“Send a farmer to Ottawa and get back a politician” is a time-honoured piece of Western Canadian common sense born of rueful experience.
When Blake Richards was first elected to Parliament to represent Wild Rose in 2008 at the green age of 34, I interviewed him for this newspaper over lunch in a modest restaurant a stone's throw from Parliament Hill.
Blake had earned a reputation among local journalists as a contact to handle carefully during his time as a constituency aide to then-Wild Rose MP Myron Thompson.
However, the Blake Richards with whom I had lunch (for the record, I paid) was a plain speaking young man awed by his new responsibilities and eager to do well as a Member of Parliament.
Segue to last week (April 8) when I saw Blake Richards again, this time appearing on a panel for the CBC's Power Play to speak for his party on a panel of MPs.
The topic was the disgraceful treatment by the Conservatives in the Senate and the House of Commons of the chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand.
To his credit, Blake did not stoop to the vengeful bullying and personal attack to Mayrand and his defenders including the unimpeachable former auditor general Sylvia Fraser.
However if defending the indefensible treatment of the critics of the misnamed Fair Elections Act was a litmus test of his loyalty to the prime minister and ability to stick to the PMO's talking points, Blake Richards succeeded.
I watched a politician who grew up on a Mountain View County farm, worked in the oilpatch, volunteered as a firefighter, obtained a university degree, had a successful real estate practice, married a good woman and won a seat in Parliament.
I watched a politician who steered two crime bills through Parliament before he turned 40 pay a high price to keep alive the dream of promotion in the Harper government.
I watched him inadvertently contribute, according to the polls, to the next stage of his political career as a backbencher in the opposition.
"I watched him inadvertently contribute, according to the polls, to the next stage of his political career as a backbencher in the opposition."
