After retiring from politics in April 2009, former Progressive Conservative MP Bill Casey says he hopes to return to Parliament, but this time as a Liberal.
First, Casey will have to defeat his former campaign manager, Scott Armstrong, the Conservative MP for Cumberland – Colchester.
“I believe the system is being denigrated and diminished so that parliamentarians are having a really hard time to do their job,” says Casey. “It was that way when I was there and it’s gotten worse.”
Casey was first elected as a Progressive Conservative in 1988. The riding has been Tory blue for more than half a century, with two exceptions, which both involve Casey.
He was defeated by Liberal Dianne Brushett in 1993 and won as an independent in 2008, during which time Armstrong was his campaign manager.
Casey ran as an independent after being kicked out of the Conservative caucus in 2007 for voting against the budget because he felt it broke the Atlantic Offshore Accord.
“Mr. Armstrong was a supporter of Mr. Casey’s and worked very hard for him when Mr. Casey was the MP in the past, and I think that should be worthy of some respect, now that Mr. Armstrong is there in the present,” says Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie.
“It’s tough because I have a lot of friends in the Conservative Party, but I think it’s important that I do this,” says Casey.
On Friday, Casey spoke at the nomination meeting of one of his closest friends, NDP MP Peter Stoffer.
“You can still see the fire in his belly because he gave a really good speech about politics and where he’s going, but he never really said what he was doing,” says Stoffer.
But Casey says the Liberals, not the NDP, are a better fit for him.
“Because the Liberals are really, very much what the Progressive Conservatives were,” says Casey.
“I will warn him of course, that as my good friend, that we will give him good competition from that of the NDP,” says Stoffer.
With files from CTV's Rick Grant.
