BURIN-PLACENTIA WEST (7)

Candidates:

Liberal: Sam Synard PC: Clyde Jackman NDP: Wayne Butler

Current MHA: Mary Hodder

District Profile: Burin-Placentia West is primarily a fishing district with the Marystown shipyard and offshore fabrication yard being an important part of the economy. There’s also some farming. Like many other districts, it has faced some tough economic times. FPI’s Marystown fish plant has seen production drop, and work at the shipyard has been erratic.

The main communities of this district are: Marystown, Burin and Rushoon.

Other communities include: Baine Harbour, Beau Bois, Boat Harbour, Brookside, Fox Cove-Mortier, Garnish Pond, Jean de Baie, Parker’s Cove, Petite Fort, Port au Bras, Red Harbour, Red Island, Rock Harbour, South East Bight, and Spanish Room.

Josee Bellemare reports on the competition in Burin-Placentia West (runs 5:10).

Canada Now's Jane Adey has this look at the district of Burin-Placentia West (runs 2:10).

Candidate profiles:

Clyde Jackman, the PC candidate for the 2003 election, was born on December 21, 1954 in Grole, Hermitage Bay into a family of ten children. His family resettled to Marystown in 1968. He hold a master’s in educational literacy from Mount Saint Vincent University and started working as the Program Specialist for the Burin Peninsula School Board in 1998. Jackman is president of the NLTA's primary and elementary teachers special interest council.

Liberal Sam Synard, a school guidance counsellor and the mayor of Marystown, has been on council since 1989. He’s a former president of the Canadian Federation of Municipalities. Synard has had a troubled relationship with the Liberals. In 2000, he beat former Tory MP Bill Matthews for the federal nomination in Burin-St. Georges, but the party ordered a second vote, citing irregularities in the first ballot. Matthews won in the second vote, and Synard went on to run unsuccessfully as an independent in the election. Synard sought the PC nomination in this election, but lost to Jackman by 57 votes in a five-way race. He returned to the Liberal fold, and beat David Locke and Jerry Pike to win the nomination on Sept. 18.

New Democrat Wayne Butler ran in the 1999 election and took more than 40 per cent of the popular vote. A past president of the Marine Workers local at the Marystown Shipyard, Butler is on the national executive of his union. He's held posts with the district labour council and the provincial federation of labour. Butler currently is a member of a committee looking into cancer-related illnesses at the shipyard.

Political History:

1999: Mary Hodder defeated NDP Wayne Butler and PC Dominic Lundrigan to hold onto the district. 1996: Former deputy mayor of Marystown, Mary Hodder, defeated PC Terry Keating to regain the district for the Liberals. 1982 - 1996: Glen Tobin held the district for the Progressive Conservatives from 1982 to 1996. 1979: Liberal Don Hollett defeated Ed Mayo, who was running for the PCs. 1949 - 1972: Liberal Pat Canning held the district. He later defeated PC Leo Barry in 1975 to regain the seat. He did not run in 1979.