Peter Bevan-Baker and Political Connections

Bevan-Baker: THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Morris The days when getting your road paved in P.E.I. meant voting for the right politician might be gone, but Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker says political connections still pose an obstacle for third parties trying to make a breakthrough in Monday election, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Though some historians say voting based on political rewards has waned, Bevan-Baker believes the effects of patronage remain. "I think you still see fear in some individuals whose jobs are dependent on the public purse. The days when getting your road paved in P.E.I. meant voting for the right politician might be gone, but Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker says political connections still pose an obstacle for third parties trying to make a breakthrough in Monday election. And there are many of them," says the 52-year-old dentist who is running in Kellys Cross-Cumberland, a rural riding southwest of Charlottetown. "Patronage plays an enormous role, sometimes very overtly and sometimes quite subtly." Bevan-Baker was also a Green party candidate in Ontario before moving to Prince Edward Island 13 years ago. In the years after Confederation there was widespread use of patronage in Canadian politics as a way of maintaining support, and P.E.I. was little different, he says. Historian Ed Mac Donald, who teaches at the University of Prince Edward Island, says the old days of families passing on political affiliation like treasured heirlooms are largely gone. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.