"Four more years? Milliken says next campaign may be his last"

(The Whig Standard) -- Peter Milliken is hinting that the next election campaign will be his last.

The longtime Kingston and the Islands Liberal MP, who was first elected in 1988 and who has rolled over his opponents in six straight elections, said yesterday that he will contest the expected coming election, which could be called in a matter of weeks, but that it would likely be his last.

"I wouldn't be surprised," he said, if asked if he would retire from politics following that campaign, or the end of the term if he were re-elected.

"At some point, you have to decide to step aside."

But he said he has no intention of sitting out the next campaign and sounded eager to get out on the campaign trail again.

Milliken, an expert in Parliamentary procedure who was subscribing to Hansard as a teenager, always wanted to be Speaker of the House and has served seven years in that role. He described it yesterday as a "dream job" and said that, if re-elected, he would seek the post of speaker for a fourth term.

As Speaker, Milliken has cast a total of three tie-breaking votes, more than any other Speaker in Canadian history

"I think it would be the logical thing to do," said Milliken, noting that he had experience overseeing the House of Commons both as a member of a majority government and recently as an opposition MP with a minority Conservative government.

The fact that he remains speaker through an election campaign and until a new one is elected has limited his ability to campaign - speakers are expected to be neutral - but he says that rather than an impediment, he finds that to have been a benefit.

"I just state the party position, and that has actually proven quite popular and has increased attendance at all-candidate meetings in Kingston for the past two elections," he said, arguing that it has focused debate on policies and not personalities.

Milliken is not yet officially nominated. Because he is speaker, he waits until the writ is dropped to hold a nomination meeting, but with 19 years on the job, he is unlikely to be challenged for the Liberal nomination and his experienced campaign team is already in place and expecting him to be the candidate.

Milliken will face off this year against Brian Abrams, a Kingston lawyer with Templeman Menninga who spent 18 years as an RCMP officer before being called to the bar.

Abrams represents fresh blood for the local Tories, and hopes to tap into the Red Tory sentiment that made Kingston a federal Conservative stronghold in the 1970s and 1980s, in the days of Flora MacDonald.

His honorary campaign chairman is Sen. Hugh Segal, the embodiment of the left-leaning Conservative and an accomplished backroom operative and campaign organizer in his own right.

"He attracts the voter that we need, that old Flora vote," said Abrams.

"I feel very thankful that he's pledged his full support to my campaign."

Abrams has already dipped his toe into the campaign waters, spending time in Kingston and on Wolfe Island knocking on doors and introducing himself to voters, and he says he is already glad he tossed his hat into the ring after the local Conservative selection committee approached him last year.

"People have been very warm and very friendly," he said.

"I told my wife, even if nothing else comes of this, I've met more people and made more friends already than I ever thought possible." He and Milliken happened to meet Monday in Ottawa while Abrams was in Ottawa to meet Prime Minister Stephen Harper and attend Question Period. Abrams said he is also relishing the campaign that seems certain to start within the next month, with the minority Conservatives facing three confidence votes between now and mid-March.

"I think it's going to be a spirited debate," he said.

- Ian Elliott
 The Whig Standard Newspaper
 ielliot@thewhig.com