Ross Rebagliati is preparing for a new kind of competition

Constituents in the British Columbia riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla may be in for a good old-fashioned Western showdown leading up to the next federal election.

That’s because on Monday snowboarding’s first Olympic gold medalist, British Columbia Sports Hall-of-Famer and Kelowna resident Ross Rebagliati, was officially nominated the new Liberal candidate for the riding.
His Conservative opponent? Veteran politician Stockwell Day, a former leader of the Official Opposition, current Minister of Foreign Trade, and a nine-year incumbent whose political popularity in the Okanagan speaks for itself.

And there ain’t enough room in this town for the both of ‘em.

In politics as in sports, few match-ups engender the level of intrigue which a contest of this nature boasts. It’s the story of the wide-eyed rookie versus the sagacious veteran, each falling back on his own assets: Day, 59, whose political career spans over three decades, is familiar with all the vicissitudes of Canadian politics, a former acting Premier of Alberta, and a denizen of the House of Commons. And who can forget Day’s iconic first press conference as a candidate for Prime Minister, motoring up to the beach on his Sea-Doo and sporting a wet suit. The stunt, as one might expect, met with mixed reviews, and was quickly rebutted by Jean Chrétien’s scooter performance on the airport tarmac in Tokyo.

Though a political neophyte, Rebagliati, 38, is far from unaccustomed to the public eye. At the 1998 Nagano Olympics, after he tested positive for the psychoactive compound THC, the Canadian was briefly stripped of his gold medal by the IOC. Rebagliati’s defence, now famous, was that the chemical had entered his body through second-hand marijuana smoke. In addition, a lack of agreement between FIS and IOC policies on marijuana, combined with a ruling that THC was not a “performance-enhancing drug,” resulted in Rebagliati’s reinstatement as the Olympic champion in snowboarding-giant slalom.

The Japanese police interrogation and media frenzy in which Rebagliati found himself were, according to the then-26-year-old Olympian, an instructive experience. Call it a trial by fire. Or at least, by smoke.

“Here I am, a 26-year-old thrown into a media frenzy with nobody around me and no media training. It certainly taught me a lot,” he reflected subsequently.

The task before Rebagliati is a major challenge. Day garnered 58.1 per cent of the vote in his home riding in Canada’s last federal election. The nature of the riding, situated in a demographic region whose values remain largely entwined with Protestant Christian grass-roots and conservative beliefs, may also present a difficulty to Rebagliati. Particularly if Day perceives a threat from his younger challenger, we can reasonably expect that the issue of marijuana will come up.

The Olympian, however, remains optimistic, and downplays the subject: “I think the issue has been dealt with, and I feel like I’ve been able to prove my character over the years.

“[Marijuana legalization] is an issue for sure and it will be dealt with at a later date.”

One of Rebagliati’s principal strategies in his campaign will be to inculcate greater political interest amongst his riding’s youth, drawing support from a demographic he believes to be largely untapped.

“I’m going to go after the people that might not have voted before.”

“I think…the representatives who represent the political process don’t care about the youth. And they haven’t made an effort to connect with them and to tell them why [the political process] is important. I believe that I am going to be able to raise awareness in the voting process and in democracy itself.”

According to Rebagliati, his campaign platform will deal with jobs, health care, childcare, sports, a healthy lifestyle, native issues, homelessness and the environment.

Will the youthful, progressive message of Rebagliati be enough to unseat Stockwell Day? Or will Day’s clean-cut conservative fundamentals prevail once again in a riding he has traditionally owned?

We’ll just have to wait for an election to find out.

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Tags: marijuana, Olympics, ross rebagliati, stockwell day

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 6:51 pm and is filed under Municipal Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.