Carillon Flashback October 27, 1993 – Conservatives find Epp is a tough act to follow

It was a night of jubilation for Provencher Liberals and the realization of an “impossible dream” for their candidate, David Iftody, as he joined the nationwide Grit sweep to power.

Iftody savoured his 2,700-vote margin over runner-up Reform Party candidate Dean Whiteway, with cheering, hugging and back-slapping supporters jammed into the beverage room of the Lakeview Hotel in his hometown of Lac du Bonnet.

Official agent John Klippenstein, of Steinbach, called it the most enthusiastic Provencher Liberal gathering since Mark Smerchanski won the riding for the Party, 25 years ago. The Liberals then held the seat for just one term before Smerchanski was ousted by Jake Epp in 1972.

For Iftody, it was the realization of a dream he described as impossible.

“I publicly want to thank the Lord, my God, for the grace to bring me this far. This is an impossible dream, a small miracle and I thank the Lord for that.”

Iftody, one of 177 Liberals elected across Canada, received 16,063 votes. Whiteway received 13,394, while Conservative Kelly Clark, an apparent victim of Canada-wide anger against the former Conservative government, was a distant third in Provencher, with only 3,811 votes. Voter turnout in the riding was 71 percent, close to the 1988 figure, but higher than the national average of about 68 percent.

It was a night of steadily-mounting jubilation for Iftody’s supporters as they watched his lead over Whiteway slowly increase, from 1,600 votes at 9:15 p.m. to 2,600 by 9:30.

Cheers rose, as returns showed Iftody picking up big margins in La Broquerie, Woodridge, St Pierre-Jolys and St Adolphe. The cheers changed to groans as returns came in from the Steinbach area, giving margins to Whiteway.

Television commentators had long declared Iftody elected in Provencher; but at 10 p.m. some supporters still remained cautious.

“They’ve been wrong before. We’ll wait until it’s over,” Klippenstein said.

Even as Iftody entered the room to loud cheers, he and many supporters remained cautious. Hesitating as yet to accept the winner’s laurels, Iftody told supporters, “We’re seeing a dream fulfilled here. They said we couldn’t do it … we’re doing it.”

The tension and doubt ended shortly, as Whiteway phoned Iftody to concede defeat and the victory party took off.

Whiteway was “very, very gracious in defeat,” Iftody said.

With disappointed supporters at Mitchell, Whiteway said, “Iftody is going to be a credit to the Liberal Party and will be an outstanding member of parliament.”

Kelly Clark tried to hard not to show his disappointment, watching the poll-by-poll results with a few supporters at the Morris Curling Club. Representing the party which held the riding for more than 20 years under former cabinet minister Jake Epp, Clark was unable to win a single poll as Tory support plummeted from 19,000 votes to under 4,000 this time around.

Either Iftody or Whiteway was the leading vote-getter in all 151 polls, with Iftody picking up the most votes in 86 polls, with Whiteway leading in the rest.

The shift in the support for the Reform Party from the Conservatives was most evident in Steinbach. Whiteway received 1,793 votes to 1,225 for Iftody. Clark was able to pick up just 329 votes in a town dominated at the polls by the Conservatives for more than 20 years.

Iftody credited the victory to the efforts of his campaign team, headed by Steinbach lawyer Bob Smith.

“I have the greatest campaign team in all of Western Canada. We have a strong majority government, which is what the people wanted.”

The Liberals captured 177 seats across Canada. The official opposition will be the Bloc Quebecois, winning 54 seats, all in Quebec. The Reform Party won 52 seats, the NDP nine and the Conservative Party was reduced to just two seats, one of them won by Jean Charest, who lost the Tory leadership race to Kim Campbell.

– with files from Tim Plett