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Starts race for seat NDP had locked up for last 28 years
By Joe Paraskevas
THE announcement that Bill Blaikie plans to end almost three decades as a New Democratic Party member of Parliament in east Winnipeg is rippling through the province's political community as people consider the changes that could lie in store for Blaikie's riding and the NDP.
In a four-paragraph news release Thursday morning, the party announced the 55-year-old Blaikie, first elected to the House of Commons on May 22, 1979, would not seek re-election. The release said Blaikie thought it was time to "move on" and consider other challenges.
Among such challenges will be work as an adjunct professor of Theology and Politics at the University of Winnipeg, Blaikie said later.
NDP officials heaped praise on Blaikie but also expressed surprise and disappointment at his announcement. Blaikie is the longest serving current MP in the House of Commons, and as such the Dean of the House. He is also the House's deputy speaker.
The news about Blaikie arrived amid ongoing speculation of a spring election. Blaikie later said he had taken into consideration the possible lifespan of the minority Conservative government in timing his announcement.
"I've been thinking about not running for some time," Blaikie said. "I made up my mind to not run back in the fall actually. And I've been just trying to see how long the Parliament would last.
Blaikie rejected suggestions his party was in trouble with an election looming. The NDP has inched downward in recent opinion polls. It captured about 17 per cent of the popular vote in the 2006 election but it has drifted into the low-teens in popular support and recently tied the Green party, which has no elected members, at 13 per cent in one poll.
"This is not a difficult time to be a New Democrat at all," Blaikie said, pointing out the New Democrats have gained seats in the last three elections. "The party has no debt, it's got a good leader, it's positioned to put on a very good campaign in the next election. Things are so good it's hard not to run. I just don't want to be an MP...